Moderated Visitor Comments
 

Would boost activity hundredfold in my opinion.

Don't understand what you mean.

New members have to have their posts approved before they are viewed. I don't see what else you could mean, and I don't see how it relates to activity.

Please clarify.

I mean allow guests to post.

It was brought up but never implemented, I believe for security reasons. I can't remember. Hang on, I'll check the staff forum.

Couldn't find much on it. If I remember right, it was stated by WW that doing so would flood the forum with random posts, so Lenny suggested a 5 post limit for guests based on IP. After that, I think the idea just died.

Flooding the forum with random posts, as long as they are moderated, does not seem bad. I mean, after all, what we want is more posts.

I thought that what we want is more posting members? The problem with the 5 guest post thing is that it's just not easy to do. Hell, there's been times when keeping someone banned who actually registers has been a real challenge...

While we're kinda on the subject, can you make post approval better? It seems rediculous to have to approve the first 5 posts a member makes. After the first post is approved, there should be no more approval IMO. It's not like a spambot is going to come here, pretend they are a real person, get approved, and then spam the forums, and if they DO do that I have no problem just removing it. Some members might not hang around if they find that their post does not get replied to within a certain amount of time.

Wasn't there a guest forum a LONG ass time ago?

Probably, though I'm not sure if that will enable them to bypass aproval simply by posting a second time.

Just set something up where you approve the member instead of approving the post.

Rather than have it where only the first post needs approval, make it where after any posts are approved for a member, their posts no longer need approval.

I agree with MJ. Just allow them to post, give the Mods something to do, atleast with guests posting and allowing them to respond/ask questions will get them into the swing of things, and if they like it enough they'll register.

/signed

I think this is a good idea. If you're worried about the influx of new posts, get another active mod or two.

I say just forget the whole 5 guest post thing. It would significantly increase the job of mods, yes, but it would also increase activity. While more posting members would be awesome, more activity would probably lead to more posting members. If guests engage in a conversation with us, it may encourage them to sign up.

I don't think there's much problem as far as mod work is concerned. Me and Lenny are active enough to handle just about anything.

I think the problem was getting it set up and not having the forums get flooded with 500 posts a minute.

Fine have fun.

Guest can post replies (always moderated) in News and Events, and The Basement.

I think anywhere else, registration is really called for and isn't likely to bring positive activity from guests.

Right now, new threads from guests are disabled, though you're welcome to try to convince me that guest threads are a good thing. Keep in mind that most spammers make new threads...

Let them make new threads for right now, if it doesn't work out it can always be changed. I don't mind the extra work if it brings more activity.

Gives me soemthing to do on the long, cold Winter nights, too. :p

I'm actually quite interested to see how many Guests will realise they can reply to threads, and actually make use of the Guest-posting function.

Doesn't seem to work for me. I logged out and tried to reply to this thread, said I wasn't allowed, etc.

You aren't following the rules WW set. And I tried as well in the "basement" and it didn't work... I got to put my name in and everything posted up, and it hasn't shown up.

We've had a Guest reply to the Dream Car thread, so it looks to be working.