Well I'm still thinking about this as I have spent tons of money to keep us online & growing. Our information is top notch, and now after 2 years our database is huge.
Private Community?
- Thread starter IGOTASTi
- Start date
Well I'm still thinking about this as I have spent tons of money to keep us online & growing. Our information is top notch, and now after 2 years our database is huge.
Ghostwhite
New member
I understand the benefits, and really MOST of the big contributors are going to be familiar with how a forum works and how beneficial registering right away is.
I also would have never thought to account for Google but i know how important attracting 'young blood' is to a forum. A forum full of mature(don't put too much merit here
), respectful and active members sounds awesome but we need to keep the good questions being asked, the ground up builds fresh and more positive action going on, that comes from senior members as well as newbies.
Just my opinion
I also would have never thought to account for Google but i know how important attracting 'young blood' is to a forum. A forum full of mature(don't put too much merit here
), respectful and active members sounds awesome but we need to keep the good questions being asked, the ground up builds fresh and more positive action going on, that comes from senior members as well as newbies. Just my opinion
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Spamby
Meat Product Toy
No.
As the others have stated, going private may not be such a good thing for exposure. This would mean that new members would have to be solely recruited and our lack of presence on search engines would basically be like turning Las Vegas' lights out.
My state Subaru forum went private a few years back due to spamming, hackers etc. Seems like that may have hindered it's growth. Not saying that Oklahoma has a ton of Suabru enthusiasts but nevertheless, the site seems to be just as it was then, small and undeveloped.
If lurkers can see the information and atmosphere we are projecting, we are more likely to gain new blood and thus more growth. Think of that as advertising. Closed, and we run the risk of shooting ourselves in the foot.
As the others have stated, going private may not be such a good thing for exposure. This would mean that new members would have to be solely recruited and our lack of presence on search engines would basically be like turning Las Vegas' lights out.
My state Subaru forum went private a few years back due to spamming, hackers etc. Seems like that may have hindered it's growth. Not saying that Oklahoma has a ton of Suabru enthusiasts but nevertheless, the site seems to be just as it was then, small and undeveloped.
If lurkers can see the information and atmosphere we are projecting, we are more likely to gain new blood and thus more growth. Think of that as advertising. Closed, and we run the risk of shooting ourselves in the foot.
Spamby
Meat Product Toy
True. I do notice that a lot.
Possibly some of them are members just not signed in. I frequently have the site up but am not signed in.
Alin
Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Basically, this is what I suggested to JJ:
"Users active in the past 24 hours 702 Users have visited the forum. 33 members and 669 guests"
I can't think of anything else you can do to get people to join besides making the guest register as a member to see the information. You could also make it so they have to introduce themselves as a first post before seeing any of the information. Then when we reply to their registration to the site, 99% of the people would feel compelled to respond back, especially since car enthusiasts love seeing their car praised.
I only say this because 669 guests is a lot of people who passed by this site to see the info and probably went back to bullshitting on NASIOC or wherever. Since we are a no drama group, you wouldn't see posts of flaming or any of that childish nonsense. That should appeal to the newcomer heavily. To me that makes sense and it is one way of gaining more registered members. The more members, the better the chance that we will have with newcomers supporting us. Even if 1/669 actually support us, that would be a new supporter every couple of days putting us another step ahead than where we were previously. Of course you can alter it to your preference of how to go about doing so, but I personally think this tactic would help bring in more users. We have some really great info that you cannot find on other forums or that is so indepth and thorough that you wouldnt need to look anywhere else.
Let me know what everyone thinks and if you have any suggestions to tweaking it a specific way. :tup:
HolyCrapItsFast
Drinks beer!
I'm still mixed but I support any decision you guys make
Alin
Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Well the only reason I even suggested it was because seeing over 650 people come on our site and not sign up makes me sad. Let's say half of the 650 have an Impreza, WRX, or STi. The rest are on here to see general information or look at other members's garages to gain some ideas of what they should do next on their cars or just for viewing pleasure. I don't see any reason for them to not sign up and join our amazing community, unless it's people from nasioc or iwsti that are lurking and know if they sign up, they'll get banned immediately. We still bullshit around and whatnot, but we are respectful to each other, unlike the rest. JJ has said countless times that he has give all he has to make us the best. I just want to help in any way possible. Let me know what you think the advantages and disadvantages are if we make the site more private.
Grinder34
Track Monkey
So i was on boosted bimmer yesterday (after following the "worst tuning disasters" thread) and I was able to view maybe 5-6 thread pages before i was told I had exceeded my post view limit and needed to register. I tried visiting in incognito mode (to clear cookies, etc...) and no dice. I dunno if they did it by MAC or IP or what.
Anyways, I like the idea of "forcing" people to register, but I also like letting people see the goods first.
Anyways, I like the idea of "forcing" people to register, but I also like letting people see the goods first.
HolyCrapItsFast
Drinks beer!
On one hand it will make only serious people join the site thereby weeding out the garbage. On the other hand allot of those 600 some odd people were probably redirects from refers like google and bing and they are just fly by entities. Not serious prospects at all
HolyCrapItsFast
Drinks beer!
I like this idea
Alin
Diehard Car Enthusiast!
Well the site has been up for how long now? A few years? People have heard of us and know about us. having that many guests/traffic through the site and them not registering is a red flag to me. They could be stealing our ideas and posting them as their own on other websites. I believe we should force them to register. There really is so much useful information on here that is valuable. It's going to have to be a group decision. I say think it over in both aspects. We have had it for a long time now where anyone can come on here, look around and get what they need, and then leave without registering. I'm just trying to think of ways that we can bring in more members and this happened to be one of them recently.
I have been watching all the traffic, and a lot of it is people from our Facebook page, and group looking for information. I cut all the spiders out and such, and them are real people watching our site. I'm blown away with the amount of traffic we do get.
If you Google Subaru WRX STi forum we are on the 2nd page middle of the page. If you Google WRX STi forum we are on the 1st page right after NASIOC. We have a great ranking, and its only going to get better.
Whatever we decide we need to really think about it, because it will take sometime to program this to make it right.
I just had to upgrade our severs and many people are pulling our memory down with reading threads and such.
Maybe we need junk information so they'll join and say hey you fools are wrong. :rofl:
If you Google Subaru WRX STi forum we are on the 2nd page middle of the page. If you Google WRX STi forum we are on the 1st page right after NASIOC. We have a great ranking, and its only going to get better.
Whatever we decide we need to really think about it, because it will take sometime to program this to make it right.
I just had to upgrade our severs and many people are pulling our memory down with reading threads and such.
Maybe we need junk information so they'll join and say hey you fools are wrong. :rofl:
Alin
Diehard Car Enthusiast!
I have been watching all the traffic, and a lot of it is people from our Facebook page, and group looking for information. I cut all the spiders out and such, and them are real people watching our site. I'm blown away with the amount of traffic we do get.
If you Google Subaru WRX STi forum we are on the 2nd page middle of the page. If you Google WRX STi forum we are on the 1st page right after NASIOC. We have a great ranking, and its only going to get better.
Whatever we decide we need to really think about it, because it will take sometime to program this to make it right.
*********************************
Users active in the past 24 hours
1001 Users have visited the forum. 35 members and 966 guests
I just had to upgrade our severs and many people are pulling our memory down with reading threads and such.
Maybe we need junk information so they join and say hey you fools are wrong. :rofl:
:rofl:
Well, we might as well start thinking about it now then. We have so many people on the facebook page that aren't here. Well there is Taptalk since they're mostly on their phones when they look on facebook. Does everyone know that Tapatalk is an existing app? If they don't then maybe you should bring that up because there is so much information on here that isn't on there. Also they like facebook over the forum because there are instant notifications. Well guess what, Tapatalk has instant notifications as well. There are many ways we can do this.
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1001 Users have visited the forum. 35 members and 966 guests
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Spamby
Meat Product Toy
I do hate the lurking for ideas and then not becoming a member. I hate that we do get newbies but most never really become active or contribute.
Ok. I support both ideas but if we do go private we do need to let people "window shop" a bit. Put up a nice flashy and luring front with lots of glitz and glamour. Badass cars of all sorts and excerpts from quality posts... Tech posts and threads that are just funny or entertaining. Teasers, if you will.
Update this fancy panty package daily or weekly, sort of change the curtains to keep it lively.
Ok. I support both ideas but if we do go private we do need to let people "window shop" a bit. Put up a nice flashy and luring front with lots of glitz and glamour. Badass cars of all sorts and excerpts from quality posts... Tech posts and threads that are just funny or entertaining. Teasers, if you will.
Update this fancy panty package daily or weekly, sort of change the curtains to keep it lively.
prestonztt
New member
Even though I haven't been on this board long at all, I can tell you there is a real good group of people on this board. Everybody I have dealt with have been more then willing to lend a hand and just be helpful in general.
What I have seen from being a moderator on a local board here in Oklahoma, people with limited access/no access to a board/community become more interested. People seem to be intrigued by stuff they cant see.
What if we have 2-3 tiers of access. Example:
1st Tier - These are the people that first sign up. The only thing they can view is: Announcements/Feedback Section and the New Member/FAQ Area
2nd Tier - This is for people that have "Proven Themselves" as in posted sufficient enough posts that are helpful, welcoming, etc; Mostly people that seem willing to bring something to this board. Sections that could be viewed by users: General, Product Reviews, Shop Reviews, Media, Etc. No Technical as in these sub-forums provide some very nice information.
3rd Tier - At this level, you have helped build this community giving you full access. When you get to this level you have proved yourself in being a loyal member, provided good information, never being disrespectful, etc. I just don't feel people should get access to stuff that takes years to get/make by just signing up.
Also, I think that this could also draw in more site subscriptions. People who pay for something are going to use what they bought.
Figured I would throw this out there to see what you guys think.
What I have seen from being a moderator on a local board here in Oklahoma, people with limited access/no access to a board/community become more interested. People seem to be intrigued by stuff they cant see.
What if we have 2-3 tiers of access. Example:
1st Tier - These are the people that first sign up. The only thing they can view is: Announcements/Feedback Section and the New Member/FAQ Area
2nd Tier - This is for people that have "Proven Themselves" as in posted sufficient enough posts that are helpful, welcoming, etc; Mostly people that seem willing to bring something to this board. Sections that could be viewed by users: General, Product Reviews, Shop Reviews, Media, Etc. No Technical as in these sub-forums provide some very nice information.
3rd Tier - At this level, you have helped build this community giving you full access. When you get to this level you have proved yourself in being a loyal member, provided good information, never being disrespectful, etc. I just don't feel people should get access to stuff that takes years to get/make by just signing up.
Also, I think that this could also draw in more site subscriptions. People who pay for something are going to use what they bought.
Figured I would throw this out there to see what you guys think.
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