posting without becoming a member?

[johloh]

how do you guys feel about this? you likely noticed there are a reasonable number of posts from people who have not registered with the site...do you care? should I make it so that only people who register can reply?

[tnitnetny]

It doesn't bother me that people post without becoming members, but they can't vote in contests right? Only registered members should be able to vote for those.

[Blink190]

I used to be a member on the Nintendo NSider forums, so I'm pretty familiar with the kinds of idiots that can inhabit the internet. I would say its fine, but it opens up the possibility for spammers and advertisers to start posting on the site. Having them require to register and then validate their account through e-mail makes it a lot easier to weed out those kinds, and it's probably generally safer too, especially if younger kids come on the site.

[johloh]

I agree with both of you...

i'll leave it open for now, but once we get immature postings or spam I'll lock it down for members only...

[earth_element]

Well I couldn't post w/o becoming a member, which is why I did so.

[MamaJMarie]

i couldn't post w/out registering, either. It wouldn't even let me really browse much of the boards.

[sithkitten]

well, personally....when i have run communities, it has been a tight ship.

you can browse around if you want but any participation or request, posting voting should be reserved for members. there is more of a chance that the people will become contributing/active in some way instead of just taking patterns (in the request sense) and running. I always liked my communities more like COMMUNITIES not just a free ride for the cool stuff

You don't spam, you don't sell names ect....so if someone is really interested in what goes on here, joining shouldn't be a big problem

[johloh]

You don't spam, you don't sell names ect....so if someone is really interested in what goes on here, joining shouldn't be a big problem

I agree, which is why I put those regulations in. it takes like 30 seconds to sign up. and for a few people it might get them more involved. and the only people you lose are people who arent contributing or doing anything anyway. oh well.