Forum access modification

[elc32955]

Howdy all!

I've made a small change in the forum system which I'm sure you will notice immediately. Please note that you now have to be logged into the forum system to see anything other then the new user intro section as a "guest" (I.E. non registered user coming in from outside just wanting to read things). This change was made for a few reasons... 1) To somewhat keep our discussion content held to these boards by cutting down on the non-registered "bots" that continually troll the system and offload the content of our posts to other sites (not to mention adding to the system loading), and 2) To encourage more registrations and participation in the system by people that are not yet members. Access is free, all you have to do is obtain a user account.

Any questions please let me know. I'm putting this up as a system announcement so everyone sees it.

Thanks
Eric

[storm9c1]

Might be good for now, but this will probably hurt in the long run. For example, it may prevent results in search engines. And that means people looking for info won't find it. I like to help people with knowledge, not hide and silo it. Just some food for thought.

[elc32955]

We'll watch it for a week or two and see what happens. Google I know should still be able to get in as the system recognizes it as well as one or two of the others. PM me if you want more details....

Thanks
Eric

[Pursuit]

Eric, I found you on, and followed you from the G8 board. Just saying....

Maurice

[elc32955]

OK, that experiment didn't last too long. I took a look at the forum loading this morning and in fact isolating the guest access seemed to make things worse. The dwell time on the bots increased (as they were looking for the other established sections they now couldn't see and spent more time with repeated queries), and I also found that it did lock out the real search engines from being able to scan our content. Plus I received comments from more then a few folks reminding me these forums exist based on the open exchange of information.

So, anyway, all is as it was before with one exception - I left the Lounge in protected status so if someone wanted to discuss a topic just germaine to this board and protect it from the outside world they could. Besides, the nature of the Lounge section is that some things there may not be fit for all eyes anyway.

With that said, if anyone can't see forum sections as a guest without logging in please let me know. I did check it on our test account and all seemed back to normal as far as I could tell.

Thanks
Eric