Members and Guests

[Tim]

Hi,

I've only been here a few days and haven't read every word on the board, so please excuse me if this has been discussed in the past and I've missed it. Also please excuse this post being more a comment on the obvious than a specific suggestion ...

I think I'm right in saying that I've never seen a forum with such a big discrepancy between the number of members and guests online. At the moment, for instance, at 7.30 on a Friday evening (presumably a pretty quiet time?) the members are myself and one other person, but there are 66 guests! (I realise that in theory, a few of the "guests" might be members who are not currently logged in, but actually I suspect that they're guests).

The reality, in all forums, is that if you can find a way to encourage the guests to register, the forum might just become a lot more active - and activity creates activity and it can snowball.

What about a nice competition? Sounds silly, perhaps, but I've seen them "work" elsewhere ... or something else? Seems a shame to me for such a fine upstanding forum not to be getting more registering and participating!

[BowBiz]

I often come here just to flick though posts, but only login if there is an interesting subject. The reason I log in to other forums, is that there is fun area to let of steam when you have been working hard and have a muck around or have a topical discussion which is none business. I find those forums have a more relaxed sort of feel and I stop on them for hours.

This is a easy to use forum and mostly serious business stuff, which is good, but I like to chat after hours with other business people as I have more in common with them than on normal chat forums.

Jayne

[peterjhale]

some guests are search engine spiders as well

[Toon]

And if they're spiders then they could actually represent all 66 guests - in other words there might not be that many people on board as it's all one "person". It depends if the site counts each unique IP address as one guest.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Toon

And if they're spiders then they could actually represent all 66 guests.

They could but the moderators can see the IP addresses of members & guests who are online and the spiders only make up a small proportion of the guests.

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

It's not something I have ever thought about, but speaking for myself...

I am a lazy bugger and always tick the "remember me" button on all the forums I belong to. I think a lot of people are more paranoid and would rather just login if they want to post something.

It appears to me that there is nothing you can't see on this forum as a guest, compared to other forums i belong to which have a "members area".

Just my 2p!

Jim