Guest Forum Feature

[Landy]

I cannot say how much you shouldn't have a forum open for guest posting. You will soon find that the only thing you get is spam bots posting. It's also unfair against the members who have registered on the forums, since there are no rules set for guest in means of that they do not have to accept or be bound by the same forum rules as the registered members had to accept.

Having tried this on my own forums in the past, i know it will not work. IMO if they cant bother taking a few minutes of their time to register, then their opinions shouldn't count at all.

[Konrad]

Bear with it for now. The guests have to follow the exact same set of rules that you do and if they don't, we can ban by IP.

We're aware of the potential and imminent amount of spam this will attract, but both Jason and I decided it's worth the few extra scans a day.
It's something we want to try out just to see how it goes, if it ends badly - we'll get rid of it, if not - we'll have attracted some attention.

I'm not sure if I follow why you feel cheated though, if you had the option in November - would you have rather stayed an unregistered guest?

[Landy]

Fair enough. I do not feel cheated, nor have i said i so. I was merely trying to point out that guest do not have to accept the same 'user agreement' a user who register has to, making it fairly pointless of even registering if he is still allowed to post but not be bound by the rules.

You can't actually force a guest to follow the same rules as guest does not have to sign any user agreement. I'm just saying it how it is, not trying to be negative towards mg trying it out.

[Jason]

Basically what Konrad said - if their posts don't follow the forum guidelines, they'll be deleted. One of myself and Konrad are usually about 95% of the time, and any spam will quickly be stamped on. I'm looking into the possibility of allowing regular members to perform basic moderator actions (soft deletion etc) in that forum. Unfortunately it isn't part of the stock vbulletin function, although I'm making enquiries as to the existence of such a mod.

As with any brand new feature, this is simply the 'prototype'. I'm certain that as the forum grows, things will evolve, and the guest forum is no different to that. If spam becomes an issue, the 'moderation queue' function becomes an option.

As for your final point, the guest forum isn't so much a forum for games discussion for those that can't/don't want to register, more a way for those that are just passing by to say hello and so on and have a chance to get involved with the community. I'm not expecting there to be many debate threads in that particular area. Guests still cannot post in any other forum than the designated guest forum, so they still have very limited functionality compared to a registered member - it's just that now they have the ability to say 'hi'. :)

EDIT: This was aimed at your initial post - you managed to sneak that second one in while I was typing this. :p

[MyNameDidntFit]

Personally I can't see any good coming of this. But, no real bad will come of it either, so there's no harm in trying it.

[Konrad]

Fair enough. I do not feel cheated, nor have i said i so. I was merely trying to point out that guest do not have to accept the same 'user agreement' a user who register has to, making it fairly pointless of even registering if he is still allowed to post but not be bound by the rules.

You can't actually force a guest to follow the same rules as guest does not have to sign any user agreement. I'm just saying it how it is, not trying to be negative towards mg trying it out.

I was referring to the "unfair" thing, I must have accidentally worded it wrong. I don't think that the guest forum makes registering at MG pointless... There are many other perks to being registered such as actually taking part in the rest of the forum, not being known as "GuestXXX", post count, avatar. Being part of the community in general.

The only time registration would be pointless is if you plan to only visit the guest forum... This is where I don't exactly follow you.

[Rob]

I think this idea is worth a shot although I have never seen anything like it used to any great success. Lets see how it goes :)

[Landy]

The only time registration would be pointless is if you plan to only visit the guest forum... This is where I don't exactly follow you.

You can actually end up losing some registrations by having such a forum. As i mentioned in my first post, I've tried this is the past and id did not do any good. But, as people have already mentioned, i think you should try and see for yourself. Hopefully you will have another result.