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Not allowed to view content

Jazzy

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I went to view a forum today and this is the message I got:

Welcome, Guest! As you can see you, you're not allowed to view the content of our forums due to the excessive amount of leechers that are crawling the web these days. You must Register or login to your Account if you already have one!

How the hell do they expect to get members if guests can't view any of the forum content?

What do you make of this?
 
If they don't want any more new members, then they should stop advertising that they're "looking for new members to help grow the community".
 
Darth-Apple said:
Some communities aren't as open, but I guess if that works for them, I can't complain. :P

Just curious. Would you join a community if you can't view any of the forum content prior to registering?
 
Jazzy said:
Darth-Apple said:
Some communities aren't as open, but I guess if that works for them, I can't complain. :P

Just curious. Would you join a community if you can't view any of the forum content prior to registering?

No, unless I had a specific reason to do so. There is a niche for that sort of thing, but I'm personally not the kind of guy to really enjoy participating in the more exclusive forums out there.
 
Darth-Apple said:
Jazzy said:
Darth-Apple said:
Some communities aren't as open, but I guess if that works for them, I can't complain. :P

Just curious. Would you join a community if you can't view any of the forum content prior to registering?

No, unless I had a specific reason to do so. There is a niche for that sort of thing, but I'm personally not the kind of guy to really enjoy participating in the more exclusive forums out there.

Thank you for your reply.
 
OK, I'm a tad confused, but when they say "leechers"? what are they referring to? Or are they referring to people who steal forum ideas and use it for their own?
 
Ashley said:
OK, I'm a tad confused, but when they say "leechers"? what are they referring to? Or are they referring to people who steal forum ideas and use it for their own?

Have no idea what they mean by "leechers". If I became a member, I could easily steal their stuff, no?
 
Jazzy said:
Ashley said:
OK, I'm a tad confused, but when they say "leechers"? what are they referring to? Or are they referring to people who steal forum ideas and use it for their own?

Have no idea what they mean by "leechers". If I became a member, I could easily steal their stuff, no?

Well, anybody could, I'm not saying that's not possible. I was just wondering what the term meant. If a forum is hiding content, I may or may not consider joining. Sometimes I'll join just for curiosity's sake just to see what they're hiding. If it's crappy stuff I don't want to see, then I won't remain active. If it's like... I don't know... some mature section of the forum or something, I might post in there a little bit but I may stick to the lower-toned level areas, depending on what kind of content we're talking about. If it's a site where they have a section talking about pornography or any of that crap, I'm definitely out of there.
 
That IS a bad idea when it comes to new activity. I remember when it was implemented on a defunct forum I was a member of, just because one of the admins was being depressed over real-life things.
 
Smooth said:
No way I'd join up at a place like that. Not one single thread can be seen? How are you supposed to know if there's even any intelligent life at a place like that?

It doesn't appear there IS intelligent life on that site if your quote was copied exactly as is from the page, Jazzy: "As you can see you, you're not allowed..." What does that even mean??

It was a direct quote and copied without any changes made. When you go to the site, all the forums are hidden to guests. I guess that's what they mean by "As you can see you, you're not allowed" Not very swift on their grammar either. :lol:
 
One thing I hate about stuff like this is that you go to the forum in question, and where it says how many people are online, it'll say something like "such and such members are online, most members online was blah-and-blah date at blah-and-blah time" This is what can sometimes get me curious to join, because I'd like to know if there's actually even anything worthy of discussion, or if it's just a big free-for-all with spam, probably even pornography posts, crap like that. If that's the crap being allowed, I'm off.
 
It really depends on the niche and for some niches I can understand why they block guests to view threads. I generally prefer and open community who shares with the entire public though. Much more friendly.
 
Shane. said:
It really depends on the niche and for some niches I can understand why they block guests to view threads. I generally prefer and open community who shares with the entire public though. Much more friendly.

Seconding that. I'll join a forum only if I'm interested in its content.
 
Writing forums HAVE to have certain forums closed-off to guests. Particularly, they have to keep guests from being able to look at short-stories, poetry, flash-fiction, and that kind of stuff. The reason is because when you put your writing online, it is considered as "published," therefore, a writing agent wont accept it. However, if the forum makes it so that only members can see it, it won't show up on the search engines. Therefore, they are protected.

Other-wise, I can't really see why it would be necessary.
 
It is a very specific type of forum that generally NEEDS to use this feature, however some forums use it I think as a way of forcing members to signup, which isn't something that forums should be doing. Let users read the interesting discussions that are happening and then maybe they'll want to sign up and participate in your community. That's how I see it at least, anyway.

As for the term "leecher", that term is generally used to describe someone who signs up to a site and uses/gains something from the content without giving back to the community. For example, a Torrenting forum (although highly frowned upon) would be a valid forum to require users to register before viewing content, imo.
 
The only boards I can imagine being hidden on a board are staff and VIP boards, and those are for obvious reasons. Anything else should be pretty open.

If I have to join to see a vast majority of the content, then it's not worth my time.
 
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