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schlapppy

schlapppy

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 28, 2010
287
2
0
Cranberry Twp., PA
I wanted to lobby towards not having registration required to view the public threads. I can understand the assumed reasoning behind not wanting to have all threads opened to the public (bandwidth => cost). I know this wasn't always this way though. I was only reading and leeching for many months before I decided to register & start posting.

I can think of a half dozen or so good reasons why we should open up to be viewed to the public, but wanted to keep this short. I'd be happy to elaborate, please let me know if we'd like to have this as an open conversational thread.

So.. GotMead admins.. can we have a section where we can post and it be visible to the internet at large? Even if it's a small sub-section of the forum general posts & public brew logs would be a great start.

Thanks for the consideration.
 
mccann51

mccann51

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Nov 8, 2010
637
2
18
Southwestern USA
I don't know if perhaps there are specific infrastructural limitations to having the forums public, but if not, I agree w Schlappy.

I had no idea the posts weren't public (after I post, gonna logout to see), but I know when I started here they were. I doubt I would have registered if I hadn't of been able to see the content first. As well, some people simply aren't down for registering and posting on forums, I don't think the great info we have here should only be viewable to those who are familiar w forum-use (you may laugh, but think about it, many people use the internet purely as a search-and-read tool and don't interact at all).

EDIT: Just checked, the two most useful forums (NewBee and Troubleshooting) are publicly viewable; this is better than nothing, and could get people interested enough to register. That said, if it's not a huge cost issue, I do support having the rest of the non-patron forums public.
 
Last edited:
Dan McFeeley

Dan McFeeley

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Oct 10, 2003
1,899
7
38
68
Illinois
It may only be temporary -- Oskaar posted on the Got Mead Site News forum in June, covering a number of changes including limited viewing by unregistered guests. He said it was temporary, and the purpose is to evaluate the performance impact on the site by unregistered guests.

--
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
mccann51 said:
... I know when I started here they were. I doubt I would have registered if I hadn't of been able to see the content first.
Click to expand...

Same here, I'm glad the Newbee and Troubleshooting ones are still public view.

...the first wine forum I ever joined, I actually read almost the whole forum before asking my first question... boy how things have changed :rolleyes:... but we do at least have a search engine on this one :)
 
Tannin Boy

Tannin Boy

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 6, 2010
332
0
0
Webster, NY
Dan McFeeley said:
It may only be temporary -- Oskaar posted on the Got Mead Site News forum in June, covering a number of changes including limited viewing by unregistered guests. He said it was temporary, and the purpose is to evaluate the performance impact on the site by unregistered guests.

--
Click to expand...

This is an interesting topic....
My concern would be that becoming a patron isn't as necessary then?
I assume the site needs a solid income stream to help defray the costs of
operation and such? Or am I missing something here? I too would wonder if
the impact on the traffic would reduce the quality as Dan has mentioned.

Regards,

TB
 
Chevette Girl

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,447
59
48
Ottawa, ON
TB, I don't think it has any effect on patronship, the only stuff that's closed unless you're a patron is the Patrons Only section, and when I first joined, non-members had the same viewing abilities as registered non-patron members, you just had to register if you wanted to post anything.
 
schlapppy

schlapppy

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 28, 2010
287
2
0
Cranberry Twp., PA
I think now that we are on Physical Hardware, most of the performance problems that i have seen are gone.

Limiting views of the threads to non-registered users isn't the best idea in my opinion.. Here's a few reasons why we'd want to open it back up:
  • Attract new members to add our community. Members would not be very inticed to register, if they can't see the valuable content
  • Give back to the home brew community
  • Personally, when i write articles like the StirStarter - Stir plate review & project log.. I think it'd be great if it'd be useful to the entire community, not just mead brewers. I want to write the article on this forum (which i consider to my home base) and then be able to link it out on different forums.
  • I'd also like to be able to link out my brew logs to my other mead making friends. Many of them aren't members of this forum. If registration is required... maybe open up the website by allowing them to use an google openID.

I am grateful for the community that we have here, and thanks to those who pay the bills! I only wanted to express my concerns, and hope we can open the forum back on up to the general public.
 
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