Making more forums "Members Only"

[Darkfinn]

Hey all.

I read Moo's post about the increasing amount of traffic we are getting. It's a good thing no doubt... but what bothers me is the number of "guests" we have connecting. As I look at it this morning... we have 15 members and 91 guests online. These guests are reading threads, blogs, wiki, and generally burning up our bandwidth. While I realise that said guests are the main way that we get new members... I think the number of places they can access is a bit broad.

Perhaps it is time to restrict guest access to certain areas of the site.

Many places I visit you have to be a member to view any of the threads... which can be a pain... so let's not go that far.

But can we restrict wiki, blogs, Admin Stuff, & Mature Topics to members only? Especially the mature section and the blogs... as there is a lot of personal information out there that would probably be safer out of everyone's view.

Also... I am kinda bothered by the fact that guests can view everyone's profile. I don't really think that it is a safe thing to do.

 

[Martin]

You can set your profile to be only viewable to logged in, members, vips or buddies [ulr=http://www.adisc.org/forum/profile.php?do=editprofile]here[/url]

The wiki is only for information, nothing personal I think that should be set viewable to guests.

Blogs. You can set them as buddy only if you want.

Admin stuff, might be a good idea.

EDIT:

I used to think that the Mature Topics forum should be members only... but I think it's good that guests can see that the forum discusses mature things. People usually use the Regulars' forum or VIP forum for the more personal threads, and if the Mature Threads forum was members only I think the Regulars' forum would die...

I agree.

 

[Charlie]

Well I don't think that the wiki should be members only! Since it is very helpful for everyone, not just members. The first thing I did when I found TBDL was read the articles.

On your profile, you CAN restrict who can see it. See here: http://www.adisc.org/forum/profile.php?do=editprofile, under "profile privacy".
There are ways to restrict blogs too, but the options are really just to have everyone see your blog, or just people on your buddy list can see it. It would be nice if blogs had more privacy settings.

I used to think that the Mature Topics forum should be members only... but I think it's good that guests can see that the forum discusses mature things. People usually use the Regulars' forum or VIP forum for the more personal threads, and if the Mature Threads forum was members only I think the Regulars' forum would die...

The Administrative Stuff forum used to be members only. I can't quite remember why it changed, probably a good reason though.

 

[Darkfinn]

Well I don't think that the wiki should be members only! Since it is very helpful for everyone, not just members. The first thing I did when I found TBDL was read the articles.

On your profile, you CAN restrict who can see it. See here: http://www.adisc.org/forum/profile.php?do=editprofile, under "profile privacy".
There are ways to restrict blogs too, but the options are really just to have everyone see your blog, or just people on your buddy list can see it. It would be nice if blogs had more privacy settings.

I used to think that the Mature Topics forum should be members only... but I think it's good that guests can see that the forum discusses mature things. People usually use the Regulars' forum or VIP forum for the more personal threads, and if the Mature Threads forum was members only I think the Regulars' forum would die...

The Administrative Stuff forum used to be members only. I can't quite remember why it changed, probably a good reason though.

I don't think it is a matter of things that "can" be made Members only... they just should be that way... period.

and as far as the Mature Topics section... the name is really a falsehood... it should be called "Sex Topics"
There is nothing mature in there... it is all "do you like to masturbate" or "how big is your dick" or "would you switch genders" call it what it is people.

 

[EmeraldsAndLime]

And this is the problem we get when more boards are created...

 

[Trevor]

and as far as the Mature Topics section... the name is really a falsehood... it should be called "Sex Topics"
There is nothing mature in there... it is all "do you like to masturbate" or "how big is your dick" or "would you switch genders" call it what it is people.

While topics on sexuality do dominate (what a surprise!), that doesn't mean that the topics on drugs, abortion, euthanasia, self-esteem, disturbing crimes and the like don't exist. If we change the name to reflect the majority of the threads, I think we'll see less topic diversity, which doesn't sound as good to me.

 

[mizzycub]

It would be nice if blogs had more privacy settings.

Definitely true. The same variety of settings as your profile in General would be good.

I think I understand what Darkfinn means though. It would be better perhaps if people had to actively reduce the level of protection on their profile, blog etc. then increase it. So that if somebody forgets to look at the privacy section it is higher then they would like it rather than anybody being able to find it.

 

[wmwy]

My suggestion would be that until you return the email confirmation, only allow perhaps lets say about, oh I don't know, maybe only ten clicks of the mouse per day. As in restrict the amount of band-with that can be sucked up during one view session. That way if one likes what they see they would have to log in to keep on viewing/participating. ??????

 

[d4l]

My suggestion would be that until you return the email confirmation, only allow perhaps lets say about, oh I don't know, maybe only ten clicks of the mouse per day. As in restrict the amount of band-with that can be sucked up during one view session. That way if one likes what they see they would have to log in to keep on viewing/participating. ??????

Then we just have a bunch of accounts that never post yet still take up bandwidth.

 

[avery]

*most of the "guests" are actually google spiders. i don't think the bandwidth they use is worth worrying about.

*profiles: can be set to "regulars only," but most people aren't aware of that feature. i can't imagine why anyone would want guests and google to be able to see their profile: i think they should be set to "Regulars only" by default.

*blogs: i think they should be regulars-only

*administrative stuff: i can't imagine why a guest would want to see us debating forum politics. this forum always used to be regulars-only and i don't know why it switched.

*mature topics: should remain public, for the reasons charlie specified.

i'm all for increasing our privacy as long as guests still have full access to the public forums. i'm a bit uncomfortable with the number of things we have exposed, particularly the blogs.

EDIT: 500th post!! halfway to 1K.

 

[Moo]

First: that 91 guests online means 91 guests online during the last hour, not *right this second*.
Second: almost all of those are search engines that use a bunch of different servers to spider the site.

 

[betagame]

*Wiki articles should be public.
*There should be a feature that lets you set you profile to members only
*1 forum should be restricted:
Mature Topics
*galleries and blogs should be restricted
thats about it