IMO

[Coolazice]

I think our Administrator should do away with the option of "Guests" being allowed on this site. It's one thing to be anonymous in the way that most of us are, but "Guests" on the site feel like spies to me. They give me the feeling like they are just snooping around and looking for a reason to shut this place down or infringe on our liberties in some way like they did over at Primordial Performance. If it's too big of a hassle for someone to register and participate around here - then they don't need to be here. This may only be my opinion and may sound a little paranoid, but it is what it is.
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“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.”

― Kurt Cobain

[burlyman30]

I'm partly in agreement with this. Though I would prefer everyone was registered, I don't mind if they check out the site to see if it holds value to them prior to joining. However, admin is working on ways to convert more guests to members.

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[h2s]

The issue is making a board 100% private is terrible for traffic. You become an outcast to sites like google.

[xxiv]

Without the casual guests it will be difficult to find new members. A subform for members only with strict reposting rules might be nice for stuff you might not want to share with everyone, I am thinking of pic sharing which i know most people are uncomfortable with.

[Coolazice]

I'm partly in agreement with this. Though I would prefer everyone was registered, I don't mind if they check out the site to see if it holds value to them prior to joining. However, admin is working on ways to convert more guests to members.

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With all the different topics that have already been posted by everybody, it should be easy for nearly every "Guest" to find some information useful to them and worthy of their time to participate in the discussion. Again, IMO. ;)

[Coolazice]

The issue is making a board 100% private is terrible for traffic. You become an outcast to sites like google.

Good point... I didn't look at it that way. Originally this topic was going to be a PM to you, H2S, but I decided to put my opinion out there and see what others thought. It's now obvious it wasn't very well thought out and I'm kind of a dork for even opening my mouth. LOL :o Oh well.

[h2s]

No way man, I really appreciate when you guys throw out these discussions here. I can't see every angle of the development, so having you guy give your input helps me alot.

[Eden]

I kinda like what XX is saying, make a section only available to members that isn't parsed by google, for sensitive information that some may not want parsed and stored by search engines

I know what you mean H2S about it making you an outcast to google, if we hide the whole site nothing will show up in searches and that kills traffic.

I do hear what you're saying cool, that some people may be up to no good, but sometimes you have to take the good with the possible bad. :]

[h2s]

^What kind of information would you guys want to have on a members only board? For obvious reasons, it can't be source checking.

[Eden]

Like for me, I post pictures and don't edit my face, I don't particularly like my face on the net, but I don't mind just because the chances of it mattering aren't high. I would prefer something like that not being shown. That's one of the reasons I used Photobucket because I can just lock the album, and this site loses access. I would assume some people would like to keep say cycle log private, I know it's easy to avoid any problems with that legally but I know some people still aren't totally comfortable with anyone being able to see that sort of thing.

I'm just throwing ideas out there. I don't expect you to allow totally illegal things in the members only area, just kinda grey area, or personal stuff.

[DJM]

The issue is making a board 100% private is terrible for traffic. You become an outcast to sites like google.

this^^^^^^^^^

[josh]

The issue is making a board 100% private is terrible for traffic. You become an outcast to sites like google.

I run a private board and Google bots will still crawl the site. You have to place a script on the server that denies Google access then it won't be archieved but making the board private won't stop it as far as I know

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[h2s]

I run a private board and Google bots will still crawl the site. You have to place a script on the server that denies Google access then it won't be achieved but making the board private won't stop it as far as I know

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This forum is running vbseo, and i have it configured to block non public boards in robots.txt, as i have a staff board.