Ok, i’ve seen good arguments from both sides on this. It does seem that most people would like to make it registered user posting only with guests having the option to view what’s going on.

Personally, I have noticed that many people who start off as guests do end up finally joining and becoming a member. They’ll post a few things and realize how cool everyone is and then they end up registering.

Ok, I’m going to mull over this for another day or so before I make my decision. Feel free to continue trying to persuade me one way or the other.  :wink:

[quote author=“gr00vy0ne”]
Personally, I have noticed that many people who start off as guests do end up finally joining and becoming a member. They’ll post a few things and realize how cool everyone is and then they end up registering.

That was exactly the case for me…I would have found it a pain to register right from the start…after makin a few posts I realized that since the main purpose of this forum was TR’s I could learn a lot of useful things related to TR’s by continually visiting this forum. I also have been able to offer the occasional help here and there.

I don’t think that you should have to log in to post.  That is one of the things that I hate most when I visit sites that make registering mandatory.  I usually just don’t bother registering and move on to the next site or I put in some fake name and email because I am not sure if the site is legit or not as far as their privacy policy etc. .  When I find a forum that I like I usually visit a few times and I can usually tell if it is a legit site and then I register.  Groovy, my suggestion would be to keep the site like it is or you might “scare” off some potential members.

The only other suggestion I would have would be to just add another page for people who are posting as a guest that just reminds them they are posting as a guest and explaining that they can do so or if they forgot they can login.

I am all for registering and the cookies…

Although I’m naturally inclined towards a more exclusive forum, I’m forced to agree, but for a different reason. I find that the more I post somewhere, the more I feel like I’m involved. When I look back at the forums I’ve been active on, I’ve usually started out as an anonymous guest, then a posting member. The ones that I’ve registered to and have single-digit post counts are almost always the ones that forced me to register to post or download attachments.

What a dilema…What a dilema.

To post, or not to post…this is the question…..

I would ditto Drachen’s comments.

After mulling over it some more I’ve decided to keep things as they are for now. Drachen’s eloquently stated comments pretty much apply to the way I think. Also, for the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed that many of the new members were guest posters for their first 1-5 posts and then they finally ended up registering. So, I think the process that we have currently works. It’s non-threatening and the people that really want to be apart of this community end up becoming a member.

I’m sure that those people who are having issues of being signed off of the site know that they can ask the other helpful members of this board for some tricks to keep yourself automatically signed in. If you can’t solve your cookie problem there’s always Roboform which can automatically sign you in if necessary.