Allowing guests on the forum again
 

The forum has been suffering from a major lack of activity compared to the time before the site was upgraded. Large part of that can probably be traced back to the fact that on the old forum, unregistered visitors could anonymously participate in discussions as "Guests"

All in favor of re-enabling guest posting on the forum... hands up.

I liked the system that was before (Guests posting in Game Discussion and Troubleshooting) and have voted accordingly.

Yes, I would say all "Games" forum:

http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=3

Except for the Cellar.
That would increase requests, games talking and requests to solve tech problems.

+ Site comments/suggestions
+ Compatibility
(+ Important announcements!)


[edit] With underline, the thread title looks like Allowing quests on the forum again. :amused: [/edit]

Like David says, all games forums except the Cellar.

I'm all for allowing them in Games Discussions and Troubleshooting again, however Compatibility might be helpful for many too.

*Puts hand up* What Dave said. As long as you have enough mods to back you up. In addition, I propose we look into the slashdot concept of 'rating' fellow users as used on cracked. Except we shouldn't call it karma... Something silly, like Prestige Points? Status?

I like karma. And it's the right term ...and sooo falloutish! But I would mourn the karma I lost through or non-karmic phase. :( :laugh:

I am not voting because I feel I'm still too "young" on this forum to make an informed decision, and I wasn't here before the upgrade to see the difference.

But, what about spam? Was that a major factor before? I suppose you can use captchas, but captchas are being broken/decrypted by hackers these days.

In the spirit of christmas past, I'm going for the scrooge-like answer of "no".

Is it that hard to register?

Bah humbug everyone!

I agree with Dino about guests.

In regards to karma - I'm not a big fan of the karma system for forums, it fosters wankery and colours how some people post, for better and worse. I think people should make their own opinions about other users and not be influenced by an arbitrary number.

Dito Dino. :D

I agree it's pretty pointless, by the time someone cares about other members' characters, he already knows. These scoring systems are mostly for people who like to show their stripes. And we already have the POEs for real contributions.

Actually there are some references to a Karma system deep down in the options...

I voted yes, all Games forum except Cellar. Also they could be allowed to read other forums but not to post.
I remember that I started posting as guest until I realized that I'm hooked up and that I should register. Really, why not allowing guests to discuss Games or Favourite Oldies and Newbies???

I think it would be good to let them in on Games Discussion and Troubleshooting, and also Site comments\Suggestions. Although if you had allowed guest posting on Site comments\suggestions way back when I joined, I may not have joined... :D

No.

I do think they should be allowed to view all part of the board like a regular user (regular users don't see the cellar), and that they should be allowed to post as guest in the troubleshooting forum in case they can't manage to run an old game.

And it would be pointless to do this if you can't edit the error message when it happen. All you'll get if you restrict the posting options of guests is angry guests who still think they can't post anywhere.

There is no voting option which describe what I just say, so I didn't vote.

Yes.

But only in Game Discussion (someone can always have a quick hint or info that can be interesting for the community) and Troubleshooting for quick and "una-tantum" requests of help.

I understand what you mean, but I still think that it is better to allow guest to post, at least in Games discussion... I recall many guests just saying "this is great game, thank you" and similar. I somehow think that this is more useful to abandonia, because guests are mostly here for games, not to read important announcements.
Also, for example, I remember when I uploaded game called Vlak, many czech guests just wrote that they are surprised to see "local legend" on abandonia. So, i think that giving unregistered people possibility to express their positive emotions about games, at least in Games discussion forum, is good for abandonia, since those guest will get to like abandonia even more, and probably will keep coming back...

I think it'd do AB good if we allowed guests back on certain forums, not only GD and TS, but also Tech and Compatibility.

The way I see it, if more people realize they can get useful and friendly help here, this will bring them back and (hopefully) in a mood for signing up and becoming useful members themselves. Wouldn't hurt...

Like I said, I really do like the idea, but there would really have to be enough mods to watch that part of the forum...

As much as I am against restrictions of posting and censoring speech... there is one topic that was constantly repeated on the GD forum - warez links!

Members by now mostly know better then to post links - and members can also be informed through PM system or some other means, that linking to warez sites is not allowed... guests who freely post there can not and Abandonia is still very much against spreading games that are protected.

So that is basically my main concern about it... and trust me, there were planety of those links too (I remember when I was one of the moderators in that forum... it was bothersome to say the least).

I've start posting as a Guest, so i vote "Yes, but only in Games Discussion and Troubleshooting (like before)"

Makes sense
 

Let them get a taste of the TS and discussion and If they want to say more they can register.

Guests are now allowed to post in Troubleshooting and Games Discussion forums. :)

EDIT: As an experiment, also in Requests and Site Comments. If we get too much junk there, it can be always disabled again.

Awesome, nice one Powers That Be :D