Login to view?

[deevergote]

I'm contemplating setting the forum so that people must be logged in to view. That means if someone wants the information that is available on this site, they need to register.

What do you guys think?

One one hand, it will encourage people to actually become a part of this community, rather than simply finding one or two threads in a search and being done with it.

On the other hand, it may drive people away completely, seeing as the information would be inaccessible without going through the grueling process of creating an account.

[The G-Man]

I'm not a fan of login to view forums. It becomes annoying when a forum has a login to view and even more annoying when that forum is either a pay-for-membership forum or one that requires an authentication or approval from a moderator for an account.

Many times if I am searching for a solution to a problem forum results are some of the best ways to find them are forum posts. If I have to create an account at the black and decker forum when my toaster is broken that is pretty annoying.

[deevergote]

I agree that it really is pretty annoying. I would never make this a pay forum, and I sure as hell don't want the aggravation of approving every applicant... But forcing people to log in would at least limit the wealth of knowledge that we have here to people that are members.
I see lots of lazy people begging to be spoon fed on Facebook. I see the occasional helpful member linking them directly to a page on the forum. While that IS very helpful, and I applaud them for taking the time to search for the relevant thread themselves, it's simply inserting the spoon... where I'd rather see people being handed the spoon.

[GhostAccord]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

So if you make it a registration required forum you are hoping that the member is willing to learn and not just be spoon fed!

I do agree that you should have to register and log in for all the accumulated information on this site. I feel that a registration requirment will send anyone who is looking for spoon feeding to go elsewhere. Whereas anyone looking for real information about the chassis will register. All you have to do is give them a taste, sneak peak!

As long as it's not a mod approval thing. I despise forums that make you wait 24-48 hrs for registration approval. A simple email verification registration process would be good.

Is requiring a registration to view all the information here going to cut down on new members...... I don't think so! But then again I am wrong sometimes!

[Accrdwgnguy]

I have to agree with the G-man. A google search is what first brought me here, if I couldn't view the forum and determine it's worth my time to join, I'd move on. It's the basic concept of try it before you buy it. Say you went to a car dealer and were interested in a car, but the dealer didn't let you test drive it. Would you buy it?

[deevergote]

I'm wondering if it will cut down on members, or increase members. And if it will cut down on visits, or increase visits. It will certainly cut down on one-time visitors that come here for one specific result and then never come back... but it will likely increase repeat members. If you have an account and you are logged in, you are more likely to participate in discussions, and ask questions.

[deevergote]

I have to agree with the G-man. A google search is what first brought me here, if I couldn't view the forum and determine it's worth my time to join, I'd move on. It's the basic concept of try it before you buy it. Say you went to a car dealer and were interested in a car, but the dealer didn't let you test drive it. Would you buy it?

That's true. Though this site is generally known throughout the internet as THE place to go for CB Accord information. Anyone looking for a forum with quality information would most likely already know this is the place to be.
Of course, there are still plenty of other Accord sites, as well as general Honda sites, where people get their information (and some of it is terribly incorrect!)

[The G-Man]

You could lock down the sections with the most info: technical & performance and DIYs

That way people could see the beginners section at least as a sort of trial.

Plus, TBH locking down the off-topic and member's rides sections to members only isn't a bad idea at all.

[deevergote]

The MR section may be locked down already. If it's not, I intended to do so. I didn't like the idea of potential thieves having that open as a shopping list! OT is probably a good thing to lock down as well. Sometimes people post personal things here, and it would be nice if those things weren't out there for anyone to stumble across.

Leaving just the Beginner Forums open for browsing might be a good idea. Maybe I'll start working on a list of common things (like swap questions) that gives a hint, but not all the details... A list that can be seen without registering, that will give a searching person an idea of what will be available to them if they register.



My rationale is that a LOT of lazy questions seem to be popping up on Facebook regularly. The activity is on Facebook, and the only use for this site is as a reference. We have become a dusty library book, rather than a community! I'm hoping to bring more activity back to this site.

[The G-Man]

The MR section may be locked down already. If it's not, I intended to do so. I didn't like the idea of potential thieves having that open as a shopping list! OT is probably a good thing to lock down as well. Sometimes people post personal things here, and it would be nice if those things weren't out there for anyone to stumble across.

Leaving just the Beginner Forums open for browsing might be a good idea. Maybe I'll start working on a list of common things (like swap questions) that gives a hint, but not all the details... A list that can be seen without registering, that will give a searching person an idea of what will be available to them if they register.

I really like this idea

My rationale is that a LOT of lazy questions seem to be popping up on Facebook regularly. The activity is on Facebook, and the only use for this site is as a reference. We have become a dusty library book, rather than a community! I'm hoping to bring more activity back to this site.

Which means that someone is doing the spoon feeding by digging up the links. It certainly is not me. I am not part of any CB7 groups on FB and TBH I have not driven mine since 2013.

[deevergote]

I was away from the groups for a while. Got sucked back in while I was trying to defend the CB7tuner name usage (Facebook doesn't seem to care...)

The traffic on this site has declined considerably. We're even using graphic Google ads now instead of less-obvious text ads, because the income generated by the ad views has dropped sharply. Those ads are a big part of keeping this place going, and it sucks that they can't be as unobtrusive as they were at first!

Some people definitely do spoon feed. It's nice, I suppose... but it's like feeding the wildlife. People are becoming dependent on the handouts, and not doing what they should be doing to ensure their own survival as a CB7 enthusiast. Anyone that only uses Facebook, and refuses to browse this forum, is doing themselves a serious disservice.

[Raf99]

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

So if you make it a registration required forum you are hoping that the member is willing to learn and not just be spoon fed!

I do agree that you should have to register and log in for all the accumulated information on this site. I feel that a registration requirment will send anyone who is looking for spoon feeding to go elsewhere. Whereas anyone looking for real information about the chassis will register. All you have to do is give them a taste, sneak peak!

As long as it's not a mod approval thing. I despise forums that make you wait 24-48 hrs for registration approval. A simple email verification registration process would be good.

Is requiring a registration to view all the information here going to cut down on new members...... I don't think so! But then again I am wrong sometimes!

I have to agree with this 100%. And if the person is serious, diligent, intelligent, dedicated they will sign up.
The people I see signing up are people who own manuals, enjoy DIY, are smart enough to know FB is not the place for answers, and are respectful.

The people I see saying "f**k this, I'm not signing up to see this!!"....... we don't want here anyways.

I know you want to make a community so I will quote - "if you build it, they will come".

To put it another way...., let's say I buy a 2015 Subaru WRX and I want help with my car online. Am I going to search FB or for a dedicated website for my car? Well I'd have to be an idiot to think that FB should be my first resource for valuable information.

Deev, leave FB. I know you see lots of people in the group. You see a huge community of people and I understand the need to bring people in here. But these people have always existed before FB. They relied on their cousins uncles brothers word on how to bleed his brakes and hated this site because its too much reading, not enough spoon feeding, and too many rules. Nothing has changed except now there is FB where buddies cousins uncles and brothers feed their BS into a group which has no consequences and is spoon fed heaven.

We may be an old library book, but there's no reason we cannot upgrade and become a modern day technological resource. We need to stop comparing ourselves to FB and let them go do their own thing while we do ours.

Just my opinion...

[deevergote]

I know I should get away from Facebook... but it's one of those things that if we're not represented on there, we likely won't even be known to the current generation... which will hurt both us AND them!
The other admins on there are stretched as thin as I am. The active admins are likely the most hated people on there. I got called an internet bully today for telling someone to use Google to find a price range for a muffler brand that had been suggested to them!

Anyway... the fact is that I need to figure out whether or not closing this place up a little tighter will actually result in MORE traffic, or LESS traffic. It's great that we have such a tight community, and it is ALWAYS a pleasure talking with everyone here. When I'm here, I feel like I'm a part of something. I'm not surrounded by idiots. I'm surrounded by equals. People that have ideas, and thoughts, and experiences to share. People that want to help and be helped by each other. That's how it SHOULD be.
But our community is small, and getting smaller by the day. There are names I can still recall that were every day regulars, that I haven't seen in months. We're losing our core, and gaining few new members to replace them.
It's true that I don't really want the lazy, self-centered, rude, demanding kids to come here and turn this into Facebook... but I DO want enough traffic coming here to keep this place going!

[cp]mike and Pandemic have been working together to make some changes (I'm in it as well, but I'm really only good for when one of them says "I need you to do this". I won't pretend I'm the one doing the good stuff!) We're hoping to switch to a different software without drastically changing the look and feel of the site. By doing so, we will open the door to many upgrades, including better phone-friendly navigation and remote image hosting. With that, I hope to continue with my DIY section plans (been dragging my feet on that, once the possibility of remote centralized image hosting became a potentially doable idea...) Improvements are hopefully on the way... but they won't do us much good if our level of traffic dies down completely!

[Raf99]

True. But at the same time our cars are becoming less popular to own. Over the next 5 years this will also bring the traffic down on this site. Obviously this is expected though.

[deevergote]

Quite true (and currently, the people that DO buy these cars are often a different type than many of the current longtime members.)

Though that makes it even more important to figure out which is the correct course. Quality is better than quantity... but it would be ideal if we could increase the quantity of our quality members!