View Full Version : forums going public?
Okay, so i've been thinking long and hard about this, and I think it's time to make a few forums public.
Doing so will increase (SUBSTANTIALLY) our search engine ratings and therefore bring in a LOT more members.
My question, though, is what forums should we make public?
There are several that aren't even an option, but I've added a poll here to see which forums we think should be public.
Just so everyone knows, public means taht the thread content can be read by unregistered members, HOWEVER they cannot post until the register.
Making certain forums public won't really have any effect on those of us already posting, other than to be sure we are utilizing the private/girl talk forums for their intended purpose (to discuss things we don't want non-members to know about)
Please vote in the poll.. it's private (noone will know what you voted on) and it's multiple choice. please take your time in voting. think about what you normally post in each forum and what you wouldn't mind being open to the public.
This is really going to be a HUGE improvement in our registration numbers b/c more people will stumble across us on search engines. It's just a metter of implimenting it.
Thanks everyone!
Luckylove
02-06-2007, 10:50 AM
I think that you should keep a lot of them private ( I voted for about 1/2 public) not only to keep things private but to also entice people to pay the fee to join. Also, what are you going to do about past posts that were private that will now be public (if that makes sense)? Are you going to delete them? Leave them? Give us the option of deleting old posts we don't want public?
As far as the paid thing, that's a little bit less of a factor b/c you can view all of those forums anyways by just registering...
Basically heres how i happens down:
you view the site (can only see news, help desk, introductions)
you register (can only see news, help desk, introductions)
You post your intro post (can see all of the 'junior' forums... so basically no private, soap box, etc)
if you pay for a sr membership, you can view all of those
it WOULD happen this way:
come to site, can view many forums (all words in those forums will come up in Search engines so we'll get WAAAY more hits.. bonus b/c we get more memebrs... 2x bonus b/c more hits = more advertisers.)
register: can view all the same forums
post introduction (here's where it goes back to the same way as before... can view all but senior forums
pay for sr membership: can view all forums.
so, really, the only difference will be that we'll get a lot more hits from searches, not so much the $$ thing, b/c they dont' have to pay to view it now. they just have to register (which most do... the problem is that people have a hard time finding us at all)
as far as old threads, i'll probably go through many of them and bump them "to the surface" and people can edit out any information they don't want public.
I'm not sure of a better way to do it yet. I'd hate to delete/edit a ton of old threads though, b/c we have so much valuable information in our archives.
karen-clark
02-06-2007, 01:49 PM
Anything that has a charged topic might be better kept for members, even tho they can't post some people can copy/paste elsewhere and who wants to be quoted on another forum somewhere? I've seen that happen so I say anything neutral would be great but some of the more personal topics like parenting issues or chit chat forums should stay private but I like the idea of opening more to the public. It also might be a good idea to post more clearly what to do to gain access to the other forums, I had a hard time figuring that out.
karen: thanks for the suggestion. i'll try to hammer out a clearer idea of that tonight to post
Lynette
02-06-2007, 04:56 PM
I dunno, I am torn on this mostly because of trolls like with Linday and her LJ experience or pervs. Do you check people's IP addresses before letting them be members to make sure they are from SoCo?
My3sonsplus1
02-06-2007, 05:01 PM
Jackie: people would have to sign up to participate right? This would "just" give them a window shopping teaser to sign up to participate no??
lisa: correct. They can not post/reply/etc without registering.
Lynette: No. there is no *immediate* screening for anyone to sign up. However, when they do sign up I get an email with all of their registration information and from there i can temporarily suspend (or permanently) any accounts that appear fishy (I'd say I suspend about 1 per week.. and i give them the option to validate their account by proving that their profile isn't as weird as it looks, lol)
I dunno, I am torn on this mostly because of trolls like with Linday and her LJ experience or pervs. Do you check people's IP addresses before letting them be members to make sure they are from SoCo?
That's kind of the purpose of the private forums, etc. B/c that's something i worry about too. So anything personal, etc, would be kept to the senior forums (private, soap box, girl talk, etc) and stuff talked about on the open forums would be generic chit chat, or discussing specific topics (tv shows, crafts, upcoming events, etc)
Lindsay
02-06-2007, 10:21 PM
Any forum that is basic chit chat with no identifying info -like explore sonoma county or products and services- is fine for public view, I think.
Thankfully I was wise not to mention this forum on LJ, ever. It would be pretty hard to find me here, since my username here is my real name and not my LJ name.
Lynette
02-07-2007, 07:50 AM
Thankfully I was wise not to mention this forum on LJ, ever. It would be pretty hard to find me here, since my username here is my real name and not my LJ name.
Which is kind of my concern, what if someone from out of state or whatever signed up just to troll, how would they be filtered out? People with ex's, etc.
Lindsay
02-07-2007, 11:18 AM
Yea, it wouldn't be hard to troll if you really wanted to. And you could always lie and say you're from here, though I guess if we log IPs Jackie could look them up. But that seems like a lot of work.
I guess all in all you just have to never say anything on the internet that you want to keep private. Sad, but true.
I guess all in all you just have to never say anything on the internet that you want to keep private. Sad, but true.
yeah. that is pretty much what it comes down to anymore :(
That's why I've included the private forums... for anything you want to discuss, but not around ppl you don't know.
*Kelley*mom
02-07-2007, 02:35 PM
Whats LJ?
Kellie_MO5
02-07-2007, 02:43 PM
Live Journal
Lynette
03-25-2007, 08:31 AM
:bump
Hey Jackie, did you ever end up doing this? Just wondering if those forums were going to be marked somehow so we know what is public and what is semi-private :)
Lorah
03-25-2007, 09:19 AM
I would also like to know what is totally open and what is still private or semi private.
becky
03-25-2007, 12:09 PM
ya i think it would be great if they were mark somehow. so far i just open up SCM on IE since I don't log on there just to see what a non-member sees before i post something and i still cant remember which are public and which are private.
I can add a note if you'd like :) I'll try to have that done this week for you
becky
03-25-2007, 02:03 PM
thanks jackie...that would be awesome
Lorah
03-25-2007, 10:26 PM
I can add a note if you'd like :) I'll try to have that done this week for you
thanks jackie...that would be awesome
:yeah Thanks from me too!
Kellie_MO5
03-25-2007, 10:50 PM
I agree, that would make it a bit easier to decide where to put something you may not want just anybody reading ;) thanks Jackie
Lorah
04-17-2007, 04:06 PM
Jackie: I think I missed something....did you post someplace what forums can be viewed publically? and What forums are for senior members, etc?
I feel really stupid for asking, but I just dont remember seeing anything more on this.
no, what i've decided to do is go through one by one and edit the description of the forums themselves. There are a few that have changed in the last 24 hours or so, but i'm only able to get to a few at a time. I'm trying to update the descriptions themselves (to cut down on posts that need moved) and included that information right there so that later on you don't have to go digging for a list of forums to find out where you should post something based on how private you want it to be.
(btw, you can see these descriptions by click on the "forums" link)
Lorah
04-17-2007, 04:22 PM
Ohh great! That sounds like a good plan for the long run. Okay...I'll just notice the descriptions as they change then....THANK YOU!