Member-Only Access

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minimal said:
Hm, as a registered lurker here, who *loves* the forum (I read it sometimes every day, otherwise
every week), I have to ask this:

How will guests know how valuable it is to join if they can't read the forum?

A simple list of the benefits will not do it. At least for me, I had to be drawn into a discussion,
and the only way to do that is to be able to read more than a few threads, top to bottom.

It took me a few weeks of lurking before I registered ( I think it probably was when I first *had*
to see someone's homebuilt MFT).

What I'm saying here is that in order to increase membership, see what makes people cross over
from guest to member. A poll, perhaps:

Why did you sign up instead of remain a guest?
    a: wanted to view image reserved for members
    b: wanted to participate in discussion thread
    c: wanted to ask question of an experienced member
    d: wanted to ask question about upcoming tool purchase
    e: wanted to show my festool-related work and get comments
    f: am a dealer, wanted to expand references and help people use the tools
    g: wanted to join in bickering for sense of comraderie
    h: couldn't read anything, just wanted to see what forum was about

For me it was either A or B, I forget. But there's no way I would have joined "on faith", there are
just too many sites and (sadly) in this day & age the ones that make you register first are
almost always the ones that aren't so good. That would have been a total loss for me, as
I've learned so much here, but I wouldn't have know what i was missing, and that
gets to the crux: the person who doesn't register has to know what they are missing, otherwise
there will be no reason to register. And they can't know what they are missing if they can't see
glimpses of the forum.
Click to expand...

Good points, but I've already admitted my mistake on this and have decided not to do the members-only route.  In a strange way, I'm glad I made this mistake, because it reinforces for me the value of opening these kinds of discussions to the community!  We're all capable of bad decisions, but this shows me the strength of the forum community in catching any of those mistakes and changing course!
Matthew
 
Oof, sorry to add on so late and after you'd already made a decision to return to the prior config! Anyway,
love the site, wouldn't even characterize it as a "mistake" so none to admit, besides you can't be expected to
be perfect all the time.

And this is the only alias I lurk under, if Per is implying otherwise; my ideas can't the *that* unoriginal!

 
minimal said:
And this is the only alias I lurk under, if Per is implying otherwise; my ideas can't the *that* unoriginal!
Click to expand...

Per was referring to something else my friend!  Don't worry about it.
Matthew
 
I'm not sure I understand the unregistered vendor thing; they can always register with bogus names and you'll be no further ahead (unless I misunderstand). In any case misappropriation of information freely available is a natural consequence of the medium and not really worth worrying about.

But, on the system metrics thing, there is a wide variety of software (including google metrics) that can really help you mine your visitor data without trolling through the data yourself; it is an whole industry to itself now and can do some amazing stuff. In addition, polling (and there are companies to help with that as well) can really help you round out your demographic information and judge your user base. I'm not talking in-forum polls, but the sort which come up and say would you like to take a poll now.

Just a couple of thoughts to help you achieve your original goals.

edit: mind->mine
 
pmkierst,
I'll have to take a look at the metrics tools you're mentioning.  I'd be curious to see what can be done here without interrupting the usual flow in the forum.
If anyone has more information on this, please post about it!
Matthew
 
Matthew,

Is there a way to create a welcome message that shows up on the home page before anyone actually logs in? Once someone is registered and logs in it could disappear as it would no longer be relevant. In my case, I tend to stay logged in all the time so I would only see it when I visit from a different computer and it sure wouldn't bother me on those occasions. A message that makes someone feel appreciated just for showing interest in the forum and then extolls the virtues of becoming a member might be effective. I do not recall seeing anything quite like that elsewhere. It would explain that membership is free (but donations are welcome), pictures can be seen, posting can be done, questions can be answered, etc. Until someone registers this would always be seen; a proverbial welcome mat if done right. I suppose you could even joke that if they registered and logged on they would not need to see this message anymore. To be clear, I am not saying this should be the entire homepage, just a message under the first toolbar.
 
Matthew -

If securing registered members is a priority, why don't you put a landing page on the home page?

I logged out and went to the anonymous home page which is the same as for an authenticated visitor.  Seems like you could get more registrations if you would summarize on that page the benefits of membership, highlight 3-4 of the interesting threads or projects, highlight some of the new Festool tools to learn about inside, and encourage registration with two pieces of data - email / username and password. 

Summarize key stats, benefits to registration, etc.  Allow two simple alternatives:  registration or log-in on that page.  Or include a link to browse the forums with no images. 

As one example, check out www.blogger.com for a friendly welcome, the opportunity for a tour, etc.  Benefits and process are pretty clear.

Just a thought.

neil
 
neil,
What you describe is possible, though (and I swear the two discussions are completely coincidental) the new features we're discussing in this discussion make it more feasible.
I could easily use the new feature to create a center block with an encouraging message to join.
Matthew

PS: By the way, your avatar keeps making me want to swat at my screen!
 
pmkierst said:
A place to start might be the Wikipedia entry for Web Analytics.

As is typical, google offers a good, free solution that you might want to experiment with, Google analytics.

I tend to use the terms metrics, I'm some kinda old fool.
Click to expand...

I just took a look at Google Analytics.  The problem is, to use it I have to uninstall the tracking devices I am already using, which means major headaches on the database end of things.  The existing tools (metrics) may not be as good as Google's, but they are all in place and functioning properly.  Also, Google Analytics wants me to install their tracking script on every page of this site!  I might try this on the Test Forum first, to see how it goes.
Matthew
 
So this morning I was writing a comment on my blog. I switched browsers yesterday, and, especially since I read the FOG with an RSS reader, I hadn't logged in with the new one. I went and looked at Eiji's sapele doors which I wanted to link to to illustrate a point I was making, and couldn't see the pictures he was mentioning.

Of course I logged in and the pictures loaded, but I didn't link, because that would have required everyone who wanted to see what I was talking about to create a new account on this site. It raised the cost of using the FOG illustratively beyond the value that I thought this brought to the readers. The PageRank for that site has fallen a bit in the past few months, but that was a PR5 link that the FOG didn't get.

Not saying that it isn't the right decision to make, FOG still comes up first when I was trying to find any other sites that Eiji may have posted his pictures on, and I know I've jumped through hoops on various other sites to create accounts that I've used exactly once in order to read an article that I was interested in, but it's a data point.
 
Dan,
As I mentioned earlier, nothing has changed in access rights.  This discussion started as an announcement, but it soon became a debate, and I was convinced beyond any doubt to leave access rights as they always were.

Photos have always been accessible only to members.

Matthew
 
Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification! I guess I've always just been logged in.

Huh, wonder how many people I've confused then?  ::)
 
Dan,
Well, some photos will appear for visitors, some will not.
If the photo is an attachment, it will not appear.  If the photo is a link, it will.
But again, this has always been the case.
Matthew
 
Matthew Schenker said:
I just took a look at Google Analytics.  The problem is, to use it I have to uninstall the tracking devices I am already using, which means major headaches on the database end of things.  The existing tools (metrics) may not be as good as Google's, but they are all in place and functioning properly.  Also, Google Analytics wants me to install their tracking script on every page of this site!  I might try this on the Test Forum first, to see how it goes.
Matthew
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why you'd have to uninstall your other tracking devices. I've used google analytics in conjunction with other statistical engines without problem. Their tracking script is lightweight and usually just goes in your footer control. In my tests, it often performed faster than my webserver I was testing, so the HTML would load, and while the images were on the way the google analytics script would load. The use of google charts makes google analytics pretty slick, if you like looking at metrics from a bunch of angles.
 
graphex said:
I'm not sure why you'd have to uninstall your other tracking devices. I've used google analytics in conjunction with other statistical engines without problem. Their tracking script is lightweight and usually just goes in your footer control. In my tests, it often performed faster than my webserver I was testing, so the HTML would load, and while the images were on the way the google analytics script would load. The use of google charts makes google analytics pretty slick, if you like looking at metrics from a bunch of angles.
Click to expand...

It's possible I misunderstood the instructions.  But when I got to the point where it offers the actual script snippets, there is a note about Urchin (which is one of the data-gathering tools I already have installed here).

Here's the actual note from Google Analytics:
Note: We recommend that you do not include both tracking code snippets together on any given page. Doing so might generate inaccurate report data. You can, however, migrate select pages of your site to the new tracking code while the legacy code remains on others.
Click to expand...

Since the snippets are meant either for Urchin, or for Google Analytics, it seems they are asking me to uninstall Urchin.

Matthew
 
Right... google analytics actually sprung from Urchin after google bought them, so I could see how they might be incompatible. I've used GA in conjunction with log trackers like SmarterStats, but essentially GA is a 'newer version' of urchin so they probably think it is more like an upgrade.

I think in your case you may have to decide between the two. I personally am not much into stats tools, but I have been impressed with what google's got after they integrated some of the 'google charts' parts. Looking at stats visually is the best, and there seems to be the most 'community support' surrounding google analytics, but I'm well aware how attached people become to 'legacy data' like you might have in Urchin ;)

I'd rather see UTF-8 forums than good metrics anyway, but then again I'm a user, not an admin  ;D

 
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