Yes, I think anything like that's worth trialling.

oioioi wrote:
Indeed

As I said, if we go ahead it'd be on a trial basis...say for 1 month...and would be closely monitored.

But we feel the potential advantages could make the hassle worthwhile. It would encourage a bit more 'balanced' debate for a start.

At the moment, (political) debate around here isn't very balanced, because most of the regular posters are all coming from a similar viewpoint, and that can be somewhat off-putting to potential fresh blood who may feel intimidated from joining as members and then facing immediate 'overwhelming opposition' so to speak.

We are hoping that the introduction of guest posting may help to address this situation and put peoples minds at rest regarding their perception/s of the reception they feel they will receive here, and that they might then ultimately decide to join up as fully-fledged members.

i think it sounds like fun. fresh blood right.
i dont think ive given out any kind of personal info either. other guys might want to check their posts just incase we got a little bit trusty feely with each other.

Hmmm - that vid of my work colleagues arsing about could have been a bit 'trusty feely'. Do I really want complete unknowns knowing where I work?

Gilly wrote:
I noticed your full name in the credits too

yeah you might want to go purge some things. remember somebody fucked over hagbard celine at his work place. a little info goes a long way.

Is it possible to set up a 'guest zone'?

What's the incentive to sign up to the site if you can just drive-by post?

oioioi wrote:
Hey you! What are you trying to say? I'm not some hairy bloke!

Gilly wrote:
Eh?

oioioi wrote:
Were you not implying I was one of those masculine performers then - hence, name in credits?

batou wrote:
I've thrown myself on the mercy of the mods & requested it be deleted.

Gilly wrote:
No, I'm implying that I assumed the Gill in the credits is/was you.

Oh, right - sorry. No, I didn't partake in that little nonsense at all.

*Edit* Only 'cause I wasn't invited to, mind.

feather wrote:
The logged-in members areas would not be viewable or accessible to guest posters folks, so basically our privacy would be unaffected.

Guest posters would have to register as members in order to gain any access to anything viewing guests can't already see now, and also to have rights to an avatar, signature, profile etc.

Gilly wrote:
And as ever, my request has been actioned both promptly and courteously. Thank you, Frog.

Going back to the original question I think the Karma thing can create unnecessary friction and the thank you button confuses me because I forget it's there , then when I've replied to a post and see other people have thanked the poster and I haven't I feel bad and guilty for not having done so

Personally I just don't 'get' either function and would be happy if they went, but if they stay so be it

I'm not sure about guestposting , I suppose I think if you want to join in just join in

dawnbreak wrote:
Firstly, where the devil have you been?

Secondly, you can reply and hit 'Thank you', it's not either or.

feather wrote:
No. Unfortunately the forum settings/setup only allow for either no guest posting whatsoever, or guest posting in all categories that can already be read by guests without having to log in. Which in our case is all but the bottom two at the moment, members stuff and vent room.

Guests still wouldnt be able to see those categories and cannot post in them, should we enable guest posting.

We talked about what you said from the get-go. and would likely have had perhaps one guest category from the start if it was do-able.

There are other forums where this can be done, but they arent open source (free) like this one...eg vbulletin and phbb.

feather wrote:
As DG already said, access to more features and menu options...fast chat, signatures, custom avatar, private messaging, profile info etc.

And yes IPs are still logged for any guest posts.

Guests are also required to fill in a captcha code, and a username in the name field, on the reply page...so it still has to be a real person too, I dont think bots can get thru.

Without a doubt, half a dozen Sodlike crew like vera, tiswas, ruby, droike and sod himslef would decend with their packages of pastes and pics and there goes your forum.

And then there is the DIF NANs with Rache on their minds..

well MM the mods here can delete any nonsense, and i would say that it would probably be our policy for any mod who happens to be present, to delete offensive, spammy or pointless guest posts promptly using their own judgement and common sense. Whereas with registered members we tend to confer with each other and ask other members what they think also.

I think its fair to say that members who register are given more consideration than guests when it comes to moderation decisions.

We are only at the point of discussing this now, of course the point is that the pros and cons are aired, which is what is happenning now.

To be frank, enabling guest posting (and turning it off) is quite a simple setting in itself, from a technical point of view. If we had a trial period and too many negative things result because of it, the guest posting feature can simply be turned off.