What's with the Guests?

[EmbraceFiction]

If you are a seasoned person of GBATemp;

You probably have noticed how many guests are always on this site, and they are never signing up. They are just leeching from all the topics, and other resources that GBATemp provides. I really think that we should bring down the lock on those guests, whom are leeching from our topics, and not allowing contributors to get as much attention as they deserve.

I think there is a couple of measures that we can put down to promote user's to the website, and to stop the leeching once and for all. For example, I know this board is powered by IPB, and I know there is a number of add-ons, and other extensions to make the people who run the board, have an easier time keeping control over their content and forum.

1) One opinion of mine, is to actually stop them from viewing the full post. If we put a limit on how much of the topic they can see, it will stop them from leeching, and perhaps to sign up instead; this would greatly reduce the number of guests viewing threads, and encouraging people to put in their opinion or input for a forum topic, or for website news and updates.

2) One more option that can be available, is to actually stop the links from being visible to un-registered users. This add-on actually provides a link to the sign-up of the forum, and makes everyone's lives easier.

3) When providing a download pack, simply place a password on the download file. This can be done using MediaFire, and it can be done using WinRar as well. Make sure that only the registered users know the password of the files, this should cut down on leeching activity as well.

This is just a few opinions that I wanted to share; because I think that leeching, is a big problem on this forum. We can act quickly, to remove the leechers, and welcome them to our community as members.

 

[Dangy]

Wouldn't guests be good? They see ads, which pays for the server, right?

 

[nryn99]

ahh, so we need the guests to keep the gbatemp alive. it's a mutual relationship then.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Put it this way:
Would you rather be forced to sign up, or sign up as a result of content actually interesting you and being useful?

 

[Depravo]

Every guest you see is someone who can search for the information they require without signing up and creating countless duplicate threads. This can only be a good thing.

 

[Waflix]

I think that everyone agrees now that the answer is no. Don't limit guests more then they're right now. Noone thinks that they are annoying (accept a few). Only the TS didn't react anymore....

 

[The Catboy]

Guests can't posts, that's biggest restriction and really we should just keep it that way.
If they can't post we don't have deal with them. So really it's like, out of sight, out of mind.
(boiled down pretty much what everyone has said)

 

[Rogue_Syst3m]

i say dont like it dont read it, pretty much what i do, instead of writing a defcon lvl security measure, i just click and its over with.


on another note, is candy mtn anything like blueberry hills

 

[HaniKazmi]

I say ban them when a popular game (pokemon...) is released to stop server overload, otherwise allow them to fill up the temp coffers

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

I don't see our curent guest policy changing any time soon.
As it has been mentioned, it's annoying as hell to have to register with a site simply to read the information.
We already have thousands of inactive accounts. We don't need thousands more every time something big happens in the gaming scene.
I think I lurked in the background for about a year and a half before deciding that I liked this place well enough to be a part of it,

 

[Evo.lve]

It's pretty clear that it's a unanimous 'no'.

I myself don't see Costello and the admins prohibiting guests from looking at stuff.

Imagine it, every time some noob gets a shit R4 clone (which, admit it, is probably a few times every two hours or so) they come sign up and ask "ZOMG HELP ME I DON'T KNOW SHIT" which already happens.

Now imagine 100000 more of those who sign up to look at those threads.

 

[Oveneise]

What the hell is the OP's problem? I remember before I signed up, I went on Gbatemp for tutorials and reviews of stuff. Some people just don't have the time to complain about how horrible copyright law is, and how the government is out to get them, or when a crack for a game is going to get released, or whining about when a homebrew is going to get released. To put it bluntly: Some people just don't want to have to sign up to read basic information. Guests are just as good as users; they just cant go in the trading forum. Get real OP, gbatemp is too good to do that. And if they did do that, bugmenot.com is where they'd go.

 

[The Catboy]

I say ban them when a popular game (pokemon...) is released to stop server overload, otherwise allow them to fill up the temp coffers

I made that suggestion a long time ago before the Black and White release
And really I think this quote sums up the reason why no that won't go through
QUOTE(Gaydrian @ Sep 9 2010, 12:52 PM) An idea like this is always suggested and shot down when a big release is coming.

Its times like these that we get the most new members which we need to keep the community going (not all are idiots) and maybe help support us with money from ads and also from Shoptemp.

If you don't like the flood just stay off until it dies down.

 

[ProtoKun7]

Guests are just as good as users; they just cant go in the trading forum.

Or post.

 

[Ace]

I say ban them when a popular game (pokemon...) is released to stop server overload, otherwise allow them to fill up the temp coffers

I made that suggestion a long time ago before the Black and White release
And really I think this quote sums up the reason why no that won't go through
QUOTE(Gaydrian @ Sep 9 2010, 12:52 PM) An idea like this is always suggested and shot down when a big release is coming.

Its times like these that we get the most new members which we need to keep the community going (not all are idiots) and maybe help support us with money from ads and also from Shoptemp.

If you don't like the flood just stay off until it dies down.

I actually disagree; all good threads from the all NDS subforums just disappear from the front page immediately when a Pokémon game is released. It's quite nasty to see the shitstorm of "OMGOMGOMGOGMMOG CRACK NOW PELTS!!! lol im 11 use r4ultra3dsimegasuck how i hassed crackd howto wifi wpa troloololl?" in the NDS section. Seeing how GBAtemp otherwise holds up an outstanding quality in both activism and moderation, I only see this as the weak link; the Pokéleechers. Sadly, it IS very difficult to control a situation like a Pokémon release, and I totally respect the moderators opinions. I would however be very happy to see a bit more effort than a few stickies with some news in them, and some "Stop posting, it's getting done, ffs >" posts.

I think an appropriate way to deal with this problem (in my opinion) is to have every thread (except stickies) containing "Pokemon White" or "Pokemon Black" (and the various variations) in any part of the post will have said new thread redirected into the EoF. That way, if we eventually get all Pokénoob threads to the edge, they're accumulated weight will bring them off the edge and they'll disappear. Since we have the Pokénoob bunker there anyways, I'd see no problem in letting them close to our safest premises, since we have ace protection there.

 

[boktor666]

why force people to join a website. After all, its a free forum, if somebody wants to take a look, they just can without registering. That's the cool part of GBAtemp. What did the guests do to you? Don't forget that you were a guest once too.

 

[Safiraya]