I say make the whole forum private.
The less guests we have browsing, the less load on the server, thus meaning a more stable and quicker experience for signed users.
I'm going to have to agree with the consensus of making the forum private. As other people have said, it's not the be all or end all solution, but it will act more as a deterrent (ie. those who could not be bothered signing up usually don't). Hey at the end of the day, if it helps in the prevention of theft, I'm all for it.
If people have a reason why they would not like the system to go private I would like to hear it.
If we did that no other forum or place on the internet can link to something on Ozhonda without people registering to see the link. What is so private about the technical threads anyway?
I have also sometimes sent Ozhonda links to friends - can't do that anymore unless they want to go through the sign up process.
Also - if we go private would our technical threads be captured by search engines - eg google? We would get a lot of people around the world finding ozhonda by doing a search engine thread for a specific technical issue they have. I actually found Ozhonda in January 2004 by doing a search on the Accord Euro on google!
If someone wants to post up a picture of their own car they do so at their own risk. I fail to see how making the forum private has any correlation to reducing theft. If someone is a serious thief and wants to come on here to profile a member and scope their car - it is not that much effort to sign up. Making it private does nothing in my view.
This sounds like we are doing something to be seen to be doing something. In reality what does it achieve?
If we are doing it to make the forum faster - go for it. But the reducing theft argument is weak!
If we did that no other forum or place on the internet can link to something on Ozhonda without people registering to see the link. What is so private about the technical threads anyway?
I have also sometimes sent Ozhonda links to friends - can't do that anymore unless they want to go through the sign up process.
Also - if we go private would our technical threads be captured by search engines - eg google? We would get a lot of people around the world finding ozhonda by doing a search engine thread for a specific technical issue they have. I actually found Ozhonda in January 2004 by doing a search on the Accord Euro on google!
If someone wants to post up a picture of their own car they do so at their own risk. I fail to see how making the forum private has any correlation to reducing theft. If someone is a serious thief and wants to come on here to profile a member and scope their car - it is not that much effort to sign up. Making it private does nothing in my view.
This sounds like we are doing something to be seen to be doing something. In reality what does it achieve?
If we are doing it to make the forum faster - go for it. But the reducing theft argument is weak!
Some very valid points. The theft comment was more in relation to the appearance/gallery forum and as said...it is not the be all and end all solution. I see it more as a deterrent.
Valid points also about the search engines not being able to index Ozhonda. At the moment I'm thinking of making only the model specific and technical forums viewable by guests and making everything else private. One thing that I would like with that is that search engines / bots won't pickup on the OH email addresses which will help with the 100 odd spam emails I get and have to sort through.
Originally Posted by hoey888
maybe we can setup ozhonda to be invite only... more exclusive and then it sorta becomes private that way. just a suggestion
Then that makes it hard for people who want to learn/share information.
Make only the noob/model specific/tech threads visible then...and perhaps the lounge.
Everything else, hide.
Agreed with noob/model/tech only.
I guess in the midst of all this, we musn't forget that this forum is to help people, so if someone who isn't a user , stumbles across this site via Google, they can obtain whatever info they need from the visible forums.
if they see value in signing up, they will sign up.
Originally Posted by Q_ball
Reply With Quote
OZHONDA 4 LYFE! 
Bookmarks