Guests

[Justin]

Well some people refer to having a lot of guests as a good thing.

I see it bad. It is all those people who thinks your site isn't good enough to register on...

discuss

 

[Cosmic]

Well, guests can be caused by a lot of things:

• Robots.
• People who found a thread in your forum via search engine.
• Un-logged-in users.

They don't always have to be people who are actually considering joining.

 

[David]

Most of the time, if you see many guests, they are just bots searching your forum, whether spam bots or search bots.

 

[Justin]

Bots are usually picked up by most softwares.

 

[Cosmic]

Search engine bots. phpBB has around 50ish bots, doesn't it? What percent of the roaming bots do you think that constitutes? There are a lit of bots such as spam bots and email-spamming bots which phpBB probably won't recognize.

 

[Nebulous]

Guests show activity. If a forum has a lot of guests visting, that tells me that the forum is well advertised and has a good amount of traffic coming in.
However some people are constantly twittering links and flooding their forum with twitter bots or they could be search engine bots so I guess you can never tell if those are actual people or just 20 - 30 bots.
:lol:

 

[OiLerz284]

Guests show activity. If a forum has a lot of guests visting, that tells me that the forum is well advertised and has a good amount of traffic coming in.
However some people are constantly twittering links and flooding their forum with twitter bots or they could be search engine bots so I guess you can never tell if those are actual people or just 20 - 30 bots.
:lol:

Are there actually twitter bots? crap... 🙁

 

[David]

Yes, 90% of your guests from twitter are bots.

 

[OiLerz284]

Yes, 90% of your guests from twitter are bots.

Wow 90%... even if only your followes can view your tweets?

Atleast it explains why my guests dont join. lol

 

[David]

I may have exaggerated, but the majority are bots. (I can tell by the exact same location of them each time a lot of guests come)

 

[OiLerz284]

Oh lol! Mabey around 60-70

I've noticed when tweeting that sometimes it seems the guests just click the link, then leave. I'm guessing those are the bots. I'm gonna check th ips next time.

 

[Sam!]

Personally, I like guests. Unless your forum is a haven of activity, guests are always a good thing, and especially if your forum is very new. I run a website as opposed to a forum, with no registrations - so guests mean everything!

 

[David]

Yes, I know what you mean Sam. When I go to look at my Google Analytics every night, I rely on guests from anywhere to boost my statistics.

 

[Fergal]

The more traffic the better in my opinion. It would be great if all guests registered and became active members, but the reality is that they won't and I'd prefer have them as guests thank not have them on my forum at all. A lot of guests can be a sign that your forum is doing well in the search engines and includes useful content.

There will be people who read and benefit from your content, without every registering at your forum. These visitors will often click on your ads and increase the price that you can sell ad slots for.

 

[Uphoreka]

People who said they want more guests on their forum must have an unsuccessful forum.

 

[David]

Why? You might have a million members and 10 000 guests. Wouldn't you want more?

 

[Fergal]

I agree with David. Just because you want to be better, doesn't mean that you are not successful. In fact a constant drive to improve is one of the characteristics of very successful people.

 

[Uphoreka]

Okay. I made another mistake. Didn't thought it that way.