Private Vs Public Forum

[applesparse]

I'm just wondering, what is the best way to get people to join?

By forcing them to join, or by letting them see everything.

- Dylan

 

[Reddyash]

If you force them to join then people will join. For every forum it is not how many users have joined, how many interesting postings they are making.

My Suggestion is let them see what your forum has to offer and leave ther choice to the user.

 

[Sharon]

I would have the agree with BVWEBHost on this one. I don't like personally when forums require me to sign up before I can see anything in their forum. Although, I don't mind it as much if I can some areas but certain areas be closed off to guests.

 

[Migi]

It depends on the content. Some special, great features or content that will only be available to members may help to draw registrations if they are really that awesome and important.

So it depends. Secrets can be inviting as long as you play it right. 😉

 

[Cosmic]

Requiring someone to register before they can see content will almost always cause a very negative impact on people registering. If they don't see an example of what the community looks like, they won't have much of a reason to join. Also, it is very bad for search engine optimization to make content private.

 

[Rbjustme]

This is an interesting thread, I have had advice to leave some topics open for guests to view but only enough to dangle a carrot? But what is enough and where?

I have also had advice to leave everything open, to me, a public forum is just that, the carrot then becomes, if you want to join in the conversations, then join?

More thoughts please. 🙂

 

[Migi]

This is an interesting thread, I have had advice to leave some topics open for guests to view but only enough to dangle a carrot? But what is enough and where?

That is a tough question to answer. It depends on the content of your forum, I guess. For example, back then I ran a fan forum for a certain Japanese singer. I had a sub-forum where my contributors posted translations to articles related to her and her blog entries. I considered those special because I couldn't find the translation elsewhere. So I made those sections unavailable to guests. I think I did the same for song translations.

I hope my example helps somehow. 🙂

 

[cpvr]

Not a fan of running a private forum because then you're limited yourself to how much traffic you can receive and search engines can't crawl nor index your content, which is pretty dumb. I'm personally a fan of having a public forum so my content can be indexed, ranked and people can easily find my content.

 

[KittyPaws]

I prefer a public forum because it gets more exposure overall as compared to a private forum. Registering is part of the setup for the umbrella forum I'm under; however, one may come as a guest.

-- 18 Apr 2015, 18:20 --

.....what is the best way to get people to join?

Send out invites to your forum containing a clickable link to travel to it.

 

[pandaa]

Also, it is very bad for search engine optimization to make content private.

This is a very important, and often underlooked point! From a human standpoint, it isn't quite as enticing as it may seem. A lot of people who find forums are often looking for something specific; whether it be a topic answering a question of theirs, or a unique community to join. If there's nothing to draw them in, they'll just find another site.

I have used private forums in the past though. They're useful for beta sites, or forums for a group of friends. They work well for anything that you don't want publicly accessible, because that's what basically happens. 😛

 

[Reverse Flash]

Making your forum private isn't a very good idea as all it really serves to do is just deter users away and not give them any reason to join seeing as how they can't even see anything
It's also bad for SEO

 

[KittyPaws]

I do have a private forum I've set up as a duplicate of my own forum and it is indeed private for the reasons you give. I use it as a testing ground to make sure what things will look like before going to press with them (LOL).

Also, in our "real" forum, we do have access to make folders private -- e.g., I have a staff folder and archives folder that only my staff persons have access to. JQPublic never sees those as there is no need for them to see those. My guess if different forum umbrellas have different setups for "hiding" folders or making things private, but I love being able to easily give "permissions" where they're warranted.

Also at my place, we have an option to keep the spiderbots out if we so desire -- and I do (wink)!<br /><br />-- 18 Apr 2015, 21:28 --<br /><br />Smiling at Cookies' post -- when that happens to me it makes me all the more determined to want to join -- just to see what's behind those closed doors ------ unless it's Xrated, then I shy away! 🙂

 

[Reverse Flash]

I do have a private forum I've set up as a duplicate of my own forum and it is indeed private for the reasons you give. I use it as a testing ground to make sure what things will look like before going to press with them (LOL).

Also, in our "real" forum, we do have access to make folders private -- e.g., I have a staff folder and archives folder that only my staff persons have access to. JQPublic never sees those as there is no need for them to see those. My guess if different forum umbrellas have different setups for "hiding" folders or making things private, but I love being able to easily give "permissions" where they're warranted.

Also at my place, we have an option to keep the spiderbots out if we so desire -- and I do (wink)!

-- 18 Apr 2015, 21:28 --

Smiling at Cookies' post -- when that happens to me it makes me all the more determined to want to join -- just to see what's behind those closed doors ------ unless it's Xrated, then I shy away! 🙂

Well, I suppose it's simply a matter of opinion
Maybe it's just because I'm so lazy 😀

 

[Rbjustme]

This is an interesting thread, I have had advice to leave some topics open for guests to view but only enough to dangle a carrot? But what is enough and where?

That is a tough question to answer. It depends on the content of your forum, I guess. For example, back then I ran a fan forum for a certain Japanese singer. I had a sub-forum where my contributors posted translations to articles related to her and her blog entries. I considered those special because I couldn't find the translation elsewhere. So I made those sections unavailable to guests. I think I did the same for song translations.

I hope my example helps somehow. 🙂

Thanks Migi, and yes, it is a tough one to answer, and your content is a major factor in making a decision just how much to leave open. I have tried many variations, being a general discussion forum, and the results seem pretty much on a par with each other. 🙂

 

[Migi]

Thanks Migi, and yes, it is a tough one to answer, and your content is a major factor in making a decision just how much to leave open. I have tried many variations, being a general discussion forum, and the results seem pretty much on a par with each other. 🙂

I'm interested to hear more. What kind of attempts have you did? Being a general discussion forum, what kind of content did you hide from guests? Did it help bring more members in?

 

[flash_drive]

If you own a site & don't want "leechers" to steal things like tutorials , etc block it off for guests, but they should be able to see things like updates , etc.

 

[Forces of Steel]

If you want activity, run a public forum. You may or may not open yourself up to some truly undesirable people, but that's the reality of being accessible to just about anyone.

Tight-knit communities, especially if involving controversial content, are perhaps best as private forums. The benefit of this rule is that you personally know who's who, and you get to exercise your administration powers far less.

You could try running both public and private forums at the same time. See which of the two satisfies you the most.

 

[KittyPaws]

Nothing controversial in my forum -- sigs (signatures) don't seem to be controversial. However, I did just recently change our format to where guests can view the entire forum rather than just a Welcome folder. That way, they'll see what they join before they actually join. They can view - just not post until joining. It's worked out quite well for us. We have gained some members with that change. Perhaps those interested in sigs like what they see and end up joining.

 

[Cierra]

I hardly ever join private forums just because I can't get an idea of the forum and content before joining.

 

[Forces of Steel]

It's possible to do it both ways.

Simply make the main sections public, whereas the extras are only accessible after registration. As long as your publicized content is convincing enough to sell your visitor, then you shouldn't have to worry about choosing between the two.