"DLV - Series" section

[tommybuoy]

When viewing the CSO site without logging on, why is it that the "DLV - Series" section doesn't show up under forums? I thought it had mysteriously disappeared, until I figured out it was there, if I was logged on. What am I missing??

[Harry]

There only certain things "guests" can see as a "guest".
The same holds true for any member that is not logged in.

I set it this way to hopefully entice & encourage folks to join up with us and particapte.

If you notice on the homepage, when not logged in there is a big red message that tells you "you are only seeing a part of what CSO has to offer"
The homepage is where traffic is directed if coming from Google, Yahoo, or first time users.

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

There only certain things "guests" can see as a "guest".
The same holds true for any member that is not logged in.

I set it this way to hopefully entice & encourage folks to join up with us and particapte.

If you notice on the homepage, when not logged in there is a big red message that tells you "you are only seeing a part of what CSO has to offer"
The homepage is where traffic is directed if coming from Google, Yahoo, or first time users.


Harry, i always see "you are only seeing a part of what CSO has to offer" when i'm at the menu

[Harry]

It's a collapseable board. Hit the " - " sign next to the date & time it will go away. I also keep the shout box collapsed, less distraction IMO.

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

It's a collapseable board. Hit the " - " sign next to the date & time it will go away. I also keep the shout box collapsed, less distraction IMO.


If i do that i loose the "show unread posts since last visit"

[brevoortia]

There only certain things "guests" can see as a "guest".
The same holds true for any member that is not logged in.

I set it this way to hopefully entice & encourage folks to join up with us and particapte.

If you notice on the homepage, when not logged in there is a big red message that tells you "you are only seeing a part of what CSO has to offer"
The homepage is where traffic is directed if coming from Google, Yahoo, or first time users.


Harry,

I wish you would reconsider that policy. I think this website is very helpful, and therefore I am a member. Yet when I'm doing research on something, if I do a google search I may come to a website like this but be frustrated that I can't ultimately look at the content that was advertised.

I think folks will join up based on the merits of the content as it is. You shouldn't punish people for not being members. Think "Field of Dreams" here. They will come.

[al_e._gator]

I wasn't planning on saying anything but I agree with you. I don't join every forum that I come across that might have an answer I'm looking for. If I found this site after the policy change I would have skipped it several times before finally joining out of desperation to find good CS information. As it was I came in, saw stuff I liked, and joined up to become an active part of a healthy, active, and rapidly growing community of dedicated CS owners. I check this site several times a day vs once a day for most other forums I'm a member of. That tells me this is a place I like to be that I might never have joined if the door was closed when I first arrived. I admit Harry only has the door partly closed so newcomers can get a peek before joining and maybe that's enough. My biggest complaint about the current policy right now is that since I don't allow cookies to let the site remember me on my home computer I can't check for new posts throughout the day without logging in repeatedly. 004

[bobreeves]

Actually, there is a notify button on each forum, but it says notify if there is a new topic, not new posts. I'm not sure exactly how it works - Harry can probably tell us more, and if it can be configured to notify with new posts, not just new topics. That would be a nice feature.

[tommybuoy]

Harry, while I understand (though not sure I fully agree w/) your point about hidding some of the goodies, I would think that leaving out the DLV section may not be the best idea. Given that it's new and IMO where CS is heading, it might surprise, and ultimately turn off, a newbie, the reverse of what you want.

[Shakespeare]

Guys, there's several different options for notification. You can select a specific board to receive notifications for new topics posted. You can get notifications for any topic that you've posted in. And you can subscribe to a particular thread by clicking the 'Notify' tab at the top of the very first post in that thread.

Go to your user profile and under 'Modify Profile' choose 'Notifications and Emails' to select which option(s) are best for you.

See Harry's comments near the top of this thread for his reasons on hiding certain forums for guests.

Please don't hesitate to contact a moderator if you have any fundamental questions on the forum site or controls. That's what we're here for. ;D

Mike C.

[Harry]

It was more of a nessacary evil at the time, than a policy, and here's why........

While having guests able to see the whole site is a good thing I agree. It was like this for about the first 5 months of our exisitance. Kind of slow going, but we were brand new.

This basically turned into a little test on my part & needed to be done early on in the sites life. I was noticing a TON of guests viewing the site and maybe 2-3 users at any given time. I wanted to see what would happen if I totally shut guests out. 006 Guess what in the next 2 days we had our largest membership increase ever over those 2 days. After that it has been like you see it now.

I just wanted to see if people, being curious creatures, would get them to sign up & hopefully post. Now there's a few things to consider.

1) Your forced to join, just to see what's here, don't like it, never post, never come back. However this gives false membership numbers . (not what I'm after)

2) you let the whole world into your site, Many read forever never signing up posting or even saying hello (don't want that either ) OR Some like what they see, sign up and start posting right away, early on that's what I needed ( yay )

3) Give them a taste & if they like it they might go deeper by signing up 006 Not showing the DLV section was like saying you know we have this section in here if you want to see it, come and get it.

By having the big read letters TELLING them that they are only seeing part of the site ,let's them know up front that indeed we do have more to offer, It's free, way NOT join up ?

Another thing to consider and why the site is not blocked is when blocking guest, you not only block guests but also spiders.
Search engines such as Yahoo, Google,,,etc, have "search engine spiders", that crawl around the web & websites such as ours, seeking out "keywords" from the site in the posts, and words that I enter as "keywords" when setting up the site with my server.
When they find these relavant "keywords" they go into the search engine database and deposit them , giving us a google ranking. The more they find the better and stronger we grow.
Relavant words that help us get a good ranking would be "skiff, carolina,suzuki,yamaha,evinrude,fish,fishing,,,,,a nd the list goes on.

We became the #1 ranked CS board in only 8 short months. If I open up the site for all to see ( which I am going to do shortly) it will only help keep us strong, the only place to go when your ranked #1 is down. So we need to stay strong and continue to do what we've been doing and post up BOYS !!

Thanks for your thoughts, help and particapation at CSO !!!

PS,
Until I told tommybuoy about this in this post how many knew that guests couldn't see the whole site ?

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

I had no clue about it.
But i agree the way Harry handle it.
When i first looked up the site, i became a member right away, i don't even remember what i saw and what i didn't, but i was interested to find out more about Carolina Skiff and also try to compare it with a previous skiff i had.
I really like this site, and i'm willing to stay and post thoughts, info, and ideas as much as i can.

[brevoortia]

I just wanted to see if people, being curious creatures, would get them to sign up & hopefully post. Now there's a few things to consider.

1) Your forced to join, just to see what's here, don't like it, never post, never come back. However this gives false membership numbers . (not what I'm after)

2) you let the whole world into your site, Many read forever never signing up posting or even saying hello (don't want that either ) OR Some like what they see, sign up and start posting right away, early on that's what I needed ( yay )

3) Give them a taste & if they like it they might go deeper by signing up 006 Not showing the DLV section was like saying you know we have this section in here if you want to see it, come and get it.

By having the big read letters TELLING them that they are only seeing part of the site ,let's them know up front that indeed we do have more to offer, It's free, way NOT join up ?


Harry, I think your Dr. Frankenstein approach is a little disconcerting. Let me preface this by saying I do appreciate this site, and also thank you for giving us all a tool to discuss our hobby. But don't forget that a community is only as good as its members, and if you constantly manipulate things and don't let the site settle down people will move along. You don't have much competition, so saying you're the #1 ranked site is simply ego because you're misrepresenting the environment you are in.

Although registration is free, there are many reasons why some people might prefer to be passive and not active participants. Some don't like sharing personal information, and for that reason wouldn't join a site. Heck, I think its ridiculous that every single commercial website I order something from requires a membership. Why do I have to sign up as a member to order from somewhere only once. Its madness, and quite unnecessary in my opinion. Don't perpetuate that.

Building a useful site like this takes time. Let it grow naturally. Don't force things and it will do well.




PS,
Until I told tommybuoy about this in this post how many knew that guests couldn't see the whole site ?



I used to view the site from work without being logged in until you made the change.

[workinprogress]

brevoortia--You just equated Harry with Josef Stalin. (sp) Don't you think that's a little extreme? I used to log in on my wife's computer at the house and get pissed becaused I couldn't see the good stuff, but I fixed that by registering on the home computer also. If where you work will allow it, just register from their computer and this will become a non-issue. (it takes 60 seconds)

[Fayetteguy]

you can also sign in on a random computer, ou dont even have to re-register, just go to the homepage and log in with your name and password......and evidently his idea worked bc the membership grew tremendously, i still feel like it is growing tremedously with the amount of "new guy here" posts i see almost daily, as where i used to rarely see those.

I think if you dont have anything good to say then just dont say anything. it may be a good idea

-matt

Keep the site rockin and rollin the way it is!

[NOTHING ELSE MATTERS]

you can also sign in on a random computer, ou dont even have to re-register, just go to the homepage and log in with your name and password......and evidently his idea worked bc the membership grew tremendously, i still feel like it is growing tremedously with the amount of "new guy here" posts i see almost daily, as where i used to rarely see those.

I think if you dont have anything good to say then just dont say anything. it may be a good idea

-matt

Keep the site rockin and rollin the way it is!


Not only the memberhip grew a lot , but the members actually posting thoughts, ideas and reports.
So once again, i think that was a good play from Harry.
Now if we start donate we can make this site even better. 012 thumbsup

[Harry]

But don't forget that a community is only as good as its members, and if you constantly manipulate things and don't let the site settle down people will move along. You don't have much competition, so saying you're the #1 ranked site is simply ego because you're misrepresenting the environment you are in.



brevoortia
I welcome & thank you for your comments and opinions, as that what makes this site & country great.

I never once forgot the members make the site not the site makes the members and if you have followed or read a lot of my postings you would have seen I always say that.
I use words like "our site" , "us" , "we", "team" , "thank you" , "welcome" not " my site" , "me" , "I" ,"mine" or "bye".

Saying We're #1 has nothing to do with ego or mis-representing anything. Google up Carolina Skiff and we are the #1 CS message board. Would it be better if there's a ( * ) next to that statement, saying we are #1 beacuse we don't have much competition ? ???

Like I said in my last post here, I did what I had to do to get our ranking up as quick as possiable as the early stages can make or break.
Early on I set the site up the best I thought as far as Catagory's and area's to cover. I asked for opinions from our members and got some great resonse on their wants and want not's. For this I am grateful.
I took their comments & suggestions, removed some catagory's/ added others and the board has come to where it is now.
If changes were to be made it would have to be done in the early stages and like you said
"Building a useful site like this takes time. Let it grow naturally. Don't force things and it will do well." You couldn't be more dead on.
That's why it was important to get the site where we needed it to be and let it lay.

It has been some time since those changes were made and should stay this way. I am doing little things like adding new smilies, looking into a software that you can type in your zip and it will give you your local tide and weather forecast. Not to change the site, just to enhance it and the users experience.

Anyway,
Thanks for your input.
Harry