Enabling Guest Posting

[Shawn Gossman]

Guest posting could get your forum more activity.

It wouldn't exactly earn you a new member, but it could earn you more activity.

You'd need a good moderation system in place to mitigate trolling.

How do you feel about enabling guest posting on your forum?

Have you done it? Have you ever done it? Why wouldn't you do it?

 

[The Hulk]

I have in a couple of the forums I've run in the past had a guest forum open in case they had trouble signing up, logging in, etc they could alert me to their issues without having to email.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I have in a couple of the forums I've run in the past had a guest forum open in case they had trouble signing up, logging in, etc they could alert me to their issues without having to email.

That's a good idea!

Setup guest posting to inform you if they cannot create an account.

I like that.

 

[The Hulk]

That's a good idea!

Setup guest posting to inform you if they cannot create an account.

I like that.

Yeah I don't get it. They refuse to email yet willing to post a guest topic on a forum.

 

[Elseb]

I wont ever allow guests to post, it's too easy for spambots and potential nuisances to take advantage and I don't think it really benefits your forum hugely. Plus it doesn't take much to register.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I wont ever allow guests to post, it's too easy for spambots and potential nuisances to take advantage and I don't think it really benefits your forum hugely. Plus it doesn't take much to register.

I think you could make it to where they can't post a link.

I'm almost interested in trying it for the sake of helping those who can't seem to register on the forum.

I'm curious to see if there is a lot attempted spam or people that truly need help.

 

[Elseb]

I think you could make it to where they can't post a link.

I'm almost interested in trying it for the sake of helping those who can't seem to register on the forum.

I'm curious to see if there is a lot attempted spam or people that truly need help.

Do you think registering has been a problem for people though? I would imagine if people have struggled to register, it's a very very low amount.

 

[secretprojects]

Guest posting is ok. Email verification isn't exactly foolproof, anyone can create a fake email to use to spam your forum.

On my forum I have it set so that the first post by any user is moderated. This catches out 99% of bad actors, as they try to make their spam post, but noone sees it until a moderator approves it. Moderator catches it, spam cleans the user.

I have twice had someone clever enough to make an innocuous first post and only then go spammy. In 17 years, that's not bad.

 

[Uncrowned Guard]

Guest posting can be done well, but I prefer it to be not at all or in limited selections. Overall it just leads to spam and not getting users added to newsletters, notifications, etc.

Absolutely all of those things can be avoided by other means, but I have always questioned the long-term usage by a user that won't even register and whether or not it is worth adding in all the steps needed to achieve that.

 

[secretprojects]

Xenforo has a nice feature - you appear to be able to post without registering, but when you submit your post, you have to register. Given the user has already gone to the effort of making a post they will lose if they don't register, it might tip them into registering.

I don't have guest posting on my forum, as I think this is good enough.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Xenforo has a nice feature - you appear to be able to post without registering, but when you submit your post, you have to register. Given the user has already gone to the effort of making a post they will lose if they don't register, it might tip them into registering.

I don't have guest posting on my forum, as I think this is good enough.

That's a really interesting feature!

Write it but register to submit it... That's clever!

I'd love to see a ratio of who joins versus who gets ticked off and storms away

 

[Tracy]

Honestly... they were late to the game for that feature... IPS had it a while ago.

XF REALLY needs to get off the stick and engage more in the core software and become less dependent upon outside developers to enable features that they should have 1st party. The current "major" group add-on that is available is SORELY lacking in features... and the developer seems hard-pressed to push it much beyond what it's basic status is.
I mean... come on now.. there's been a suggestion (and highly voted) for OVER a decade for groups in XF.... IPS has had this ability for years already.
Don't even get me started on a native calendar.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Don't even get me started on a native calendar.

This is interesting.

I feel like there was a forum software that had a calendar feature by default.

Was is vb? I used VB during 3.7 and 3.8 days. I can't remember too much from then.

Maybe it was IPB or a free platform.

What would you use a calendar for? That feature idea has me interested!

 

[Tracy]

Maybe it was IPB or a free platform.

What would you use a calendar for? That feature idea has me interested!

IPS has a calendar built in.
For me, it would allow the users to enter star party events in a calendar format instead of in a post. It's much easier to find if you have a calendar format.

The Social Groups add-on I have from Truonglv/Nobita has a calendar feature built in.... but if the social group is a closed group, only those members can see them... and their is no consolidated calendar.
Ideally, what I would love to see is XF enable Groups with a centralized calendar feature that can also have private events listed in it... and those calendar events be tied back to specific social groups in addition to being world visible if set that way.

 

[secretprojects]

I had a calendar when my forum was on SMF, but it really didn't get much use.

 

[Tracy]

This is an example of the Groups calendar from the add-on... it's really a pity it can't be shared/viewable by others since it's a closed group. Ideally when making the entry one could choose whether to make it viewable by non-members of the group.
That's why i think a 1st party add-on of both social groups and calendar combined would be great.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I think a calendar and groups could make for a good official addon.

I am shocked Bob hasn't tackled the groups idea yet. He seems to be good at those types of addons.

 

[Tracy]

I think a calendar and groups could make for a good official addon.

I am shocked Bob hasn't tackled the groups idea yet. He seems to be good at those types of addons.

He has something similar already in the works..His was more of an events add-on.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

He has something similar already in the works..His was more of an events add-on.

That will be interesting to see when updates are made.

I like his addons a lot but I only really use one because the addons tend to take away from the core forum feature.

For some communities, like yours, it could be good but for a forum about forums, I feel like keeping everything on the forum as much as possible is the best idea.

 

[Tracy]

AMS has a neat feature that allows you to turn a discussion thread into an article... so it does have some benefits. You can then divide that article up into pages if there are different things being discussed in it. I haven't messed with that feature (thread -> article) yet.