Read only
Why is there not a read only facility for people who do not want to login or respond to comments?
The same reason as other forums, if they want to read then they sign up and they can then join in. Also stops bots that hunt forums just for contact details for spamming purposes. If you want it open, then you have to face the risk that spaming bots may get ur email address.
Since about 7 months ago, the forum was made so that non-registered/non logged-in users could read the forum for about 5 pages before being prompted to register. This gives potential members a taster of the site.
The changes also meant that search engines now have access to the site. My advice is therefore don't post email addresses in posts.
shaky
The Gentry (RIP)
Access to personal profiles is already password protected so would be unavailable to anybody who was not logged in, and how is a spamming bot going to obtain email addresses it would require access to the server and if that was available spamming would be the least of your problems.
It would be easy to restrict non logged in persons to read only, many forums do it, and it is not the same as opening full access. So why is a read only facility not available, is it a control issue?
Signing up makes you more willing to participate in a forum. As you probably know, it's quick and easy.
No it doesn't as I already know, in fact I would suggest that a read only facility may encourage drive by participants to sign up....so why is there not a read only facility, personally I cannot see a problem with it, and see some benefit.
brianherron
The Gentry (RIP)
The whole concept of this forum is to NOT have advertising but have 'patrons' - you can join as one if you so wish.
This is a forum advertisement😉
Not really true, as advertisements would appear on the landing page and advertisers would be interested in the number of hits on that, and their adverts, rather than the number of registered users, many of whom may visit the site infrequently.
Therefore in that event it would be beneficial to have read only as many more people would be inclined to read the posts in passing and go elsewhere if they had to sign up to do so.
Let's put it this way, for a fan forum for a medium sized club such preston, there are no other sites that compare to the average number of users.
While I agree with you that signing up can put people off, the limited read only access gives people a general idea what is what and forces them to sign-up if the site is right for them.
The issue is not about limiting read only access in order to provide some sort of advertisement, the main reason I would prefer a read only facility is for the most part there are very few subjects that I would contribute to, and having to log in to see tham is a pain, the original question was why is there no read only facility? and I am beginning to understand why....
shaky
The Gentry (RIP)
There are over 5000 members of this forum, I don't see what your problem is. 😱