Does Auszcar Need A Private Forum for Members?

[gav240z]

Is it possible to limit the trolling access of an IP to a couple of hours?

Can the sign up page link/direct the new member straight to the Intro section?  Or to a page first that welcomes them and includes a guide to writing an Intro?

Can there be some sort of block on posting before an Intro is posted?

I have no idea what your on about with the first point, but I can't really limit IP address access from guests because that would block important "trolls" such as the Google bot crawler that indexes the site and makes it findable in Google search results .

Your second suggestion is something that's been on my mind for a while. Improving the sign up flow, to be honest the forum software like most package forum software doesn't lend itself too well to customisations. Notice how I always blame the software? On a serious note though I should be able to find the language files that are used when people sign up and hopefully change the welcome email to provide a good starting place for new members.

This welcome email could provide 5 or so quick points for joining our site like 1. It's a good idea to write an intro post. 2. Don't talk about sheds. 3... etc... .

I could limit newbies to the intro section, but I think a welcome email might be the best solution.

Yer, sorry bout that 

LOL when I had food poisoning a month or 2 ago I felt dreadful. Damn shell fish, never again. I couldn't even use a computer.

From observation I can say that "sniping" didn't change very much... Instead there has been an influx of useless posting to boost up post counts.

Agree, and I imagine it wouldn't change much at all really.

On the bright side the catalyst for this discussion turns out the person who bought the item really did need it and has now become more active so there you go.

At the end of the day if you want to sell something privately you can always contact people in the club you know and offer it to them first. Many clubs do this to prevent those pesky 16 year olds buying their pride and joy and driving it into a tree lol...

[gav240z]

If i am out working on the car and i think "i need some info, i know its on the site" then i'll come in, have a look, a bit of a read and go back out.
Quite often i dont even log on when doing that.
likewise if im researching something instead of doing my real job, i dont log on unless i need to.

Im sure im not the only person who does that, so i ask, consider how many 'guests' are just like that?

Actually I'm a bit more clever with how I measure members vs guests. When visitors on the forum sign into the site a cookie is dropped on their machine with a 2 year expiry date. (After 2 years it gets deleted automatically). This cookie tells my Web Analytics tool that the visitor is a member. So even if you don't log into the site in later visits those visits are still attributed to a member.

Basically you have to have logged in at least once within the last 2 years to be counted as a member. If you delete cookies then obviously you get counted as a guest again.

So using this form of measurement I can see a definite 1/3 split between members and guests. 2/3 of visitors to the site are guests.

I also want to stress I don't use any cookies to "spy" on users, rather I collect this information in aggregate.

[gav240z]

Just to show you guys what I'm on about.

You can see total-visits.png is showing all visits to the site in the given date range. This is about ~35,000 visits p/month.

Visits from people who have signed in, in the last 2 years is ~11,000 visits p/month.

So actually less than 1/3 is the total number of people who have signed in. Lots of guests, lurkers, trolls whatever you want to call them .

You may think, well that's because lots of people outside of Australia visit the site, but in actual fact the majority of those 35,000 visits come from within Australia. So potential members.

I hope this also shows that I collect the data in aggregate / anonymous fashion.

[Whittie]

I have mentioned before and would support a "Minimum Post Count" before access to write in the classifieds. IE: Free to browse and PM, but not to post wanted or for sale posts.

This works well on other forums, I can't see why it wouldn't here

[gav240z]

I have mentioned before and would support a "Minimum Post Count" before access to write in the classifieds. IE: Free to browse and PM, but not to post wanted or for sale posts.

This works well on other forums, I can't see why it wouldn't here

I don't actually mind if people register to sell parts or cars, since it's better it goes on here than eBay in my opinion. Everyone wins, but in the past I haven't actually worded the rules that way, so it will need some revision.

We can restrict people posting in the classifieds, but the problem here was not posting but rather someone viewed the classified and got the deal.  I could block the classifieds to guests, but I think having them open is good as not everyone is a member who wants to buy a Z and the classifieds should get as many views as possible.

[perrin_07]

i liked the idea of selling things first in a private section(if time isnt of the essence) and then allowing it to go to main forum after a few days. It gives the real commited guys to this site the first dibs they should be entitled to.

Also, do we have a "Verified Trader/seller" option to add to our avatar part? That plays a large part for me when buying things in another site i go on(car audio) .

steve

[MaygZ]

Also, do we have a "Verified Trader/seller" option to add to our avatar part? That plays a large part for me when buying things in another site i go on(car audio) .

I guess that was what Khama (sorry about the dirty word) was all about   

[Brabham]

I do not think we should try to exclude people. The more the merrier. If people come on to buy or sell that benefits everyone as it means someone may buy your part or offer up some hard-to-find rarity. We should be encouraging people and not trying to scare people off as it may kill the site.

It is frustrating if one time posters snap up things that should probably go to members who contribute advice, financially, helping others out etc but I think the negatives from trying to exclude people would vastly outweigh the positives.

[xa1973]

I do not think we should try to exclude people. The more the merrier. If people come on to buy or sell that benefits everyone as it means someone may buy your part or offer up some hard-to-find rarity. We should be encouraging people and not trying to scare people off as it may kill the site.

It is frustrating if one time posters snap up things that should probably go to members who contribute advice, financially, helping others out etc but I think the negatives from trying to exclude people would vastly outweigh the positives.

This is probably the shortest, most direct and valid response I read.......
I have limited free time these days due to my work schedule, but I always log on and have a look and a read......
Pocket Trader, Quokka, Auto Trader. Classifieds in any paper...no membership required..you want to sell... you sell, you want to buy... you buy
Ghosts..... one thing I have noticed however is that many members seem to have vanished or are just not active anymore....people come and people go... lets not become elitist

[Lurch]

We're Zed owners - of course we are Elitist!

[luvemfast]

We're Zed owners - of course we are Elitist!

Lol
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