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What a shame.....

PostPosted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:47 am
by Paul
Here it is almost April and so far there has only been one posting ....and that was by Anthony.... for 2008. What a shame. This forum has always been a wealth of information and hopefully it will return to it's past glory.

Truly A Shame, But Possibly Self-inflicted

PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:03 pm
by Rick&Leah
I discovered CaribLine in 2001 when visiting St Lucia, and have been a fan since, following St Lucia, St Martin, and USVI. Originally the boards were lively, heavily-used, free-wheeling, and sometimes overly raucous and nasty--but very busy. While I've mentioned this to Anthony directly, I think here's no question that requiring registration for postings has killed the St Martin and St Lucia boards. Note that I posted last summer here after my last visit as a way of priming the pump, and Bobcat is/was still around, but the cost of civility and accountability (the log-in) has clearly been the quantity of postings. USVI (particular St John) now seem to dominate, and that's where we go both to read and vacation. Anthony, Maybe it might be worth reconsidering the log-in requirement to see if that would help, but I fear once folks leave they don't come back (I haven't checked this board myself in months.) Rick&Leah

PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:49 am
by Anthony
Hi guys -
I take your suggestions seriously and I am glad to have the feedback, but can you show me one currently successful forum that doesn't require registration in this day and age? I don't know of any -

Also - the spammers out there would overwhelm me in a single day if you could post here without registration. There is simply no way that I could see opening this thing up. The only chance is to use a "CAPTCHA" but those are all beaten by spammers anyway eventually, and then you spend your whole day deleting spam again...

We keep thinking and trying - if you have other ideas I am keen to hear them.

Thanks!

Perks for registering

PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:48 am
by DineSXM
Personally, I don't see the registration requirement as a big hurdle. However, note that two of the more popular SXM forums allow anonymous posts (TTOL and GoBeach). One with and one without captcha.

I'm a regular contributor to both forums, and DineSXM is a sponsor of TTOL.

They also have multiple moderators who delete spam on sight, maybe this is something you could look at?

If you do not want to go that route, you might have to start "bribing" visitors into registering... Make the ads disappear for registered users, implement a community driven kudos or bonus system for answering questions and posting quality content... Or you could look into an OpenID type of solution, but I doubt that your audience would have pre-existing id's. Also, you'd have to relinquish control over your registration data.

On a tangent: to be honest, I'm a bit put off by the sheer volume of advertising on your site. It cheapens the experience and distracts from the quality of your information. It probably has a negative effect on your readership, and may also adversely impact registration levels.

More related to the original topic, a site we launched in early 2008 - DineSXM.com - requires registration to access some advanced features; I notice the same type of hesitation when it comes to visitors' willingness to register on our St. Martin / St. Maarten dining guide. I'd be very interested in finding out how you plan to tackle this issue, a similar solution might work for us too...

Norbert - DineSXM
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