Can i ask why? I dont understand the need or for that matter what makes it better knowing that those reading it are strangers who registered vs strangers who just stop by. The one thing i hated about the other place was the whole "you have to be 'this' cool to enter 'this' section".

Still don't get that "visitor message" thing. When I log out and browse as guest, where exactly do I get to those messages, you speak of?

I kinda see where Liat is coming from. We might discuss some stuff on the "Crap Shoot", that is be quite private. So we could move "Photos and Artwork" to the media section and make the "Crap Shoot" members only. But I'm partial on that myself.

It's not like we talk about top secret topics, or private issues (YET). It just the whole feeling of "exposeness" by everyone who just happened to drop by (yep, I know this word doesn't exist. Yep, I know anyone can register). I mean, even our profile is open to everyone.

Doomchild wrote:

Still don't get that "visitor message" thing. When I log out and browse as guest, where exactly do I get to those messages, you speak of?.

-Log off
-click on someone's username - it will get you to his profile
-click on visitor message

i still dont understand what makes it different if some random person strolls by and reads it, or some random person comes by, is forced to register, registers, reads it, and leaves. how does that give peace of mind knowing that he was registered instead of just a guest? theres no difference, that person is still a stranger. the fact that they have a username means nothing. i want to keep the media section the way it is, nothing more nothing less.

I know the privacy thing is dumb /c everyone can register. I know what we had before is a false feeling of privacy. I guess it's a psychological thing. I can get use to it.
It's comfortable to check new posts w/o logging in.

Daniel,
I think I get the visitor message thing - That's for ppl who don't register or don't want to log in, but want to leave a message to one of the members - I think .
I'll have a few tests to see if anyone can read it.

Edit: I tried leaving messages w/o logging in - that's impossible. I guess I don't get the messages by visitors thing.
-log off
-go to statistics
There's a messages by visitors or something like that.
What's it for?

i get what youre saying, i just dont understand how it actually gives a sense of privacy when all it requires is a simple login. a certain post amount requirement i can understand cuz that gives you a chance to get to know ppl before them seeing your more private conversations, but just to simply login doesnt make sense to me, i still feel just as violated

but i went and made just the crap shoot forum (not the whole section) member only. so it wont show up on the main page unless youre logged in. let me know your thoughts. as far as making the whole thing member only, i dont want to do that, but just the single forum, i can deal with.

Thanks.
As I've said it's mainly a psychological thing. I (think I) know most ppl won't register to a place just to snoop around if they happen to get there. Most users will only register if they tend for something more than a casual thing (I think).

I think all Dax related should stay open to all.
I know I came across SC a few times in the past but didn't want to register. It took me a lot of time to decide to join in.

the other problem with keeping things like that hidden, is its more than likely going to be the most active forum, and having that hidden from the casual walker by, they may look around and go 'this place is dead' and leave. but if they see a bunch of goofy shit, or interesting topics/debates (that would all probably be in the crap shoot) then they might be more inclined to join and dive in to the topics. how many people show up to a place like here or sc just for the boots? how many of them stick around? if they look around and see nothing interesting going on they probably wont bother to register. and i dont agree with making everything require registration. damned if ya do i guess.

That's a good point.

right now its not an issue anyway since theres no traffic. but someday later we may revisit the subject. for now we will keep it like this.

I went back and refined the privacy settings. Guests will not be able to access user profiles or see any user data in posts other than username, av, gender and location. On the member list only usernames and last visit is visible for guests. The pm button is there, but people will have to sign up to be able to use it.
I deactivated "visitor messages" and "comments", because I think, it's more communicative, if we make our own attention whores threads.

If there are any objections, please comment!

how'd you get "right hand man" below your name?