Forum Visibility

[Bald Eagle]

I only see 2 forums if I'm not logged in. Any reason for this? New comers may think that's all there is and not bother registering.

[Fuseball]

I agree. It threw me at first. Thankfully I recognised a couple names and figured that it was worth registering.

[chysn]

I only see 2 forums if I'm not logged in. Any reason for this? New comers may think that's all there is and not bother registering.

Well, the visibility was sort of patterned after dsiforum, in which you can't read anything unless you're registered and logged in. And then I further added visibility to the Meta Forum and DSI News/Speculation because I thought those were sort of key.

But I see your point. It should be either all or nothing so that newcomers aren't confused. The dsiforum used to allow non-members to read everything, and that was changed when the forum software was updated. And I guess that was maybe kind of annoying. So I think I'm going to make everything visible to everyone, and allow members the ability to post and respond.

Is there actually a compelling case for requiring membership for reading the content? If anyone thinks so, I'd like to hear the rationale.

[Sacred Synthesis]

I imagine it's meant to persuade people to join a forum so they can read what they couldn't otherwise.

[chysn]

I imagine it's meant to persuade people to join a forum so they can read what they couldn't otherwise.

Sure, that makes sense. If membership count has some sort of marketing impact, or other significance, that could be a thing. But I don't really care. Nobody's going to visit this forum unless they have some interest in DSI synths, and I'm not selling anything; so I say, let everyone read it and register if they want to contribute.

Search indexing could be another issue. Google doesn't have an account, so forum contents wouldn't be indexed unless they're public.

I think that if I'm going to make a noob mistake, it's going to be a mistake in favor of open information. If any unforeseen problems arise, I can always change it.

[Bald Eagle]

No reason to restrict reading, no harm in reading. Please open it up to attract more participants. I don't see DSI doing anything to make an official forum so this will likely be the one going forward. Their only statement has been that they are a small company and its not their site. Is there any way we can help out? Let us know.

For a better domain name maybe something like dsi-synths, dsi-forums, dsiforums. Maybe work with DSI and get something semi official going. Korg hosts the unofficial korg forums site on their servers.

[dslsynth]

My impression is that it was the repeated spammer attacks on the original forum that made the forum closed. If the posts cannot be visible for anyone except registered users the value of the spammer posts are much less. Anyway this is how I understood the changes the hidden administrator on the original forum did when they happened quite some time ago.

Personally I don't mind the forum being partly closed though its more convenient when its not. There are good arguments for not having all discussions completely in the public. At least that is what I can see a value in.