Site Data Question: Guests

Feel like giving us a hand?
Post your suggestions here.
User avatar
prossett
UB Advanced Member
Posts:1055
Joined:21 Oct 2007, 1:09 pm
Vehicle:Honda Jazz
Location:Al Ain

Post by prossett » 21 Jan 2008, 10:48 pm

Just a question about the guests - can they access every area of the club forum same as logged-in members and the only difference is they can't post?

I've noticed there's a lot of people who cruise in and don't contribute. Personally, they are welcome to lurk only, but it would be nice to motivate them somehow to log in properly.

Hey, it's two days running we keep beating our "most users ever online"!!! 8) (Y)
Who was here?
In total there were 105 users online :: 50 registered users, 1 hidden user and 54 guests.
(This data is based on users active today)
Most users ever online was 106 on Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:47 pm

User avatar
Alpha
Adminstrator
Posts:6255
Joined:17 Apr 2006, 6:36 pm
Vehicle:RNN14 + JZZ31 + CT9A
Location:Dubai
Contact:

Post by Alpha » 21 Jan 2008, 11:59 pm

prossett wrote:Hey, it's two days running we keep beating our "most users ever online"!!! 8) (Y)
Who was here?
In total there were 105 users online :: 50 registered users, 1 hidden user and 54 guests.
(This data is based on users active today)
Most users ever online was 106 on Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:47 pm
And its still counting...
Most users ever online was 109 on Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:44 pm
Guests are only able to view and read all parts of the board except for "Race Stories" forum that are moderated and limited to Members only, for security and confidentiality reasons. Each post and topic are manually reviewed (for observation & reliability of information posted) and is approved before it is available for members to view.

We do not 'force' guests to register by making the board limited and private to members only. We were all once guests to this community before we decided to become a part of it :) That is what we aim and encourage - to be proud of being a part of the most reliable Emirates automotive enthusiasts community! (Y)

User avatar
prossett
UB Advanced Member
Posts:1055
Joined:21 Oct 2007, 1:09 pm
Vehicle:Honda Jazz
Location:Al Ain

Post by prossett » 22 Jan 2008, 8:28 am

Good philosophy! All are welcome, and we were all guests at one point.

I wonder, Sam, is it the same guests that keep coming back or is it constant new people cruising through? Are there stats that can tell you that info?

I suppose what I'm thinking is that if we can motivate the switch from someone who comes in regularly but doesn't feel he needs to register or log-in, into a regular member, our membership will almost double!

So I guess what guests can't do that's different from members is they can't post and they can't read the Race forum. They also don't become part of the community but stay on the outside looking in... hmmm...

Sam, what if we wrote a "Welcome Package" (I'll volunteer) that contains a welcome to the club, club policies, some nice pics, a who's who of the Moderators, stuff like that, and then it can get e-mailed automatically to new members with their "welcome e-mail" - and then we can tell all our guests that if they register they will receive this package for free...

That might motivate our regular guests to go that extra step and become full members.

Instead of "50 registered users, 1 hidden user and 54 guests" we might get "80 registered users, 1 hidden user and 24 guests"

Just thinking...

User avatar
Alpha
Adminstrator
Posts:6255
Joined:17 Apr 2006, 6:36 pm
Vehicle:RNN14 + JZZ31 + CT9A
Location:Dubai
Contact:

Post by Alpha » 22 Jan 2008, 10:56 pm

...Along with the package, we can also have a welcome message text displaying on the board index (to guests only) saying what they can/cannot do as a guest and what features they can enjoy by becoming a full member (attend meets, receive newsletters..) Good ideas there...
I wonder, Sam, is it the same guests that keep coming back or is it constant new people cruising through? Are there stats that can tell you that info?
There is no way our stats can tell that... There is only one way: by comparing IP addresses - and that change with every new connection-attempt to the internet.

Our current stats also show a number of new registrants daily, but they are not able to comply by our Account Activation policy by reading the activation email sent to them and clicking on the link to active their accounts. I am not sure of any specific reason for this but it can be from the email providers' side - emails from UAE Boost might be regarded as Junk and sent to the Junk folder that we don't usually check etc.

Nevertheless, the Welcome package is what we would work on from here on...

User avatar
prossett
UB Advanced Member
Posts:1055
Joined:21 Oct 2007, 1:09 pm
Vehicle:Honda Jazz
Location:Al Ain

Post by prossett » 24 Jan 2008, 8:07 am

OK, let's start it off - please add or re-arrange any topics and I'll write the first draft.

Member Welcome Package Contents:

Club Welcome (with link to New Member Intro thread)
Club Philosophy (community, safety, disclaimer, etc.)
Club Events (examples of past events)
Club Rules (hijacking, appropriateness, ban warnings)
Club Who’s Who (intro from Admin and Moderators)
How to Post Pics (instructions)
Club Sticker (for taking to print-shop or printing yourself)
Club Invitation Card (to print out and stick under tuned cars' wiper)
Club Invitation E-mail (to send to your friends so they can join, too)

What else?

We'll also need someone to format it nicely, maybe in Adobe Acrobat... I'll write it up, who can do the lay-out?

User avatar
Alpha
Adminstrator
Posts:6255
Joined:17 Apr 2006, 6:36 pm
Vehicle:RNN14 + JZZ31 + CT9A
Location:Dubai
Contact:

Post by Alpha » 25 Jan 2008, 10:28 pm

To help you out with some text...

Club Rules (hijacking, appropriateness, ban warnings):
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4079

How to Post Pics (instructions):
Either you can have your own tutorial or one done by Sparky explaining w/ screenshots and host -
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2151

Club Sticker (for taking to print-shop or printing yourself):
Club sticker will not be available to anyone to print privately. It will only be for sale through the board.

Club Invitation E-mail (to send to your friends so they can join, too):
Working on this right now. Similarly, I have introduced a Referral system. We can now keep track of how many new registrants are 'referred' to the website/board by existing members. The count will show in each member's profile, memberlist and on registration page for the guest to enter in the referrer's username.

Image

Edit: I will do the layout for the package.
Edit: Invitation system cannot be functional until the next supported release of the system. The date is unknown but we are already half-way through by our Referral system :)

User avatar
prossett
UB Advanced Member
Posts:1055
Joined:21 Oct 2007, 1:09 pm
Vehicle:Honda Jazz
Location:Al Ain

Post by prossett » 27 Jan 2008, 3:54 pm

First draft ready and sent to you by e-mail. (Y)

User avatar
Alpha
Adminstrator
Posts:6255
Joined:17 Apr 2006, 6:36 pm
Vehicle:RNN14 + JZZ31 + CT9A
Location:Dubai
Contact:

Post by Alpha » 27 Jan 2008, 9:30 pm

Excellent work there prossett! (Y) Very nicely done! I appreciate the contribution and all your effort put into it. Few edits and it's all-ready for our new members! :)

User avatar
prossett
UB Advanced Member
Posts:1055
Joined:21 Oct 2007, 1:09 pm
Vehicle:Honda Jazz
Location:Al Ain

Post by prossett » 27 Jan 2008, 9:33 pm

It's my pleasure - I've always been of the opinion that when everyone pitches in what they can, everybody benefits as a result! 8)



Post Reply