Pros and Cons of Hidden Boards

[Stern]

Do you hide any boards from guests?

Yes. And from members. We have two boards which are hidden completely from members and guests alike, they are where we prepare our staff things. X- P And a handful of boards for yearly events and such. I'd rather hide them than have an inaccessible board, better if they're not just taking up space if you can't use them (But then, we already have a long site). But we don't have anything specifically hidden from guests just for the intent of being 'mysterious'.

What do you think about hidden boards convincing guests to register, or turning them away?

I hate them, personally, when I'm looking for a board to join. I'd rather be able to see what's going on!

[smileysjm]

I listened to all of you and have therefore opened my board slowly to guests.

[Axxell]

We have two boards hidden to our registered users and guests.

The 1st is a moderators/staff only board, where it's only accessible to the moderators.

The second is a privatized "guild only" board. My forum is based on a video game, and in it you can make your own guild, or "union", up to 20 members. We allow members who register who are from the same guild to "apply" (simply just ask the mods) to create a privatize board only accessible to their guild members and everyone on the mod staff team (so we can moderate any violations within their private section). However to apply, we have certain conditions they need to meet (e.g. minimum number of their guild members must be registered on the site to apply for one. Other registered members and guests who are not part of their guild don't even see their board in the forum.

[mmhmm]

Jul 27, 2015 21:43:27 GMT -8 smileysjm said:

I listened to all of you and have therefore opened my board slowly to guests.

Guests can read on our board but cannot post. That's worked well for us. We also have the post quarantine plug-in. We use that if we suspect a new member might be a troll, spammer, or an old poster who's been banned for bad behavior trying to get back in to do more damage. There's no way to stop all problems but doing what we've done keeps the worst at bay.

[Phear]

I've been a forum-goer for over 12 years, now, and any time I see a board that's closed to guests completely, it's an automatic close for me. I'm very picky about the communities I join, and I need to get a feel for a place. Not only the forum itself, but the people that are there, as well. It's important to mesh well with people, and if you don't, that is not going to be an enjoyable experience.

With that said, guests should under no circumstances be allowed to post - only read. If they wish to make their voice heard in a conversation, they have to earn it by registering for the community.

[Former Member]

On our forum, No guest posts and 1 board is hidden from guests that is the members map.

[Mixed]

On the forum I'm running now and another forum I was staff for (both RPG forums), we only had 1 board that was hidden to guests and it was also hidden from regular members as well; it is the staff board where we discuss the background type stuff - contests, tricky characters to place, etc.

For the forum I'm running, I've decided to open a board for guests to post (beyond the advertisement board). While all the other boards are closed to guests posting (but not viewing), this board gives them the chance to speak with members if they'd like before joining. I watch it carefully for those who may wish to abuse it. No problems yet, but at the same time, we are still very new.

I normally wouldn't join forums that have most of the content closed off from guests as I like to get a feel for the community prior to joining.

[Slain]

Hiding boards is fine to a point. If it's something you want guests to have to register for, then it's completely fine. With my forum, the only boards hidden are the game download and staff boards.
Hiding important info turns everyone away, and whats the point of hiding the entire forum? It turns everyone away not knowing what their in for. It's kind of pointless.
Along with the fact guests would only register to see things then never return.

[Gackt]

A small part of our forum is hidden. We have a few hosted geocaches that we only want forum members to know the coordinates of so that the general public do not go find and take them, just in the same way as other geocaching sites like terracaching.com or geocaching.com only let signed up members know their full geocache details.

For the main part though I have set out forum as open to view, as if I was to be looking for a forum to join I would want to peruse the content to see if it was of interest and that I would fit in with other members before signing up.

[Tix Mascot]

I have decided to mix the categories. All regular boards can be viewed by guest and most can be entered by them. But only members can participate in all the activities. I also have a secret chamber with several rooms. Each time a member ranks up, they gain access to a new level, where I have hidden bonuses and benefits as a reward for dedication and loyalty. I have aired this system in a debate thread and most of my member like it, since it favours frequent flyers and give them certain advantages that they think they rightfully deserve.