Almost Zero responses and Membership. What is wrong?

[rohan]

May 26, 2019 2:54:50 GMT -8 Radrook said:

May 26, 2019 0:16:10 GMT -8 rohan said:

You should make your general section accessible to guests on the main forum board.  You are probably not getting responses to the threads there because guests cannot access those directly from the main board.

I just found the permission for viewing general categories restricted to staff!!!!

I had recently gone through all my categories  providing everyone to have permission to view all categories and threads. So how this was wound up that way is a mystery to me. In any case, thanks for telling me so I could fixed it.  If the deep, total silence continues, then I will have to assume that there is another flaw involved. 

BTW
The stats were telling me that guests were viewing the general category.  As I checked the categories, to verify, I found the "Guests Viewing" message confirming that it was true. How do you explain that?

Make it Staff and Members only for posting threads, making posts and making polls. That way you can prevent guests from posting and they will have to register to post. 

That happened because it was view only. the rest was Everyone.

[Radrook]

May 26, 2019 3:04:22 GMT -8 rohan said:

May 26, 2019 2:54:50 GMT -8 Radrook said:

I just found the permission for viewing general categories restricted to staff!!!!

I had recently gone through all my categories  providing everyone to have permission to view all categories and threads. So how this was wound up that way is a mystery to me. In any case, thanks for telling me so I could fixed it.  If the deep, total silence continues, then I will have to assume that there is another flaw involved. 

BTW
The stats were telling me that guests were viewing the general category.  As I checked the categories, to verify, I found the "Guests Viewing" message confirming that it was true. How do you explain that?

Make it Staff and Members only for posting threads, making posts and making polls. That way you can prevent guests from posting and they will have to register to post. 

That happened because it was view only. the rest was Everyone.

Whenever I have required signing in in order to view the content, I immediately get zero views and zero guests. 
Now I get approx 150 totally silent guests per 24 hours. So between the twain, the latter seems more preferable.  

Questions:
What was view only?
What rest?
What everyone?

[rohan]

May 26, 2019 7:03:16 GMT -8 Radrook said:

May 26, 2019 3:04:22 GMT -8 rohan said:

Make it Staff and Members only for posting threads, making posts and making polls. That way you can prevent guests from posting and they will have to register to post. 

That happened because it was view only. the rest was Everyone.

Whenever I have required signing in in order to view the content, I immediately get zero views and zero guests. 
Now I get approx 150 totally silent guests per 24 hours. So between the twain, the latter seems more preferable.  

Questions:
What was view only?
What rest?
What everyone?

This guide will help you: support.proboards.com/thread/460242/creating-managing-categories-boards.

[Radrook]

In the previous response, please explain What you you meant by:


....view only?
....the rest?
....everyone?


You now claim that I am managing the categories improperly? How is that?
Also, the problem isn't that guests are posting. The problem is that they are NOT posting. 
So why should I try to prevent them from posting as you suggested?  

[rohan]

May 27, 2019 3:59:09 GMT -8 Radrook said:

In the previous response, please explain What you you meant by:


....view only?
....the rest?
....everyone?


You now claim that I am managing the categories improperly? How is that?
Also, the problem isn't that guests are posting. The problem is that they are NOT posting. 
So why should I try to prevent them from posting as you suggested?  

View only should be set to everyone. Earlier you had probably set it to Members & Staff only which is why Guests where unable to access the sections from the main page.


Everyone- The view section should be set to everyone.

If you allow guests to post they will not bother registering. You want them to register so if you disable guest posting, they will have to make an account in order to post.

[Interested Bob]

Visit your forum, but don't log in. Now you can see and do what a guest can see and do. Try to post, or view different sections of the forum, and see if guests can do what you want them to be able to do. If they can't, log in as Admin, correct your settings, log out, and try again as a guest. Better still, have two different browsers open, one with you logged in as Admin, the other with you not logged in, so you can check out the changes as a guest.

When you're happy with the way the forum works for guests, register a test account for yourself on your forum. Log out as Admin and log in using the test account. Now you can see and do what ordinary members can see and do. Check everything in the same way I described above, correct the settings if necessary, and check again, until it's how you want it.

It's that simple to see and test how your forum works for somebody other than the Admin. You'll learn next to nothing if you only ever visit your forum logged in as Admin.

Use a bit of imagination, logic, and common sense, and try to work out what you might be doing wrong before you shout for help. That's the quickest and best way to learn.

Unless you start thinking for yourself, you're going to find it very difficult to ever succeed as an Admin. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but that's the plain, simple truth, and there's no gentle way to say it.

[Radrook]

I reorganized it as recommended. Any other suggestions woud be appreciated.

varietygalore.boards.net

[kevinjs]

Personally, I’d get rid of the abiogenesis thing and concentrate on your original plan for bible study. It’s not immediately obvious who your forum is meant to attract. Atheists? What’s the point, when your position, and theirs, is set in stone, and the two positions are diametrically opposed to each other? You won’t have a debate; merely an argument. Christians? Far better things to concentrate on than something that’s entirely outside of Christianity, and should probably be dismissed as irrelevant by anyone who believes that the bible is a true account.

I’d suggest your first priority is deciding who your forum is pitched at, and devil’s advocacy can come later.

[Radrook]

Jun 5, 2019 4:19:21 GMT -8 kevinjs said:

Personally, I’d get rid of the abiogenesis thing and concentrate on your original plan for bible study. It’s not immediately obvious who your forum is meant to attract. Atheists? What’s the point, when your position, and theirs, is set in stone, and the two positions are diametrically opposed to each other? You won’t have a debate; merely an argument. Christians? Far better things to concentrate on than something that’s entirely outside of Christianity, and should probably be dismissed as irrelevant by anyone who believes that the bible is a true account.

I’d suggest your first priority is deciding who your forum is pitched at, and devil’s advocacy can come later.

Thanks for the feedback.

Please note that there are forums that offer variety of categories from which to choose.  At such forums vsitors are expected to choose the category they find interesting and ignore the ones they don't. To see one small section of the forum that they don't like and reject all the others is irrational and usually never happens. 

About abiogenesis, I do understand your viewpoint and respect your opinion. However, please note that a Christian is under a responsibility to defend the Genesis account of creation when challenged in manner that the abiogenesis idea constantly does. Whether atheists agree with that defense or don't agree with it is really irrelevant to that Christian obligation.

Acts 5:29 

27And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

[bigballofyarn]

Radrook

I do like that you changed your theme to colors that work better together. However, I don't completely like the gold. It seems out of place.

I fully support your decision to cover a wide variety of topics. Most general forums do that. However, I don't think all the sub-boards you have are necessary. I foresee you having veru few topics in every board. For example, your writing board could do very well as one board instead of three.

Do you think that the chess board will have enough content to warrant its own board, or do you think it would work better to have one board for all games?

I do appreciate your willingness to ask for and read through feedback. It's good to remain open to suggestions. Just remember that they are only suggestions. Never take anyone's feedback personally.

Because I know you appreciate Bible verses, you can always consider Philippians 4:13 when running your forum. "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength."

[Radrook]

Jun 5, 2019 8:51:34 GMT -8 bigballofyarn said:

Radrook

I do like that you changed your theme to colors that work better together. However, I don't completely like the gold. It seems out of place.

I fully support your decision to cover a wide variety of topics. Most general forums do that. However, I don't think all the sub-boards you have are necessary. I foresee you having veru few topics in every board. For example, your writing board could do very well as one board instead of three.

Do you think that the chess board will have enough content to warrant its own board, or do you think it would work better to have one board for all games?

I do appreciate your willingness to ask for and read through feedback. It's good to remain open to suggestions. Just remember that they are only suggestions. Never take anyone's feedback personally.

Because I know you appreciate Bible verses, you can always consider Philippians 4:13 when running your forum. "I can do all this through Him who gives me strength."

Thanks for the advice. I will certainly give it serious consideration. Yes, I know that they are suggestions and not meant as commandments.  The Bible says that in the abundance of counselors there is wisdom. That's the reason I seek advice and really wish that I had someone at the website as a moderator with which I could consult.   I did have a moderator on my first website but unfortunately she bailed out.   Maybe because nobody provided any feedback to her poetry except me. All the guests just read and left in silence just as they are doing now.  So to a certain degree-I don't blame her. 

About the yellow,  strange as it might seem, for some reason I find it attractive. Maybe because it gives the illusion of a stationary column when I scroll up and down. 

About the chessboard? Yes, content is no problem. The game is very deep and there are many nuances that can be discussed and illustrated. The reason it might seem otherwise is because guests visit, read, and leave in total silence.
On one of my other boards I dedicated a whole section to word games. same reaction-total silence. It reminds me of a saying that my father always repeated. 

"If that politician thinks he's going to get somewhere, he might get somwehere. But it sure as hell isn't going to be with my help!"   LOL!


BTW

Thanks for the biblical quote. The scripture you quoted was very helpful during a time of great difficulties many years ago when I first became a Christian.  Whenever I felt that my human endurance was faltering under temptation. I always repeated it to myself and eventually I felt in control once more..

[Radrook]

Bump

[Radrook]

May 26, 2019 3:04:22 GMT -8 rohan said:

May 26, 2019 2:54:50 GMT -8 Radrook said:

I just found the permission for viewing general categories restricted to staff!!!!

I had recently gone through all my categories  providing everyone to have permission to view all categories and threads. So how this was wound up that way is a mystery to me. In any case, thanks for telling me so I could fixed it.  If the deep, total silence continues, then I will have to assume that there is another flaw involved. 

BTW
The stats were telling me that guests were viewing the general category.  As I checked the categories, to verify, I found the "Guests Viewing" message confirming that it was true. How do you explain that?

Make it Staff and Members only for posting threads, making posts and making polls. That way you can prevent guests from posting and they will have to register to post. 

That happened because it was view only. the rest was Everyone.

I did as you recommended. View only and everything else to staff and members. 

[Radrook]

May 28, 2019 12:12:45 GMT -8 Interested Bob said:

Visit your forum, but don't log in. Now you can see and do what a guest can see and do. Try to post, or view different sections of the forum, and see if guests can do what you want them to be able to do. If they can't, log in as Admin, correct your settings, log out, and try again as a guest. Better still, have two different browsers open, one with you logged in as Admin, the other with you not logged in, so you can check out the changes as a guest.

When you're happy with the way the forum works for guests, register a test account for yourself on your forum. Log out as Admin and log in using the test account. Now you can see and do what ordinary members can see and do. Check everything in the same way I described above, correct the settings if necessary, and check again, until it's how you want it.

It's that simple to see and test how your forum works for somebody other than the Admin. You'll learn next to nothing if you only ever visit your forum logged in as Admin.

Use a bit of imagination, logic, and common sense, and try to work out what you might be doing wrong before you shout for help. That's the quickest and best way to learn.

Unless you start thinking for yourself, you're going to find it very difficult to ever succeed as an Admin. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but that's the plain, simple truth, and there's no gentle way to say it.

Thanks for the advice. I agree that the procedure you describe will be helpful. Please note that things that seem obvious to more experienced administrators and computor users will not seem as obvious to those who are learning. It's similar to playing chess, wat a master or expert readily and easily see is not that clear to a beginer.  Please also note that I am not hollering or shouting. I a merely requesting opinions in order to learn. Thanks for the feedback. 

[wildmaven]

You had 2 threads in this board leading to the same forum, so the two threads have been consolidated into this one.