Allowing Guest Posting

Do you allow guests to be able to post on your forum? Whether in all sections or just a section available for guests which some forums do?

I never allowed guests to post, and its not a good thing to do as you are just making your forum more vulnerable to spam than it already is.

 

Allowing guests to post is asking for trouble. If you don't have good way to manage the guest's post people will spam the hell out of your forum.

 

Guest posting works well if you are having a blog but I don't think this is a good idea with a forum. As you said, this just might be an opening for spammy posts. Maybe the better way would to provide a way for outsiders to comment on a chat section but not on the forum itself.

 

Guest posting just seems like a way to say "Hey look guests, come spam this forum because you can!" So, I don't have it on my forum. However, I have seen forums with sections called 'Guest Chat' or have had threads in which guests could post. The Guest Chat seemed like a bad idea, but the guest thread seemed good since it could easily be moderated.

 

In the days where spam is always a problem, I always lock down guest posting, but should it have to be enabled, unfortunately they have to bare the brunt of post moderation

 

Oh yes good thing you bring up, if I did have a guest section, I would have the posts in that section moderated.

On a blog guest posting is just fine as blogs work much differently than forums.

 

Yea, otherwise your users may end up seeing a lot of rubbish, unless you have insane anti-spam measures

Blog commenting for guests is usually easier to deal with than forums and I've managed to keep them out with Askimet, SFS & also Re-Captcha, and should any go through they are send straight to the spam section. I guess it all depends on what software you use

 

I did allow this on a forum I had a while back which was a guest only section for any problems they had when registering, when people had registered this forum would then be out of view of registered members and only staff and guests could see it.

 

I do not allow guest posting, by allowing guest posting your just asking for forum spam. If some one is interested enough in your forum they will sign up to ask questions. And if they are having problems registering there is always the contact form.

 

Could'nt have put it better myself Soulwatcher

 

Yea I agree, a guest section or guest posting is completely useless while you are just making yourself more vulnerable to spam.

 

In the days of spambots, guest posting is just asking to get slammed with bot posts. I wouldn't advise guest posting on any part of a forum as it's not exactly that difficult to register an account.

 

I would allow a guest to post, lol trolling without a ban S:

 

Why would you allow a guest to troll without a ban? That would just make your community look bad. Personally, I don't see no point in allowing guests to post because it also, brings in spam bots. You don't want to waste your days trying to get rid of spam posts, now do you?

 

I have a guest section on the General Forum but all new threads and post are moderated. It hasn't been an issue so far, we've had this setup for a few months now.

 

that's good to know, but they are bound to find it at some point

 

The post are still in moderation, there will never be a spam post visible to the public.
The section is sort of hidden, but here it is if you want to see..lol

 

ahh I see, some forums usually have a guest section near their suggestions/feedback forum but as stated, in the age of spam bots, guest sections are pretty rare to find these days