Allowing guest posting

For years I've been against allow guest to post on the forums. Well I've had a change of heart and would I'm going to give limited guest posting. I'm allowing guest to post but they can't access things like profiles or add attachments. Has anyone ever done this before? Did you have any luck at all?

 

no, ive never done this before, but i would advise only letting guests post in one section, and making it so their posts have to be approved by a mod first, to cut down on spam

 

Yes all guest posts are thrown into the Moderation Queue before they are displayed to help prevent spam

 

I don't see the point with this. It makes more work for you by viewing the queue, interrupting the conversation by the queue, and such. It isn't hard to register. I don't get the point.

 

The point is to allow anonymous posting in the advice areas of the site. I've found over the years teens don't like to register fearing their parents will google their username. I did have one parent a year ago do this and contact me about things his daughter was posting. It's not for the whole forum. I guess I should have made that a little more clear in my first post.

 

That's interesting, I never thought it that way.

I'm AGAINST Guest posting.
I had a bad run of it originally when I started my forum and had heaps of spam. I allow guests to view posts etc... but to post, they must be registered. My site is alittle different as it deals with supporting and helping with their MP4 players so people come on the site to get help/support and ask questions so there isn't a great deal of "dangerouse underage" posts. So, for me, if a member really needs help, they will take the time to register and post a problem. Funny thing is, the first 2 weeks since moving to VB, I had a huge run of spam posted by spam bots. I had to tweak the registration page to stop the bots from posting. Other than that, everything is all good now with hardly any spam at all.

 

I now of a large forum that allows guest posting (300k members). I am not sure if it goes through inspection, but it's allowed and people use it. I ran across many posts that are by guests, they are mostly older posts from years back though.

 

No, I don't allow it.

 

I've never allowed guest posting. I figure if someone isn't willing to take two seconds to register then they aren't going to contribute to the my online community.

I'd rather weed out the people who are just looking to make a single post from those who are life long members/posters. It's saves me from deleting tens or even hundreds of spam posts.

 

Guests contribute a great deal to my community. I have a DIY section of a half dozen forums that allow guest posting. Unregistered guests can start and reply to their own threads only. They can't use search, uploads, downloads and a host of other features. But guests come to ask a question or two and then never come back. If I didn't allow them to post without the registration process, my forum would have thousands fewer posts.

Many of those guests have registered after posting. Visitors who are already familiar with forums life do register before posting. But my forum focus is not the realm of people who are comfortable in the Ether. Most of the users of my forum are in mid to late life and these kinds of things frustrate them. I try to make it as easy as possible.

All guest posting is moderated and even new member posts that use links are moderated. Todays modern forum software has a huge feature set that allows the forum owner and staff to configure their forum in many different ways. Not all forum users are after the same thing and don't all have the same technical ability. I try hard to make the right choices for my forum, which might not be the right choices for some other forum.

Jim

 

I've always held a similar mindset of not allowing guest to post but on my newest forum I do have one small section that guest can post.
This is heavily moderated and any spam is/should be removed asap.
I'm still testing things out but so far so good.

 

I think this is an exception to general policies about Guest Posting.

I support you on this. Mind you it will take more oversight.

I would recommend that you have reCaptcha set to use Guest posting or something to prevent easy spamming.

 

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Hi I am looking for websites in Finance / Business niche to where I can have published blog posts. I am interested to know the details of your offer. Please email me at [email protected]
I'll wait for your reply. Thank you.

Shin

 

I allow Guest posting in my forum.I get just a few over the two years I have allow guests to post.

In the ASK THE MODERATOR and the GUEST forum.They are under moderation to check for spam and nonsense.

It has been helpful for the rare time a forum member can not log in.Or to complete the registration process.

 

Why would you allow guest posting, surely you want them users to register.

 

As stated before, it makes it easier on middle aged folk who are not always up to speed on technology. The whole goal of a forum is to generate a conversation. It solely depends on the admin if they wish to sit-back and moderate posts. Personally, I see guest posting as a huge advantage for potential membership flow and often times people that search a question on Google will hit the back button for a different search result than registering on a forum.:2cents:

 

I have not tried this. I don't think it is something I would employ on my website...I feel it discourages guests to sign up if they feel they don't have to.