Closed Communities

[livebyfaith]

Closed Community: where every forum is fully closed to guest viewing or partly closed to guest viewing.

Does the closed community work well? What is your thought?

I listen from both sides and to me I think a private / closed forum community might actually have some benefit over an open forum community.

I know of several private based forum community that are thriving.

[Lewiz]

Show the guests the forums but don't let them read the contents. It makes them all curious and then they join. Plus, they're getting rewarded for becoming a member. It's the way most forums operate. Registration in return for viewing. Win win.

[imported_Bones]

Lewiz has a point like maniacs site (gfxheaven) has that closed community thing set up........if im logged out or havent registered it shows what the parent threads are but it doesnt let you get into them

example:
i can see that small art is a parent group i click on it and it doesnt let me get in

idk cuz sometimes it could get pretty annoying like if someone posts a link to something in their and someone isnt a member they cant really see wut the other person is talkin about but i think alot of people might get curious like lewiz said

[Defy]

They should be aloud to view several forums, to be certain they want to join.

[imported_Bones]

They should be aloud to view several forums, to be certain they want to join.

hmmmm........maybe we can make it so they can just view the signature subforum but cant actually post?

[livebyfaith]

It might be worth a shot to have a partly closed community. But that might hurt SEO practices.

[Casio]

I agree with Defy about having access to atleast some part of the forums. Personally I used to check out the competition threads to see the calibre of the forum before actually joining or a general discussion thread to have a look at some of people's work in thier signatures. If I wasn't able to see that I wouldn't give it a second thought.

I see the registration process as an annoyance when "window shopping" for a graphics forum.

[Digital Fox]

We should block some of the major sub-boards, like limited tutorials, and SOTW. If guest's want to read tutorials, and submit SOTW, etc they gotta sign up! :]

[Stillsky]

I personally feel that closed off communities, unless it's for a private art group or some such, are a tad elitist and are more of a turn off than anything else. When you think about the fact that gfx forums are a dime a dozen, and have been for years, there's basically no content on a closed forum that I couldn't get at another open forum.

Besides, I shouldn't have to register at a forum to decide whether or not I want to be active there.