Should I allow guests to post in my forum?

I recently had a suggestion from one of my forum members that I should allow guests to post. I'm not too sure about this. My points are that if a user wants to make a post enough then registering is not a great obstacle. Secondly i feel that having a user id creates more of a community feeling. On the other hand im sure the number of posts being made would increase (but maybe not of that high quality)

forum location: http://www.theafricangreyparrot.com/African-Grey-Parrot-Community-forum.html

What do you guys think?

Notting

 

NO! You're inviting a stream of link spammers. Let guests read the threads, absolutely. Let them create them? Absolutely not!

 

I agree with the above post. It’s really all about personal choice though. Enabling guests to post may increase your amount of posts, but as you said, it really doesn’t create that “community” type feeling that forum owners and members urge for. Besides dealing with spam, it could also become very hard to keep track of users that frequently post as a guest user.

 

I agree. On my forum spammers were quick to notice that they didn't need to register.

They're still pretty bad if registration doesn't have a good CAPTCHA. I had to install a better one on my phpBB forum (the default one is lousy) to get rid of spammers.

 

I totally agree. The best way is to require registering before posting.

 

Allowing visitors to post in your forum is like inviting spammers. But I think you can do it if you can moderate all posts at lightning speed.

 

If you do,your forum will get bombed by spammers soon!
You can give it a try,if the spammers won't spam you,I'll say you are a lucky guy!

 

The simple answer in today's world is NO, especially if you forum has been on the net for a while.

The spammers will just make life hell

 

I would say no, but you can always create a spam forum which guests have access to and where post count has no value so youre members can rage freely lol.

 

Allowing visitors to post is a good way of getting some posts and get a forum started (nobody registers and posts on a forum with ten threads !). Once you get let's say 5 threads in all your forums, you can ask for registration.
You will probably get some spam but not much, just keep checking from time to time and keep in mind that you are just launching the forum.

 

A captcha for guest posting would be nice, anybody know if there is one, and if so, for which forums?

 

I would even advice to put the captcha in the registration form. Because nowadays the latest forum spamming bots that are available the spammers are at large.

 

Dont allow the guests to post in the forum else be prepared for Spam

 

Shouldn't be a big problem when your site is very new.
But spammers find out soon enough and then you'll have to take care of a serious amount of spam.

You could do it if you have to approve every post before it's showed to other members. Seen that there are modifications that can do that.
But it'll also take a big amount of your time.

So the best advice has already been given I guess: Don't let them post

 

Thanks for all of your comments guys and gals.

I will not be allowing guests to post on my forum.

Notting

 

I recently got overrun with spam (www.massdebation.com), since the default captcha was junk, but this was the first time it's ever happened in close to two years, but I suppose it was just a bit of Murphy's Law since I'd just so happened to be away for 5 weeks.

Anyhow, I've installed a great mod for it (it's phpbb), on a recommendation from another forum owner who's a member, and so far so good. This mod's also got an extra question for guest posters, so I'm trying it out on my first forum section. I'll let you know how this goes. If it goes well enough, I'll permit guest posting throughout.

I think it's really more an issue of keeping the spam bots out, isn't it? Manual posts can always be taken care of easily enough by the moderators - but spam bots? They can make your life a living hell, can't they?

 

I don't want some registered members posting on my forum, let alone guests. You'd be inviting the world of spammers to post viagra and porn spam all over the place.

My advice when starting out is to put as many spam guards in place before you end up having to delete 10 spammer accounts a day.

 

a straigh no, even registered users has to be verified, guest posting just keep away.

 

Spammers will love your Forum

 

decision has been made not to allow guests to post. The forum doesnt get any spam at the moment - upgraded my version of smf recently which sorted out the problem.

Cheers everyone
Notting