In the quest of getting more members on your forum, it's very tempting to try out this technique and it some ways it does make a bit of sense. The problem is, when someone new comes to a forum and there are hardly many topics or replies, this is an instant put off. So, what forum owners do, is they stop the main page of the forum from being accessible to those that haven't registered. This is all in the hope that they users will decide to register and see what's behind the doors. Having people register before they get to see your forum is sometimes a good technique, sure. But the problem is, when people actually get through to see there's nothing there, they feel like they've wasted their time and they're off before you can even say hello them. So, leaving it open to them isn't exactly the best solution either. It's like the whole empty restaurant thing. Would you prefer to go in the busy restaurant, or the restaurant which has nobody in? Which restaurant is better just on this first impression? One suggestion I'd agree with making is decreasing the amount of forum in to say one or two, keeping it compact so it seems more than it is in terms of posts. Having many empty forums is like having a big house with a load of empty bedrooms. Stick everyone in one bedroom and it seems like a busy house! The general rule is, don't always look at the short term benefits, always take into consideration the long term effects.
Just to add my 2 cents... a lot of new forum administrators will actually pay people to post comments in an effort to build up the allure of being a busy forum But hey,... each forum has to start somewhere!
I just built my forum and was coming here to ask how to get visitors to sign up when I ran across this post. I have no members as of yet because I just finished it yesterday. I've got about 85 visitors and no sign ups. Maybe I should try that trick out and let them into the games and such but not into the forum until they join? If someone experienced could please visit my site and tell me what they would do to increase sign ups I would appreciate it. Log in with name- showcase , password-showcase. Also what would be a good or average ratio for visitors to sign ups for a new site?
I agree, there's nothing more off-putting than taking the time to register for a forum only to find complete inactivity. If people leave their forum openly viewable it stands a much better chance of building into a solid community. Just my 2 cents