Will making your forum private result in more Registrations?

[Zascar]

I notice that some message boards do not let you view some/all posts & forums unless you register. I was thinking of doing this one mine, but wanted to know what you guys think.

Are you more likely to attract new sign ups, or are people just going to not bother and more on.

What do you think?

[babyboy808]

I think it will definitely add more appeal if users think they're going to get more value and information out of it that is limited for private users. You will have to keep your end of the deal also and have some plan for special content or something like that though.

[Cormac]

If you make your site private how are search engines going to read the content in the threads? Each time they visit a thread they're going to be presented with a login/register prompt which is of little use to them.

If you wish to go ahead with a private forum, you should check for a mod which permits slurp!, googlebot, msn's thingy and all those others guys to read everything which a registered user can.

[Zascar]

Very good point Cormac, I'll check that out... I was thinking of only making a few of the forums private but you are right I will have to have something special content wise

[blacknight]

I'm a member of a couple of private forums which are by invite only. They're relatively active, but quite niche.

There are two private forums on this site that only more senior members have access to. I'm not sure how useful people find them, but they do have the distinct advantage of NOT being spiderable, so people can say whatever they want without worrying about Google et al indexing the content

[Forbairt]

To be honest I'd need a strong reason to join a forum ... not being able to view posts I would find annoying but I wouldn't join it just for that.

[bucks]

With my own one i leave the majority of it viewable to guests and this also has the advantage of search engines viewing it.

Only registered members can access the for sale sections, the reason for this is so that members will have first choice on items up for grabs + if guests really want to see those sections then they will join up.

If i went onto a forum that required me to join in order to view any of it then chances are i wouldnt bother with it..