Cavechat.org

i have noticed that the number of guests perusing the board is almost always numbering in the hundreds versus the meager number of registered users and was just curious as to how many of us usually log in or usually just browse,i understand that the net is a huge and unorganized place but if we have this many guests coming and going would it not be benificial to add a pop-up message welcoming guests to the site and or encouraging registering with the site. Just an idea

i wanted to add a poll to this post but couldnt get it to go through for some reason if someone would add it in a response id appreciate it

do you log in when using the board?
yes
no
only when posting

I agree. I think we should make guests feel welcome. That they are able to make post with confidance, and that this is not only for members. They Should be Able to ask questions to the caving community and learn about what we do. (Assuming they are not cavers) This board is full of Experianced and Smart people, and all of us can offer a lot of info to Cavers, Non cavers and Expecially School Students that may need info on Caves and Karst for reports Etc. Some Guest May not feel welcome to post if they arent members I think a welcome popup would be a good Idea. Just a thought.

I log In All the time

the reason i ask for the most part is the huge untapped resource we have lapping at our feet, our society is hurting for membership and the idea of placing advertisements in certain periodicals has even came up in the past. With the hundreds of guests on the board at any one time the potential is huge especially if we could "rope em in" somehow.

It's hard to determine who the "guests" are and I'm sure it's a mixture of three groups: cavers and potential cavers who aren't NSS members, NSS members who like to read but not post and therefore don't register, robots that are pulling email addresses from posts (probably the smallest percentage of the group). The poll is a good idea. Let me see if I can add that to the first post.

Thanks to Scott McRae who noticed the large number of "guests" and suggested putting a "Join The NSS" link on the forum for those who might be interested in joining.

Personally, I hate pop-ups and saw traffic drop dramatically on a commercial Web site I work for when we went to pop-up advertisements. I can change the "Cave Softly" message in the bottom of browser window, however.

I would encourage anyone who wants to post a welcome message to potential NSS members to do so. Or maybe start a "Why I joined" or "Why I like the NSS" discussion???

thank you wayne, understandably pop-ups are a nuisance and quickly becoming a thing of the past with pop-up blockers becoming ever more popular,understandably the conversation is drifting into a technical discussion but is it possible to add code so that those browsing the board are first shown a transition page; ie who,what,where,when,why we are, with a countdown timerof a few seconds prior to getting to the main board?

Yeah, it's very possible to do that. I think you've got the best intentions but I would think it would be very annoying to those who visit the site every day, or several times a day. There are some other things that could be done that might accomplish the same thing without be too intrusive. Let me think about it a bit.

Another thing I thought of that I would suggest posters do is SPELL OUT acronyms for visitors and new cavers who may not be familiar with what the terms mean. I think this is especially important when publicizing events with acronyms instead of names.

Wayne Harrison wrote:Another thing I thought of that I would suggest posters do is SPELL OUT acronyms for visitors and new cavers who may not be familiar with what the terms mean. I think this is especially important when publicizing events with acronyms instead of names.

That's a very good point. I distinctly remember a conversation I had with someone when I first got into caving. I was amazed how long it went without me getting a single bit of comprehensible information.

HIM: Are you going to NRO?

ME: What's NRO? Does that stand for something?

HIM: You've never been to NRO? You gotta go. Did you go to Convention?

ME: Is NRO the convention?

HIM: Convention's Convention. Have you been to OTR?

ME: Is OTR the convention? That's gotta stand for something.

HIM: Everyone goes to OTR. Bruce Smith was there.

ME: Who's Bruce Smith?

HIM: You don't know who Bruce Smith is? He wrote On Rope.

ME: He couldn't find any paper?

Sean Ryan wrote:ME: He couldn't find any paper?

:lol:

Is Bruce's rope still safe to use? Which is worse for my rope, writing on it or leaving aluminum streaks? I always like to make a few notes when I stop to rest. Would hate for it to break off in the middle of a sentence.

Cheryl

Man, I can't believe you made me log in just to vote in this poll!

maybe you could have a banner on the page that entices the unregistered to register?

maybe this:
the first time you go to the DB page, it will take you to a diff. page first that says, welcome, join, etc. then, you have the option of turning it off and disabling it.

i know i found the DB via google.