Brooke — Mon, 13 Nov 2000 16:05:10 +0000

I feel that the webmaster-forums are here to help people - to help each other. If someone needs help, why do they have to do reviews first? I know you are trying to get them involved in the forums, but they might not feel comfortable giving reviews.

Many of the people that come here are first time designers and just want to "listen" to what others have to say. They are here to learn and not necessarily to participate.

Even me, for example. I have been with the webmaster forums since the beginning. I don't have a ton of posts because I spend a lot of time just "listening" to what others have to say. That does not make me any less involved than those who post all of the time.

Just think about why the forums are here in the first place.

Brooke

Justin S — Sat, 11 Nov 2000 15:09:39 +0000

That's a great idea Megan! I will second that thought, and I'll try doing that when posting replies...

Megan — Fri, 10 Nov 2000 16:40:34 +0000

Well, I have tried to encourage some of the recent first time posters to participate elsewhere at TWF and it seems to have worked for at least two of them so far! I think that we should just try this route for a month or so and see how it goes. If we still have a lot of problems maybe then we can think about another course of action.

I think that the idea of allowing unregistered users to post could cause some problems. There must be good reasons why most forums require registration and I think that those should be taken into account.

[Edited by Megan Jack on Nov. 10, 2000 at 11:45 AM]

Mark Hensler — Fri, 10 Nov 2000 06:13:23 +0000

I like the idea of allowing unregistered visitors to post.
This will keep our posted number of members more accurate.

Justin S — Wed, 08 Nov 2000 20:56:15 +0000

We could always just let people post without registering. I've seen this done in other forums...

Chad Simper — Wed, 08 Nov 2000 20:29:50 +0000

I must say that I too like the encouragement to participate without setting any hard rules into place. Anat said it best I think.

If I were a newbie to the forum and I was actually required to provide input before people could give me input, the chances of me doing so would be slim.

I think we need to take a more encouraging approach by just making sure that users know that really can benefit from providing input on other sites before asking for input on their own.

How about a different type of set up?

Suzanne — Wed, 08 Nov 2000 19:51:48 +0000

Instead of having a cut off before they can participate, is it possible to have the Critique forum invisible for registered users under say 10 posts?

Or have a membership policy for that forum, so that people have to commit? It won't guarantee the one-post-wonders don't just drop their site off and leave, but it might encourage them to participate.

Or on the registration page (to sign up) have an important notice for newbies to please read over the existing reviews and add their input before posting their own site, so as to familiarize themselves with the types of responses they can expect, and to give back a little.

Of all the options I have read and suggested, I like the polite encouragement to contribute best, but that's probably my damned old Canadian ways.

Suzanne

JP Stones — Wed, 08 Nov 2000 09:41:44 +0000

I agree with anat.
JP

anat — Wed, 08 Nov 2000 07:09:29 +0000

I also think that bad reviews, made just to reach a quota are worse than no reviews.

I think that you should put some sort of announcement in the forum (administrator's announcement that stays for good). In it you should explain why we need people to review sites and why people shouldn't expect many reviews, if at all, unless they're active members in the forum). I believe that many of them may be newbies who simply aren't aware of the nature of the forums. You just need to let them know, that's all.

I also think that if you let people review the site of someone who's new to the forum, he'd be more likely to get active in the forums. Think about this: someone arrives at the web critique forum, all excited with his new site. He came because someone told him about this neat forum, where people give you feedback on your work. Then, the first thing he sees is that he's not actually allowed to post his site for review, until he carries out some task. I think most people would just leave.

Grandmaster — Tue, 07 Nov 2000 15:59:31 +0000

You don't need to be artistic to critique sites.
Tell the develope what you think, what you like and dislike. Load times and how it looks on your machine.
You dont need to ahve a college degree to do that.

So i think the 3 reviews thing is still a good idea.