I mean, at most registering takes all of 10 minutes to complete. It would mean no more (or severely limited) "You guys suck and I'm invisible!" complaint posting, and no more spam. Plus we can keep track of population easily this way.

Are there any major reasons why guest posting is still enabled?

sometimes a guest will come along and post something intresting or worthwhile

any other reasons are not really known to me  :-/

And some spam is posted by people who have registered, so it is not a real failsafe.

Willeke

I was actually a guest for several months until the registration process finally let me become a full member. If you go back far enough, say, to about april or may of 2004, you'll see posts from a guest called Mammothunter." That was me, and I like to think maybe I posted some worthwhile stuff, but I was so excited the day I was able to officially register and become a legitimate member! I tried registering several times before it worked for some reason. but it was worth the wait, let me tell you.

I haven't had any problems with registration, and I think eventually we will reach a point where there can only be members postiong on this forum as we grow as a group.  Changes always takes time to get used to but they are inevitable.  Mammothunter certainly did contribute to us as a guest but a lot of guests have shown us disrespect too!

Registered posting have my vote.

i don't see any point in gest posting, because it really dosen't take more than 3 min to register, and when you are registered it's easier to keep track of new posts...


EDIT: what really hit my nerve is a true spamm - the comercial one.
we have had 2-3 such topics very recently, so i am fully for no-guest-posting.

I think I might not pay as much attention as others here. I havn't seen any spam...

Undserstanding that there might be more than I see allow me to point one or two things I believe guest posting promotes.

It would seem that someone who casually visits this site can grow more attatched to it if they are allowed to have a say in  the discussion. I myself refrianed from becoming a member because I wanted to know how strong my interest was before I commited on any level.

It would also appear that we are open to criticism, and new opinions if someone were able to have a say without becoming a memeber.

Agian I understand I might not have the complete picture, but those to points immediatly come to mind

-Unsapien

I have just finnished reading this thread:

http://www.slinging.org/forum2/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=admin;action=display;num=1148519087;start=

Now I understand what all the concern was about.

I am however very glad it happend! It illustrates, to me at least, the ability for people of this forum to respond to criticism. I am actually rather proud, perhaps boarding on pomp of peoples ability to discuss a issue here.

Techstuff's two cents were particularly good. I was smiling as I read community members responses (rational ones at that) and burst out laughing when he posted his.

When it is all said and done I don't see how this is an overwhelming problem. It seems that the active community can handle a few undesirable comments just fine.

Nicely handled guys!

-Unsapien

I for one do not like a forum where you need to register before you can post, I have resisted registering on a knotforum for months just because of that, and I hardly go there to read the new posts too. (While I check in here and the 2 other knot forums at least twice a day when home.)
So I rather delete a few spam messages and ignore stupid posters with no manners than lock the forum.
But some days we get spam form many sources and a lot of it too. Those days I would like some sort of controle, but still not to lock the forum from guest posting.

Willeke