It's annoying

[downtownguy]

What is your logic on requiring registration? If it's to somehow help the site pay for itself, I don't mind. But if it's simply to better track visitors, it seems to me it may actually turn people away. Further, it's a hassle for times like tonight, when I had to register again and find my old 7-8 digit password. Once registered, I tried to visit your new thread, off topic, and was informed I couldn't enter without a sponsor... I tried to figure out what this is all about, but quite frankly, it's a waste of my time.

Just tell me, what is your intention here?

I know, I'm always complaining.... I love this site, and no offense is meant.

[Todd]

downtownguy,

After tracking the stats on the board for several months it was clear that we had a very good core of dedicated contributors to the site (including you). It seemed unfair to the people that contribute to have guest spend hours looking through the site and benefiting from the information and entertainment with no investment in time or effort. After reviewing the stats I decided to implement the new system.

The system allows a guest to view the forums and view the topics they just can't view the threads. If a guest has their interest peaked enough they'll register. Within 24 hours of making the change we've had over 10 new registrations. In addition the number of unique users per day has risen by almost 50%. The goal was to hopefully nudge people into registering and getting involved not frustrating our valuable contributors.

[downtownguy]

I'm not sure if any of us felt slighted by those just reading... but... if you think this is the right direction, I wish you best. I've seen these boards rise and fall, and the community you've successfully built here is a very fragile thing. It's a credit to you that it is what it is. But once upon a time, there was another forum that I'm sure you've been told about that was building up quite a bit of members, and it's forum administrator, according to many, tampered with it too much and it is now an online corpse reduced to two members and a handful of spammers.

You've done a wonderful job with this board, and I appreciate all your hard work.