Writing Before Registering - Did you see an increase for registrations/posts/activity? Poll included!

[sbj]

In XF 2.2 this neat feature was introduced. I assume enough time has past to make a review about this feature.

XF 2.2 - Writing before registering

Participation. It's the life blood of a forum, and once you have a group of dedicated members creating and discussing content, your forum will flourish. But there's a barrier to entry when it comes to participation. When a new visitor stumbles upon your forum from a search engine, they may read...

xenforo.com

For all boards that enabled this feature, did you see an increase for registrations or posts or activity in general?

You can select up to 3 choices.

Please vote if you have/had this enabled on your boards.

 

[Ozzy47]

Interesting poll, will be waiting to see the results.

 

[Old Nick]

Option not activated, I put myself in the visitors' shoes ... if I write a long message in a discussion as a guest and when I post it I suddenly have an obligation to register I would find it frustrating and even dishonest...

Either the forum allows me to write as a guest or it doesn't. It must be clear!

 

[sbj]

@nicodak
Thanks for the feedback.

Just for everyone's information, I did not include the option of "not activated" to the poll because I am interested about the experience where it was activated. That is the interesting part. Having it not activated gives no new data, as it is "just as it was before".

 

[ichpen]

Is there a way to tell if someone registered as a direct result of this?

 

[sbj]

Is there a way to tell if someone registered as a direct result of this?

Good question. I assume there is no direct stats about this sadly.

But what you can do is to look in ACP stats about your averages before activation and after activation.

Say if you averaged 50 registrations per week until October 10th, then activated, and then afterwards 60 registrations per week since then, it means there is a slight increase.

So you would have to know when you enabled this feature. Or you check your posts/threads/logins/registrations stats and see if all of them have a matching increase/decrease in the last months to figure out the time you activated it. At worst, this feature was introduced in June 20, so your activation period can't be that long ago, probably during the last 6 months.

 

[Old Nick]

It will be difficult to measure the impact of this feature on registrations because even if a visitor registers because he is obliged to do so if he wants his message to be posted, it is not necessarily a member who will be active and maybe you will never see him again. If he had really wanted to register on your forum, he would have done so before posting. So maybe this functionality increases, but it's not even certain, registrations but most of them will be without follow-up and therefore not beneficial for the forum, if not for the statistics ...

The real question is how many members who signed up through this feature became active members?

Sorry for the slight off topic.

 

[djbaxter]

Option not activated, I put myself in the visitors' shoes ... if I write a long message in a discussion as a guest and when I post it I suddenly have an obligation to register I would find it frustrating and even dishonest...

Either the forum allows me to write as a guest or it doesn't. It must be clear!

Same here, (1) for that reason and (2) because I don't like the idea of unregistered guests posting. If they want to post, they can register first and then post. Not a feature I am ever going to use.

 

[sbj]

It is okay @nicodak , I don't mind side discussions. Any post bumps this thread so it helps gaining exposure so we might get more votes.

Yes registrations does not mean activity like you explain. You are right, but don't underestimate registrations either.

I want to quote myself from another thread:

Thirdly, having them registered means in future it will be much more easier to turn them into active users. One hurdle is overcome already. So they will be more inclined to write a post. Now I can send mass e-mails (like weekly digest) and automatic private conversations after successful registrations to welcome them and introduce stuff. Now one can make use of usergroup promotions and maybe some hidden content will be usable for them.

So, even if they don't participate afterwards, now they are in the registered usergroup and you can use that for your advantage like weekly digest or welcome PMs.

In addition, don't forget they already posted at least once, as this feature is all about that. So, it automatically introduced them how easy it is to post whereas normally unregistered guests might not be inclined because how "complex" it can be to post.

And one more important thing. Registrations can be used as a metric to see if you are doing it right or not. It doesn't matter if they get active afterwards at first. What matters at first is they decided your site offers some sort of value or platform so they decided to register. If your registration numbers are gained organically (not by manipulating the database or through bots/spammers or by having an old board), you can use that as a guide for your success.
Nobody likes empty boards with low amount of registered users and logged in users. Each registration also counts as a log in, so you can make your board look like active by displaying "last active 24 hours widget". A registration counts as activity and shows some people were online. It helps people seeing that your board has some value.

and (2) because I don't like the idea of unregistered guests posting.

But I think you misunderstand. The whole idea of this feature is that after posting it makes them registered. It is the same as if someone registered before and then posted. It is just the other way around, they first post and then register. In both cases the post is attributed to a user account.

 

[Old Nick]

You present it in a way I never imagined, what you say makes sense once you take the first step. Currently on my forum visitors have the right to post without registration, the forum is young and therefore all contributions are good to take. Maybe later, when the forum has reached its cruising speed, I will think again about this option but for the moment it is not relevant.

 

[l3ta]

We had two new members who registered after using the feature, so it definitely helped.

 

[Mr Lucky]

We had two new members who registered after using the feature, so it definitely helped.

How do you tell when they have used that feature?

 

[Anatoliy]

I turned it off as soon as I noticed that google started to crawl 'reply' links. I don't think that feeding google with duplicates of every single post but with different urls is a good idea.

 

[l3ta]

How do you tell when they have used that feature?

The guest posts show up in the approval queue.

 

[Old Nick]

The guest posts show up in the approval queue.

Wow! not only do they have the surprise of having to register once their message is written and in addition their message is awaiting validation? It's all really welcoming!

 

[l3ta]

Wow! not only do they have the surprise of having to register once their message is written and in addition their message is awaiting validation? It's all really welcoming!

 

[Wildcat Media]

Same here, (1) for that reason and (2) because I don't like the idea of unregistered guests posting. If they want to post, they can register first and then post. Not a feature I am ever going to use.

Same here as well--I find it disingenuous to compose a post, thinking there's no registration requirement, then get asked to register after the fact and hope that my message is still intact. I've had it happen on a couple of sites in the past (not XF), where the post I'd written was lost completely...at which point I gave up and never returned. Left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don't want to subject visitors to that experience.

On top of it, we moderate all new posts from members, so they won't get instant gratification anyways.

 

[sbj]

I find it disingenuous to compose a post, thinking there's no registration requirement, then get asked to register after the fact and hope that my message is still intact.

Hmmm... I don't know about that kind of view. I find it disingenuous that 99% forums/sites make money off of people's back by using their content and clicks. Most sites have tons of ads and other monetization ways like adsense and user upgrades. That is okay and not disingenuous because it's free money for your sites? Or did you guys ask every guest or registered member for consent that you make money through their clicks?

But God forbid they actually have to register on the site to post which is done by their choice and is for free. It's not like you trap them in a contract where they have to pay you monthly a fee. You just got their e-mail address and a +1 count for registration, what a big deal. But sure, I see the point.

 

[Wildcat Media]

My point is more the wasted effort of composing a post and having it discarded, or only then having to find out I have to jump through hoops to register. I prefer the up-front honesty of being told I need to register before contributing. There are still a couple of places that let you post as a guest, even if the posts are moderated beforehand. (They are commenting systems, not forums.) And I can deal with that. But I've also encountered a couple that claimed to let you post as a guest, then jumped to a register page when going to submit it.

 

[sbj]

My point is more the wasted effort of composing a post and having it discarded,

That is not a valid point in XF's case because the post is not discarded and it goes through. Otherwise nobody ever would turn on such a feature on their site of course.

or only then having to find out I have to jump through hoops to register.

But yes, this point is valid and I understand. But sometimes you have to push people in a direction as most people are lazy. I see it that way. Of course as long as one doesn't abuse that in some sort of way, which a simple registration, by their choice by the way, is not.

I will test this feature when I am on 2.2. So, I can't speak from experience yet.