«

[The Fifth Horseman]

Don't worry, nothing dangerous. No blocking anyone.

We see frequently people entering the forum and asking "WHO DO U DOWNDLOD?" or "I can't run it on XP!!!".

Most of the people who do that are, quite obviously, guest accounts.

So, I came up with an idea:

When someone attempts to enter the forum without being logged in, they are presented with a helpful page, welcoming them to the forum and asking them what their business is.
Possibly three links after that: "I have a problem running a game", "I can't download a game" "Neither of the above". Third would activate only after about 30 seconds of the page being opened (you know why... impatient ten-year-olds come to mind).
Now, the first would come up with some info about DosBox and the basics of operating it (including links to appropriate portions of the DosBox FAQ and Troubleshooting forum and a link at the bottom "I've tried all of these, but still have problems"), the second with an explanation why some games are not for download (ESA, still sold etc), while the third would send the reader to his initial destination (forum main page or a specified thread) Not too complex, I hope, while at the same time it would reduce the amount of "not work on XP" and "why no download" posts by a large amount.

[Grinder]

Sounds reasonble, but it might scare off those that could become valuable members.

[Quintopotere]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Grinder @ Jun 23 2006, 03:01 PM) [snapback]239133[/snapback]</div>

Sounds reasonble, but it might scare off those that could become valuable members.
[/b]

That's right!

It sounds a good idea... but maybe 30 seconds waiting are too much time...

[DonCorleone]

I would think that´s quite a great idea. I don´t think that it would scare off new possible members. In contrary it would motivate them to register as soon as possible. Just because this "welcome" page would begin to become annoying.
And the basic point of the idea - reducing always repeating questions on how to download a game etc - seems to be a very good idea to me....

[guesst]

They could always click, you know. Zip straight there.

Still, I think this suggestion is better suited for the main page. Somewhere easy to find and lableded exactly as described above. All that information exists already and can be gotten to from the main page, yes. But it's not labeled so clearly.

I think this is a better alternative to firewalling the forums.

[Japo]

The core idea looks great to me, the details can be discussed.

[FISHCHAIR]

I cant Download a game ? And do the games work on XP ?

just kidding :bleh: hahaha

[Icewolf]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Japofran @ Jun 23 2006, 05:47 PM) [snapback]239152[/snapback]</div>

The core idea looks great to me, the details can be discussed.[/b]

I agree with this. And like we say in Germany:
"The tone makes the music." Hope that makes sense for all you guys out there!

[uk_john2005]

I agree, if we are not going to have only registered users being allowed to leave messages/questions, this is the next best thing. Anything to stop almost every game thread having the same question asked over and over again by unregistered users because they just want to ask the question, get the answer and never come back again until they have another question.

As I have said elsewhere; what are the benefits of being registerd? versus what's the downside of being unregistered? If the anwer to both of these is 'nothing', which I think it is, you are alway's going to have lots of repetition in the game threads and only registered users getting involved with threads like this.

By the way, I think, quite often, we confuse 'noobie' with 'unregistered' and also with 'take but never give back'.