[Ted S]

Originally Posted by onehost

Exactly what is the point in forcing somone to do something you want them to do...? all they will do is register, take/view what they want, and be gone...because if they have no intentions of staying then they wont, all you have done is forced them to create an account and thats it...9 out of 10 people mostly never return...and how is that number going to change by doing force registrations? and if guests are blocked by limitations, how about search engines? are they blocked also

As far as why, well as fool.com will tell you, requesting a simple data capture on content pages has huge results. Does forcing someone to register guarantee they will post? Absolutely not. However once someone registers you have the opportunity to engage them 1-on-1 via email whether it be the welcome email, a reminder email, newsletter or any other communication piece you're now talking to someone. Additionally once someone has an account they can contribute without having to go through any hurtles. Think about it, someone viewing a page may not want much more involvement but at 10 views or 20 views or 50 views if they haven’t participated in any form do they necessarily know they can? Is a message telling them to register something forced or something helpful? Many sites find that the people who use this sort of message and/ or block find their experience better because they have a next step [a conversion goal] and that people participate once they’ve engaged enough to reach this stage and are given a push to register.

That said the user experience is the most important part of your site and something you should never ever, ever ignore. Of course forcing someone to do something sounds horrible with this in mind each admin has to think about how they want to set things and at what point their ability to drive goals (registrations) outweighs interfering with the user. A smart site customizes their block message, gives users options and provides value. Simply blocking people on 2 views is likely not going to get the results or response one wants but that’s not the point here. On the other hand, giving them a warning at 5 views, a lock at 15 and options to help them decide what to do as well as a way to participate, get answers, share, etc… is value and that’s a great experience.

Again, each admin has to decide how to best reach their goals while maintain a good balance of benefits for guests and members.

It looks like you didn't read the main post or install file but no worries, I'll explain things again. Spiders don't generally accept cookies and thus aren't subject to this addon [which is cookie based] unless someone sets things to block guests at 0 views which is possible but not how this addon should be used (just restricting the guest group would be more logical). Additionally the addon is hardcoded to skip bots with the hostname google, yahoo, aol and msn. This doesn't make things perfect of course hence why this is well documented in the addon install file but to date no verified issues have been brought foward.