Number of 'guests'

[captainslarty]

We tend to have an average number of 'guests' at around 100 - 200 - per day...

Looking at the map, they (the guests) come from many areas of the world - (some interesting clusters though !

Hi, its great to see you visiting our forum. Why not try Proton Compiler for FREE? Download the FREE version of Proton Compiler, Its called Amicus18 and its available from HERE Already using proton Compiler??? Get rid of these pesky messages... get LICENSED USER STATUS

My question is this,
Is this a great sign of people from all over the world looking at the forums to decide IF to purchase the product ?
OR ...
Is this a great sign of people from all over the world looking at the forums to try to learn how to use a pirate copy ?

Obviously, there will be some overlap, I havent run any scientific tests lol, but the number of 'guests' seems fairy constant, and far outweigh the licensed users...

This then brings to mind the question of 'should the forums allow a non licensed user to have effectively free support ?' - where, we know the pirated versions are readily available...

Some forums, limit the amout of sub sections that a non licensed user can view -
Balanced against, the strength of copy protection, the ease of availability of pirated copies, and how beneficial to sales the 'guests' are.

I would submit that the ease of viewing as a 'guest' is actually contributing more to the pirated users (and hence continued pirate versions being available) than encouraging new users - by far ! -
Giving a 'guest' the ability to view a subset only of the fora would seem to be more conducive to 'encouragement to buy' - also, would limit the benefit to said priate copies.

It would appear, to me, that the fora as a whole, is actually supporting a pirated subset of the pic industry using PDS.

Just as a discussion point -

[Paul Thompson]

Interesting and partly prompted by the EEmemory related incident yesterday I assume. For my part, I visit from time to time, more frequently of late but I always login. I see that at the moment, there number of logged in users are outnumbered by those not logged in 20:1 WOW - so of the 200 users viewing, only 11 are logged in, the rest being guests..

Why is this? - perhaps some are at work, so not happy to log in on works pc? although it is New Years Eve, are that many users working? LOL

I moderate another forum with some 12500+ members and we get a lot of people viewing as guests but to fair, what they can view is controlled by sub forum access rights and what I see as spam tends to be fairly easy to locate and predictable in where it appears.

Obviously this forum is owned/run/maintained by those that make the decision as to content and direction but for my part, I would welcome large areas that are unavailable to newbies or people that have not joined yet or shown their commitment by purchasing a licence. It is to an extent continued purchases that help fuel the development of all things so surely moves to promote or enforce this would be of benefit to all..

Just my 2p worth - I will continue to visit, logging in as often as I can and to hopefully continue to learn.

[Lester]

OK, this subject rears its head from time to time

A year or so back we did restrict access to most forum areas, except pre sales questions. The forum activity dropped to the lowest ever recorded. After about six months of little or no activity, the moderators and licensed members began to petition to have the forum opened to all.

The thought was that the restrictions made gaining knowledge about the product very difficult and thus the likely hood of gaining new members (sales) was minimal.

This forum is old, many different configurations have been tried. The feelings regarding locking down of sections, or the whole forum, and the methods of licensing seem to run in a cyclic fashion.

[Paul Thompson]

OK, this subject rears its head from time to time

A year or so back we did restrict access to most forum areas, except pre sales questions. The forum activity dropped to the lowest ever recorded. After about six months of little or no activity, the moderators and licensed members began to petition to have the forum opened to all.

The thought was that the restrictions made gaining knowledge about the product very difficult and thus the likely hood of gaining new members (sales) was minimal.

This forum is old, many different configurations have been tried. The feelings regarding locking down of sections, or the whole forum, and the methods of licensing seem to run in a cyclic fashion.

Crikey! super fast response Lester and as my post count shows, I am clearly not a major contributor to the forums content although I do read a lot.
Long may the resource continue...

[robbed666]

I often read without logging in.....
I like the 'if you want to view an uploaded pic' you have to log in...
Could there a 'reduced visability' code window unless logged in, i.e scroll bars on the code window disabled?
Or copy and paste disabled on the code window?

IMHO you want to 'entice' people to sign up and log in, not deter them.

[pverburg]

Just to add to the guest count I believe that all the search bot's look like guest, and they do multiple simultaneous sessions.
So the statistics will be always include lots of bot's.

Paul V.

[captainslarty]

Hi Paul.
I think they show up seperately on the user map ? - yes there are some, but not that many -
Very interesting discussion, thanks all for the feedback so far -
I was aiming more at Rob's thoughts where, for instnace - no dl, no wiki (maybe a small sample - desriptions, etc, but no dl code) - no scroll bars or limited to first 5 posts in each forum - no search - well, results, but non selectable.
that kind of thing...

Hi also to Lester, glad to have you back - as you may or may not know, I was also with the forums from very early days, originally my user name was JHanley on the earlier forums. I agree various things have been tried, but not the above - that I am aware of ? -

Oh, also, happy 'random point in the space time continuum' as Dilbert put it lol... here's to a good 2012.

[John Drew]

Just looked at the user map - no wonder it's so blinkin hot today, the map has me in Alice Springs - the middle of the continent for the non Aussies. It's got Wastrix right, he's in the big smoke - Sydney.
John
Located in the South East corner of South Australia on the coast half way between Adelaide and Melbourne

[captainslarty]

OK, this subject rears its head from time to time

A year or so back we did restrict access to most forum areas, except pre sales questions. The forum activity dropped to the lowest ever recorded. After about six months of little or no activity, the moderators and licensed members began to petition to have the forum opened to all.

The thought was that the restrictions made gaining knowledge about the product very difficult and thus the likely hood of gaining new members (sales) was minimal.

This forum is old, many different configurations have been tried. The feelings regarding locking down of sections, or the whole forum, and the methods of licensing seem to run in a cyclic fashion.

Hi Lester,
I must admit I fail to see the logic here ?

A year or so back we did restrict access to most forum areas, except pre sales questions. The forum activity dropped to the lowest ever recorded. After about six months of little or no activity, the moderators and licensed members began to petition to have the forum opened to all.

The little or no activity - surely -must have been from the 'active' forum members - not guests ! ?
What do we have now, 85,000+ posts, 10,000+ threads - and a very insignificant - 388 'active' members - ?

I would be interested in statistical analysis of that period of time -
As a 'guest' - even now - as far as I understand, a 'guest. cannot post in the main fora. ? or is that not the case ? - regardless - we see little if any 'guest' activity apart from massive viewing - hence also , one can presume, downloading of info etc, far far outweighing the licensed valid users by factors or 10 to 20:1 !

So, I do not see how a 'guest' could ever contribute apart from in overall 'numbers' - which mean nothing in reality afaik .
Of course, a 'guest' - 'could' be a legitimate potential buyer of the product seeking more info - I cannot argue with that fact, what I can offer though, is the scenario as I see it where the massive ratio of 'guests' to members is so great and so out of proportion, in relation to actual sales (based on sign up of new licensed users) - that one must reasonably conclude that the vast majority are free-loading. (imho of course !

As you have found Lester, a 'survey' type or questionaire type thread gets very very little interest at all - ever ! - (apart from well meaning 'ribbing' re Apple Macs and 10G or whatever phones and twitter lol ) .

I humbly submit that there are 3 catagories of guests -
In order of preference (imho)

Pirates ! thieves, relaying on the readily available published downloads of PDS circumventing payment and usb key - They are also 'savvy' enough to not request info, just leech it.

General google type search pointers to a generalised pic issue and coding -err, well, yes, but why would the numbers be so consistently high ? - doesnt add up ...

GENUINE prospective purchasers of the product, probably miniscule in overall statsistics - but valid !.


Also, I fully appreciate that a one time Pirate, CAN become a legitimate user, of course, that happens in ALL software - and the fact, that sometimes the pirate user is simply trying out what is not readilly available in a trial form - (Amicus is a different animal - it is actually too restrictive imho - as a precursor to full PDS purchase - but that is another story....

Joe

[labges]

Can I offer up a 4th type of guest. Because I am one, simply because my requests for Licensed user status never get acted upon or even replied to.
My company bought the software I am using, I have filled out the form a few times but nothing ever happens.

I don't have an Invoice Number since the order was on-line and Crownhill told me they don't issue Invoice numbers for On-line orders.
I asked what I should put in the Invoice number box and was told "you do not need to put the invoice number in if you do not have it handy, it helps but its not a problem. Just ensure you tick the activate me box,, then we can update your status." but again nothing ever happens.

I am also in the boat as a 5th type of Guest. I bought a full copy of the program with USB key on ebay so I could do some work at home, this is my own private copy but again I have no "invoice number" so I can't get full user status on that copy either.

I wonder how many other users are in the same boat as me, more then a few would be my guess.
So you can cross 2 of that list of suspected pirates here as guests.