Dear All.

In the distant past I was able to send a link to one of my Topics to a third party and even if they weren't a member of the Forum they could read the topic.
Recently I have discovered that this may longer be so!
Is it now necessary for any third party (Guest) to have membership of the Forum if they just want to read the Topic whose link I have sent them or is it something I have done wrong?

Typical link:
https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=44333.msg552042#msg552042

Colin.

There were problems with huge numbers of Russian (IIRC) bots slowing the forum down, so Tank effectively revoked guest access, so yes, you now have to sign up to view.

Wot njee said. 

Thanks Guys.

I should be visiting more often then I would have known

Nearly back to normal here and returning to N Gauge modelling.

Colin.

That explains why my friend couldn't log in. So you now have to create an account to view posts.

That's right.  We were getting huge volumes of bots slowing the forum right down.  I know it has problems even now...!

I plan to open it up again in the future.

It would be great if the forum software would allow to generate a single use access key allowing to view a thread for  the duration of a browser session. A email from the threads is already there...
This would allow to keep the forum free from robots and still allow friends to check out a thread and maybe tempt them to become part of this great community.

There is a single use access key, it's called 'Registering'!       I'm afraid that we won't be doing that, as if someone has interest in the forum then they can just sign up.  It takes two minutes.

I shall open the forum up to be viewed again.  I am waiting for the new forum to finish its Beta testing (from Simple Machines), and then we'll upgrade.  It will probably look the same as before, but should have much better functionality, and hopefully speed as well!!!

Trouble is... how will they know if the Forum is for them without being able to access the various discussions? I appreciate the problem with the bots, but I suspect, at present, we are getting a lot of people registering, having a look, deciding we are not for them, and never darkening our screens again. This leaves a number of dormant members who don't contribute but artificially inflate our membership. I suspect we will just have to put up with this until the new software is cooked.

Good luck @Tank !

Cheers,

Chris

Quote from: Papyrus on July 28, 2021, 01:30:55 PM
This leaves a number of dormant members who don't contribute but artificially inflate our membership.

Bots or no bots this has been the same for years, Chris. We have 1000s of members but only a core post anything regularly. They may not be dormant (as in sleeping ) but just shy/worried of doing something wrong. I can recall my first ever post being made with a lot of trepidation as to how it would go down, had I put it in the right place etc.