Travel Talk Forum?

[Steve]

Would there be any way to limit the visibility of this forum to members only? I love the idea of having this type of forum, but I am also aware that many places are being overrun with folks that limiting specifics to forum members might strike a better balance on this issue. Besides, it could be considered a perk for joining, not unlike the Marketplace Buy/Sell forums. Something for consideration if it is at all possible.

--Ken

This is something I've thought about quite a bit and I'm a little stuck. On one hand, it's an incentive to join the forum and we can keep our secret spots more or less to ourselves. On the other hand, having it open would help search results for the site resulting in more traffic, potentially adding more members than having it closed off. It's tough to tell which way it would go.

 

[O]

Do you think we should have it as a normal forum though? I've been kicking this around for awhile now. I've thought about different approaches - like having article post options for people to sort of post all about a trip and give locations, restraints, hotels, etc. I've also thought about just a normal forum to start with and see where it goes.

Unless you cast the line you will never know if there are any fish or how many.
Go for it, the more lines the better. The internet is a big pond to go fishing in.

Great suggestion by ElinaH the original Post here in.

Personally i find for Google rankings its better to have one big website rather than several individual ones, that said, i would simply incorporate this new line amongst everything here in, even in the "Last week's most popular topics" we can only flog the subject of cameras and lenses so much if you know what i mean.

Only an opinion

 

[Replytoken]

This is something I've thought about quite a bit and I'm a little stuck. On one hand, it's an incentive to join the forum and we can keep our secret spots more or less to ourselves. On the other hand, having it open would help search results for the site resulting in more traffic, potentially adding more members than having it closed off. It's tough to tell which way it would go.

Understandable. And yes, having the forum public would help with traffic. But I will say that when I find information from a web search, I am rarely inclined to join a forum that shows up in the results, but that is just me. I would imagine supporting whatever decision is made, and I do understand that this is a business decision, so you should proceed with the best interest of the forum.

--Ken