Requiring people to join

DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi Gang

Now that the site is pretty popular I'm thinking of requiring people to have an account before they can post a question. This would have some benefits:

- would cut down a percentage of junk questions

- question asker more likely to see answers

And some drawbacks

- number of questions/day would drop to begin with

Any views on this?

I think the site has now grown to such a stage where I'm not too worried about questions/day dropping because it's pretty high anyway... and quality has become more of an issue.

Andrew

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 13:17 (London time) - permalink
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Wendyg, posted over a year ago

I think its a good idea, if somebody genuinely has a problem then quickly providing there email address to set up an account isnt too much of an inconvenience.

Would need to let them know that they can still post anonomously though if they didnt want other people to know who they were, so that someone that does genuinely need help doesnt shy away.

:o)

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 13:37 (London time) - permalink
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Yos, posted over a year ago

Requiring registration can cause a very large drop in traffic. Do you feel that the number of questions has gotten too high?

I can see how it might cut the number of junk questions.

It's not so clear to me why question askers would be more likely to see answers. I'm not sure registering makes someone more likely to return to the site. Are you thinking of emailing them the answers, or maybe a link back to the site?

I think the simplest registration is to use an email address as a username, plus a password and maybe their gender. Less fields = more signups. I wouldn't bother with email double opt-in (click link to activate account), it makes registration much more of a hassle.

Congratulations on the site by the way :) It seems like traffic is really growing

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 19:0 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

Hi Andrew.

Don't you think it will complicate things? what happens if they forget their password and username?

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 20:43 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi Ariel

If they forget their username/password their is the facility to request them again... but you're certainly right it is an added complication!

One concern with the unregistered users though is that given the volume of new questions without registering it is very hard to see when/where your question is published anyway. So maybe people would have a better experience of the site if they went through the simple registration step (which takes about 30 seconds)?

Thanks for the feedback everyone, any more input is welcome!

Andrew

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 20:50 (London time) - permalink
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DearCupid, posted over a year ago

Hi Yos,

Just the standard registration form would be used which you can see

http://www.dearcupid.org/register.aspx

Users are asked to verify their email but this only affects if they are sent emails (e.g. alerts that they may select).

Andrew

Posted on 12 June 2006 @ 21:50 (London time) - permalink
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