2 replies to this topic

[TicoGrande]

The Association of Costa Rica Residents has been operating these Forums for over a year.

We now have well over 500 Members and over 2,000 Posts on topics that cover nearly every facet of Living In, Traveling To, Moving or relocating To, Working In or Obtaining Residency in Costa Rica.

We are by far and away the largest, most accurate and most detailed source of all things Costa Rica.

These Forums have always been a free service of the ARCR, and they will continue to be totally without a charge, but beginning today, we will ask that visitors who wish to access the enormous amount of information contained herein to please Register.

Registration is completely free. Your registration information is NEVER given out or used for marketing purposes. The only emails you will ever receive are from me (the admin) about this Forum, or from other Members (if you grant permission). Other Members who may contact you are NEVER given your email address.

Registration is a two step process:

1. First go to our registration page here and fill out the short registration form then...

2. You must reply to the confirming email that will be sent to you almost instantly. We do this so no one can register you without your knowledge and permission.

We welcome you to the Forums and we hope you will continue to benefit from the information contained here.

TicoGrande (TG)
Administrator

[Lasse]

Tico,

May I be so bold as to ask, why you chose to make it a more or less closed forum?

Possible upsides to the change:

Fewer threads with questions that has already been answered several times before. You could get the same effect by making more topics "sticky" and asking people to use the searchfunction, though.

Downsides:

Searchengines won't index the topics, thus making it (nearly) impossible for people that do not know of this site (and can not find the information elsewhere) to find answers to their questions. It might even bring more questions to you by e-mail or by phone, which I should think is even more timeconsuming than refering to topics in here.

Just a thought.

[TicoGrande]

These forums are not closed or limited in any way.

We require (free) registration. That's it.

Registration (membership) and activity increased 700% after we went to registration. This is not uncommon. People seldom value that which requires no effort.

At the time (2003) we had one member quit the forums with the dire prognostication that we would fail within 90 days.



Possible upsides to the change:

Fewer threads with questions that has already been answered several times before. You could get the same effect by making more topics "sticky" and asking people to use the searchfunction, though.

Actually, there are numerous studies that show few people bother to read stickies in ANY forum.

As for using search, we tell people that ALL the time. The problem is that the vast majority of our members are over 50 and are not at all computer literate. Trying to teach search is just a waste of time. Oh how I have tried!



Downsides:

Searchengines won't index the topics, thus making it (nearly) impossible for people that do not know of this site (and can not find the information elsewhere) to find answers to their questions. It might even bring more questions to you by e-mail or by phone, which I should think is even more timeconsuming than refering to topics in here.

Totally untrue.

Search engine "bots" identify themselves when they spider the forums. These bots are given super user authority and can (and DO) visit every page in the forums. The BOTS actually have their own membership category with greater "rights" than you have

TG