# Guests/Exclusivity



## mish (Feb 23, 2006)

Observation- Noticed there can be 30 members on line participating in the forum sharing/exchanging recipes, and all this forum has to offer, and about 700 guests. I realize the idea is to hopefully have more new members participating /contributing/sharing in our forum. Would love to see all the 'guests' join us and participate.

Having been a member for quite some time, I know how hard admin, site helpers and members help and contribute to the site. Think we have achieved an excellent status on the web as a cooking forum, and we are so much more than a cooking forum.

Not to discourage or exclude any potential newcomers, but a thought is moving toward more exclusivity. i.e. perhaps require that guests sign up as a member and join the forum. There is much to offer here, and great comraderie among the members. Hoping guests will join in.

Example: To join any MSN group and be approved, one needs to fill out an application, apply for a passport, and sumbit a reason/short description as to why one would like to join the group. Managers then review it, and get back via email if you are accepted, and request to sign an agreement form, in complying with th rules of the forum.

Again, this is not intended to make work for site helpers/admin...I think we have achieved the status of being the best cooking site on the web.  Would like to see the 700 guests join our group.


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## Jikoni (Feb 23, 2006)

mish, I agree-ish based on the reason I joined, I lurked around  in the background for sometime, and then just got 'sold' and had  to join. That's the beauty of DC for me anyway.On the other hand I would love to see all the 700 join.


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## ronjohn55 (Feb 23, 2006)

I'm all for as many people joining and contributing as possible, but I believe that at any given time, a good chunk of those "visitors" may actually be from search engines looking for search keywords, not actual people checking out the site. 

John


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## GB (Feb 23, 2006)

John is absolutley correct. Most of those 700 are not actually real live people, just bots.


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## mish (Feb 23, 2006)

What's a bot? TIA So... they're not actually "guests?"? Interesting - because I think we should start charging the 700 lurkers? a membership fee, lol.  I think you get my drift.  There are restricted sites, requiring sign-up to even view/enter some cooking sites.  Just tryng to understand.  Would like to see a membership of 1000's.


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## GB (Feb 23, 2006)

They are (to the best of my understanding) programs that search engines like Google and Yahoo use to go out and seach for keywords. That is how we get listed on those search engines.


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## mish (Feb 23, 2006)

oooooooooh.  Okay.  Everybody, in all your posts, in tiny letters, type Discuss Cooking...lol and everyone will be googled here.


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## Michael in FtW (Feb 23, 2006)

Yep - we got the bots searching us - which account for _some_ of the visitors.

We also have people searching for a recipe or topic using one of the search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. that ran into a match which led them here and they are taking a look at us.

The reason the Thread Titles sometimes get changed is so that the bots will pick up on the beginning of a thread and not just one subsequent message that might hit on the right key word. 

And, some of you thought your Mods were just being mean and picking on you.


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## Michael in FtW (Feb 23, 2006)

mish said:
			
		

> whatsa bots?


 
In the most basic terms - referring to the bots from search engines - they are programs that run around the web looking for content/key words and add anything they find to the search engine's database. When you go to a search engine to search for something - what is displayed is what their bots found.

That is why a moderator will sometimes change the initial thread title to something else - to make it more accessable to a wider audience when searched with a search engine.


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## MJ (Feb 23, 2006)

A bot (spider,robot or crawler) is a program that visits Web sites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine index. They also bring people to the site.

We have recently added a modification to the site that encourages "lurkers" to sign up. When they do sign up, a welcome PM is sent that encourages them to hop in and join us on the board, and it seems to be working great.
.


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## licia (Feb 23, 2006)

I suppose unless we were introduced by a friend or contact, most of us were brought to the site with such help as provided by the "bots". I didn't remember just how I arrived, but after having read this, I believe it was when I was looking for a recipe for a "crunchy pea salad".


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## buckytom (Feb 24, 2006)

bots explain the reason you will see the same subject being viewed by several guests at the same time in the "who's online" quick link.
for a common topic, that's not surprising. but when it looks like 15 guests are all simultaneously viewing some bizarre subject, like one of 'bugs silly posts, you realize that it's either a group of bots launched by one person "googling", or that there's a whole bunch of dead government employees laying around, and bug made some free time for herself to check on her old posts.  

(i miss my older sis. hey 'bug, when you coming back?)


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## kitchenelf (Feb 24, 2006)

buckytom said:
			
		

> bots explain the reason you will see the same subject being viewed by several guests at the same time in the "who's online" quick link.
> for a common topic, that's not surprising. but when it looks like 15 guests are all simultaneously viewing some bizarre subject, like one of 'bugs silly posts, you realize that it's either a group of bots launched by one person "googling", or that there's a whole bunch of dead government employees laying around, and bug made some free time for herself to check on her old posts.
> 
> (i miss my older sis. hey 'bug, when you coming back?)




LMAO bucky - she'll come looking for you now for sure!!!


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## Alix (Feb 24, 2006)

buckytom said:
			
		

> (i miss my older sis. hey 'bug, when you coming back?)


 
Is your sister really 'bug? My daughter is Bugs.


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## GB (Feb 24, 2006)

Mudbug Alix, Mudbug


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## Alix (Feb 24, 2006)

Sigh...going for more coffee now...


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## GB (Feb 24, 2006)

LOL


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## mudbug (Feb 24, 2006)

Caught you bein' naughty again, buckytomster!  Just when you thought it was safe to invite your friends over, the babysitter returns!!!!

Clocked in about 100 hours at work over the past 2 weeks, so I'm quite crabby.  I will have a brief breather before the fun starts again next week and we begin torturing all the docs we've prepared to date.

(Miss you guys too.)


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## GB (Feb 24, 2006)

Does HH mind that you are preparing to date docs


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## mudbug (Feb 24, 2006)

you got me, geebs.  but I'm too tired to think up a comeback.

Gonna go watch a little bit of the Olympics and hit the sack.  Up early tomorrow to pdf a boatload of doc---um, material for the reviewers.

HH is already snoring on the couch.  I told him romance was out of the question for awhile.


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## kitchenelf (Feb 25, 2006)

{{{bug}}}

GB - I was wondering how the "dating docs" was going to go over too!


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## amber (Feb 26, 2006)

MJ said:
			
		

> A bot (spider,robot or crawler) is a program that visits Web sites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine index. They also bring people to the site.
> 
> We have recently added a modification to the site that encourages "lurkers" to sign up. When they do sign up, a welcome PM is sent that encourages them to hop in and join us on the board, and it seems to be working great.
> .


 
That would explain why there are so many new registered users most recently, and why I will not win the 5,000 member contest .  I think on average there used to be about 3-4 new registered members per day, but it seems to have gone beyond that most recently, which is great!


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## MJ (Feb 26, 2006)

amber said:
			
		

> That would explain why there are so many new registered users most recently, and why I will not win the 5,000 member contest . I think on average there used to be about 3-4 new registered members per day, but it seems to have gone beyond that most recently, which is great!


That might explain some of it, but in my opinion they also get a sniff of how friendly you all are and they decide to stick around.


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## kulikuli (Feb 28, 2006)

One other thing adds to the number of guests. The moment a registered user logs out (or logs in after booting the site), he turns into a guest. I think until at least the time you close your window on your puter.


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