Posted by mair on October 31, 2001, at 14:42:30
As is obvious, a lot of people are concerned about whether the new registration procedures will chase away people new to the site. I'm concerned too, but I also think that the new format of the top of the pages for PB and PSB don't help matters. The "new informed consent" message is only of relevance if you want to post and is only informative of something new and different if you've previously registered. You have to scroll down a little and read fairly carefully to realize that you don't have to take the quiz or do anything else if you just want to lurk. Of course if you scroll down more you'll see posts anyway, but frankly I didn't get that far the first time I came on after the new procedures had been implemented. Because I didn't pay great attention, I went all the way through the quiz wondering why you were requiring this even for people who just wanted to read some posts.
I think you should begin your page with the explanation of the boards and make it expressly clear that no registration is required unless one wants to post. Then you can go into the informed consent stuff. Having the informed consent message further down the page may trip up some old timers who haven't been around recently, but they are less likely to get scared off than first time visitors.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:2261
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20010718/msgs/2261.html