Forum section only for PB registered users?

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 5:58 pm

I suggest that administrators add some section on this forum only available for PB registered users.
I guess its easy to implement, since PHPBB allow to put some users in special cathegory and restrict some areas of the forum just to that kind of users.

Then, every PB customer can send a PM to admins giving info of they purchase and asking to be allowed to that vip section.

I ask this because i suggest today to one coder here to open a post about anticracking... BUT its not a good idea to let anonymous or so to read some kind of stuff, like this i mention.

What do you think about my idea?

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:04 pm

This was requested a few years ago. Nothing happened then. Maybe now, since there are bots running rampant.

GeoTrail · Post by **GeoTrail** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:49 pm

Yeah I agree with that idea

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:59 pm

This topic has come up before but what the hey....I'll throw in my 3.1415926 cents anyway!

This is exactly what I did for the Armadillo forums. It's split into two sections.

One section is for the general public so that evaluators can ask questions on the forums.

And one that's only available to registered users. The public can see the private section on the forum home page, but can't enter them, that way customers will know they are there to ask for access to them.

To prevent bots from being able to post to the forums, I have it set up so that before you can post to the forums, you have to register and validate your e-mail address. Then as a new member your first 5 posts have to be moderator approved before they become visable. Makes for a little extra work for me since I'm the only active administrator/moderator but if it keeps out the crap, it's worth it.

When I get some time, I plan to enable a feature the forum software has that will automatically give users access to the private section if they use the same e-mail address for the forums that they used when they ordered Armadillo. That should lighten that part of my work-load a little....

All I need to do is write a program to scan through our sales database to generate a list of e-mail addresses, then upload the list to the server...

PureBasic to the rescue!

FreeThought · Post by **FreeThought** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:04 pm

I am for it

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:09 pm

That might be a good idea

Shannara · Post by **Shannara** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:22 am

oOo, didnt know you were a staff member over there at Armadillo.. sweet

rsts · Post by **rsts** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:32 am

I wouldn't be against it, depending on how it were set-up, but one of the deciding factors for my purchasing PureBasic was that I could see "everything" during my evaluation period.

I was also evaluating IBasic and couldn't make quite as objective evaluation of their forums, due to the "private" nature of parts of it.

cheers

zikitrake · Post by **zikitrake** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:05 am

rsts wrote:I wouldn't be against it, depending on how it were set-up, but one of the deciding factors for my purchasing PureBasic was that I could see "everything" during my evaluation period.

I was also evaluating IBasic and couldn't make quite as objective evaluation of their forums, due to the "private" nature of parts of it.

cheers

I think the same

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:05 am

[moved to next post]

Post by **freak** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:11 am

I don't see any good reason why any information in this forum would have to be hidden from the public.

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:11 am

Shannara wrote:oOo, didnt know you were a staff member over there at Armadillo.. sweet

Yeah. Web master, forum administrator/moderator, tech support, customer service, one of three developers... You name it .. I do it...

rsts wrote:I wouldn't be against it, depending on how it were set-up, but one of the deciding factors for my purchasing PureBasic was that I could see "everything" during my evaluation period.

That's why I chose a split forum for Armadillo, we didn't want to turn away evaluators by shutting them out completely but because of its nature (being security oriented), registered users needed a secure area where they could discuss topics of a more sensitive nature.

freak wrote:I don't see any good reason why any information in this forum would have to be hidden from the public.

Good point, unlike the Armadillo forums, there really isn't anything here that needs to be hidden from anyone, especially evaluators who might buy PureBasic.

thamarok · Post by **thamarok** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:41 pm

freak wrote:I don't see any good reason why any information in this forum would have to be hidden from the public.

Good freak!
Also, I always search the forums without logging in, just to see if my question was answered. PureBasic would blame itself if the forums were only for registered users. Ofcourse this wouldn't allow bots and warez users, but this wouldn't allow evaluating users and I know quite a lot people using the demo.

Rescator · Post by **Rescator** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:55 pm

I search a lot without being logged in too.
If I stay logged in I always end up "loosing" read posts marks as I always hit the session timeouts. (30 min?)

And yeah, before I decided to buy PureBasic I actually looked through the forums first, and my decision was made based on all the very good posts here and the fact that Fred and the team is so active.
(being able to "pester" the developers was the turning point I think

It's rare to see software with support this good

FreeThought · Post by **FreeThought** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:00 pm

freak wrote:I don't see any good reason why any information in this forum would have to be hidden from the public.

those how use cracked or stolen version, will not have the full benefit of the forum.it may encourage some to buy the genuine one.