Hey, I was just wondering if the Admins could close the library from public access? There had been history of copycats coming here to rip off quality stories and mutate them into hideous copycats...

Just a thought.

Edit: Argh! I got it wrong! It is the Works By Authors section that need to close the doors on non-members!

Sorry, my bad, my mistake!

 

I've always been for complete closing off of the site period to nonmembers, but it was taken a long time ago to the way it is now for some reason I forget.

Either way, it wouldn't stop what you're talking about, it's not like you need a lie detector test or DNA sample to reg up and rip off whatever, it's a 30 second process if that to reg and be able to post.

 

Bloodredsword, I'm sure a fair number of the members of this site sign up because the library is good, which they know because they can access it. Hell, I know I didn't register until about 5 months after I started to use the library here. I wouldn't have registered unless I had already established a pattern of use. Would you want to cut off so many potentially good members. All right, so it would cut off a shit load of crap as well, but is it a good trade off?

 

That argument held up when we were unknown, but by now we're known, so it wouldn't hurt to make folks have to log in to see stuff, to help us better track who's actually active. I hate seeing a ton of not logged in in forever user names and wonder if they're really gone or just don't bother to log in or store their user/pass.

 

I agree with Mordecai on this. While I do not propose to lecture, I would point out that people move in and out of fandoms all the time. Good new members might be potentially lost if they cannot see what we do here. Many people lurk for sometime before they join, waiting to see if the board is to their taste.

As for cutting down the rubbish, this is not the only avenue, and I very much doubt closing the site to non-members would do anything to affect it.

Regards,
Maidros

 

You have a point Mid, about us being better known than we used to be. however, although I don't venture into the Intro section very often now-a-days the few I read are generally written by people directed here by links in author's profiles. Not all, but a lot. (On an amusing side note I've just remembered it was you're ff.n profile that lef me here. Cheers!)

How many of these would join if they couldn't see that the library was actually a good resource? Whilst the rest of the board is a good community and has many good discussions the library is the heart of the board, its why most people join.

 

I don't agree. It would only stifle the flow of new members we have.

Yeah, we have a large userbase, but the fact is, you don't want the site to stagnate. New people replace old people all the time, and each of us 'regulars' might not always be here.

 

Argh! I got it wrong! It is the Works By Authors section that need to close the doors on non-members!

Sorry, my bad, my mistake!

 

Well. Mid's argument does have a good point.

I joined the site because one of my favorite author's profile mentioned this site. I came, looked around, and promptly joined after having grown somewhat familiar with the site.

Even if I had not seen around the site, I know I would have joined anyways. I had never heard of the site, other than some small reference by one author, and had my curiosity to sate.

Heck I'll even admit that I attempted to join alpha fight club because I saw another author mention it on FF.N

I had no idea what the site was, had no clue what the hell it was for. I only knew that it was some site which put out ip82's work. It was enough to attempt to join it even though I had no clue as to what it was.

DLP has quite a number of popular authors mentioning it every time they update. Closing the library might be a good idea since it would stop a lot of people from joining and limit it to those that might have something intelligible to say.

Some might argue that it would only bring in those of sheep mentality who follow everything an author says, but really; How many people here actually stumbled upon the site on their own, rather than search after some author posted a note saying. 'And thanks to the DLP crowd for helping with the update'

Edit: Arrgh. Well that too, it's one of the things which authors utilize and guests simply come on to sneak a peek at Denarian Knight or some other piece of fanfiction.

There really is no point in allowing guests back there, since they wouldn't post anything anyways and would basically be mooching from the site without registering.

 

Weird I though that was closed off. Yeah I support fully closing off WbA.

 

I think the WbA is a good idea to close to non member but not library. After all the library stories are available everywhere why not lure people into joining by showing them how well organized it is. As for WbA when you say close would it just say you cant enter or would it not be visible to non members. Im in favor of the second so that people wouldnt join just to look at new ideas.

 

This is a bit off topic, but still pretty related. What I noticed is that for some reason, the Videogames and Movie Section is closed of to all unregistered members, but the rest of Real Life isn't. I don't really care it's just something weird I noticed, and I'm a bit curious about it.

 

I closed it after some of us got into beta testing of some games, and we'd of gotten into trouble for breaking the NDA by talking about not yet public stuff. Keep in mind anything that's viewable to nonlogged in members is, or eventually will be, google searchable.

 

I agree with keeping the library section open to lurkers. I lurked here for a few months before joining (and even then, for just a few perks, such as being able to scan "New Posts" more efficiently), in large part because of the library. I think many are like me in that they don't wish to give up personal info to a site that they haven't test-driven first.

Perhaps you should be more explicit on what kinds of users you seek to attract in order to structure access to ensure so that you get just those users and not the chaff. (And yes, I'm under no illusions in thinking that I represent who you're after. I've only a couple of WIP fics, so I hardly qualify as an accomplished HP fanfic author in the "DLP" genre. And, though I'm reasonably well read in HP fanfiction, I'll be the first to admit that little that I post adds substantively to the discussions.)

 

I say we should make WbA invisible to anyone not logged in. For the reasons above (leeches and the like). Or, make it invisible to anyone with less than 10 posts. That way you have to invest SOME time to get the fruits of DLP's labor.

 

If by 'invest some time' you mean 'collectively spam DLP into a black hole'. Let's not attach any importance to post counts. That's just asking for trouble.

 

I hadn't thought of that, Tehan. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. Okay, maybe the requirement could be an account at least a month old?

EDIT: Also, post number 555!

 

I don't really agree with that idea IBN. I think that might discourage authors from joining DLP since that is where a lot of the good reviews come from. Since DLP is based around fanfcition my personal opinion is that we should try to get as many good ones as possible. I think the idea of a requirement is good but I still haven't been able to think of one that has more merits then negatives to it.