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Did you see the new poll on the forum?

20774

Liaison
Staff member
This month, the Best of the Forum offers a poll for members to vote on that can let us know how you visit the forum, either as a logged in member or just as a guest. We've noticed that, of the ~500 people who visit the forum each day, only 10% of them appear as a logged in member. We're interested to hear from members on this to be sure everyone is getting the most out of the forum.

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?70759-Are-you-a-guest-on-the-forum

Or go straight to the poll here (you must be logged in to follow this link):

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?70758-Are-you-a-guest-on-the-forum

Thanks for looking and offering some input!
 
I'm looking for the box that says "I log-in every time but have to log-in even though I've checked the "remember me" box. It never remembers me :dunno

pete
 
I'm looking for the box that says "I log-in every time but have to log-in even though I've checked the "remember me" box. It never remembers me :dunno

pete
That is usually a "cookie" issue Pete. With a clean-out of your browser history, temporary internet files, cookies and related it will allow your computer and the forum to sync-up on an up to date level. I hope you voted.
Thanks, Gary
 
This month, the Best of the Forum offers a poll for members to vote on that can let us know how you visit the forum, either as a logged in member or just as a guest. We've noticed that, of the ~500 people who visit the forum each day, only 10% of them appear as a logged in member. We're interested to hear from members on this to be sure everyone is getting the most out of the forum.

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?70759-Are-you-a-guest-on-the-forum

Or go straight to the poll here (you must be logged in to follow this link):

http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?70758-Are-you-a-guest-on-the-forum

Thanks for looking and offering some input!

Will skew the results of the poll. :brow
 
Bud -

It is a bit of a Catch-22...we're trying to reach members only and see if they are always on as members or sometimes come as guests or some other reason they appear as just a guest. So, in order to view/vote in the poll, you have to be logged in. If the poll was open/visible to true guests (ie, non-members), they can't vote anyway, so it probably doesn't matter.
 
Bud -

It is a bit of a Catch-22...we're trying to reach members only and see if they are always on as members or sometimes come as guests or some other reason they appear as just a guest. So, in order to view/vote in the poll, you have to be logged in. If the poll was open/visible to true guests (ie, non-members), they can't vote anyway, so it probably doesn't matter.

Why don"t you simply restrict the forum to members only? Not logged in. No viewing, period.
 
Why don"t you simply restrict the forum to members only? Not logged in. No viewing, period.

It's a consideration, but with some upsides and downsides. Occasionally, I go to another forum I'm interested in to poke around and can't get anywhere...kind of turns me off. I'm a member of the Airheads Beemer Club which has a website and some technical information...no forum, but tech tips. Only visible to members now...I've stopped referring anyone to the ABC website because likely they'll not see anything. But that's just me.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken, having some of the forum open allows the various search engines to index information for use in future searches, by members and non-members alike. If non-members find information here, maybe that's an incentive to look deeper and possibly join. If there's no visibility to the outside world, without a constantly changing forum promoting a wider range of search engine indexing, the MOA may drift farther away from people's consideration.

I really don't know the right answer to your proposition, but it will be discussed at some point.
 
Why don"t you simply restrict the forum to members only? Not logged in. No viewing, period.
Most forums have the majority of their forum sections "open" with the necessity of registering and logging in to post. The MOA forum is part of what a member receives for their dues- a paid membership is required to post. This makes things a little different here. If nothing was visible it would be tough to sell the forum as a benefit to a prospective member. With most of the forum visible we are trying to figure out the balance as pointed out in the poll.
I have already been contacted by a member via pm in regards to login/posting problems which is just the kind of info we are looking for.
Thanks Neil.
Gary
 
It's a consideration, but with some upsides and downsides. Occasionally, I go to another forum I'm interested in to poke around and can't get anywhere...kind of turns me off. I'm a member of the Airheads Beemer Club which has a website and some technical information...no forum, but tech tips. Only visible to members now...I've stopped referring anyone to the ABC website because likely they'll not see anything. But that's just me.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken, having some of the forum open allows the various search engines to index information for use in future searches, by members and non-members alike. If non-members find information here, maybe that's an incentive to look deeper and possibly join. If there's no visibility to the outside world, without a constantly changing forum promoting a wider range of search engine indexing, the MOA may drift farther away from people's consideration.

I really don't know the right answer to your proposition, but it will be discussed at some point.

Yes I understand those considerations, not sure about indexing though. Perhaps give people thirty days to a free account, full access. No pay after 30 days restrict them. Don't sign up for a free account, no access. Seems reasonable from my end.
 
I guess I would like to add my 2 Cents worth.

I now always log on as a member user because NOW the site recognizes me without having to Log on each time (it didn't always recognize me, even though I followed the proper procedure for it to do so). It didn't always re-log on, and when then happened, I would look as much as I could and get off. In other words, if it couldn't remember who I was, I gave up, got out of the site, and got frustrated. I think that if I have to log on each time I wouldn't visit much at all, maybe quit altogether.

However, I want to expand a little. I think the BMWMOA really needs to offer more if it expects people to stay on as a member (whether they are remembered or not by this site). As it is, the only benefit I see is being able to visit this site to communicate with other members who may be able to give help on particular problems, particularly repair issues. Without this site, I don't see much, if any, benefit in membership at all. I say all this to say that the Organization better take a look at more than just this site, because this site may be the only reason some of us are in the MOA anyway. The magazine is OK but only barely adequate as a magazine. The Anonymous book didn't arrive for me until some 3-4 month's time after I re-joined (I was a member some 25 years ago and sold both my BMW's and let my membership lapse) and it is only marginally helpful. The Anonymous book SHOULD be incorporated into this web site, so anyone can look up any person/location/service from anywhere simply by logging onto the internet and getting the information. Save a few trees.

I am wondering. After all the hype, really, what other benefits are there to membership? Buying a few BMWMOA monogrammed hats?


Basically, the internet is making joining the BMWMOA dispensable. Answers to repair questions can be had through other sources. The BMWMOA really needs to, look into ways to keep membership up (and attract newer members) in the future or else, the whole organization could fail.
 
Thanks jimmy, one of the reasons we are doing this is to improve the forum and it's usage. How members access the forum, use forum controls and view are all part of improving how the MOA forum serves the members. Comments are always welcome but if we could, we would like this thread to help direct members to the poll.
Thanks, Gary
 
Jimmy -

Believe me, the MOA is genuinely concerned about membership, and many of us think like you do in that the forum is a key element to that relationship. That said, if you go to the list of members at the top of the page (see Community), and look at the number of members, you can look at the members who have posted...you can sort the list by number of posts. There are currently 1814 pages which 30 members per page. You have to get to page 467 (when sorted from highest posts to lowest posts) to find the first page with a member that has 0 posts. Roughly 75% of the forum members have never posted. And many, many of the 25% of members who have posted have done so only once or twice. In reality, there are a small number of the MOA members were are reasonably active on the forum. I think when a person becomes an MOA member, they are automatically assigned a username and default password. Whether they actually pursue the forum, is another matter.

But still, for some of us, the forum is vital to our membership.
 
What didn't see in the poll was a choice for those that use forum readers (like Tapatalk) to access the forum. I suppose that you could browse with a reader without being logged in, but one of the beauties of the readers is that they keep you logged in. For example, this post came from Tapatalk on an iPhone.

So, in the poll I checked the first box the says that I always log in. (Actually getting to the poll was difficult using Tapatalk.)

I hope that the information gained is useful.
 
That is usually a "cookie" issue Pete. With a clean-out of your browser history, temporary internet files, cookies and related it will allow your computer and the forum to sync-up on an up to date level. I hope you voted.
Thanks, Gary

Gary, do you have the time to tell us PC users exactly how to do what you recommend? (I have windows 7 if that matters.) Have had the same situation come up many times though the "remember me" box is checked. Actually, unless I want to post, I may not notice that I am not signed in.
 
Gary, do you have the time to tell us PC users exactly how to do what you recommend? (I have windows 7 if that matters.) Have had the same situation come up many times though the "remember me" box is checked. Actually, unless I want to post, I may not notice that I am not signed in.
I will send you a pm with some advice that will most likely help. Actually all this is a bit different computer (mfg) to computer (mfg) and the way things are configured by them. Another factor is the browser you use. As odd as it seems, with the different factors noted above, some of this can be found on a Google search- i.e.how to delete cookies on Windows 7 Be very careful not to download any of the free help that may show up as it frequently untrustworthy.
Gary
 
Gary, do you have the time to tell us PC users exactly how to do what you recommend? (I have windows 7 if that matters.) Have had the same situation come up many times though the "remember me" box is checked. Actually, unless I want to post, I may not notice that I am not signed in.

I think the problem was more than a "cookie" issue on the user's computer end of things. For instance, when I was having the problem, I could go to the FORUM section and there I was always logged in as I had wanted. However, when I clicked on the "home" button, or went to the Flea Market, their system didn't have me logged in at all, even on the same visit. I would log in, click the "Remember Me" button, and I would be OK for the day, until I left the site (but not logging out) and later I could revisit and I would be logged in OK on the FORUMS, but nowhere else. This went on for some time (quite annoyingly) but wasn't consistent. I would be logged in sometimes everywhere, but most of the time, not, except on the FORUMS. However, I thought things were straightened out on the site, because about a month ago, I got the "Remember Me" to work correctly, and have been logged in correctly every time since then and at every location on the site.
 
Jimmy -

The MOA homepage and the Flea Market are separate pieces of software as related to the forum. Yes, that problem with the other areas existed for quite a while but the office was able to finally set the right parameters so the "Remember Me" feature worked.
 
That is usually a "cookie" issue Pete. With a clean-out of your browser history, temporary internet files, cookies and related it will allow your computer and the forum to sync-up on an up to date level. I hope you voted.
Thanks, Gary

Not sure that is correct, at least for me. I manually erase cookies and browsing history each time I use the Internet (yeah, call me paranoid but they really are out to get me) so I always have to login each time whether or not I select the "remember me" box. But I consider it an extra moment well spent for the benefit it gives me of no ads and spam.
 
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