Guests

[Mathy Stockington]

When I wrote my story I watched the numbers grow as the weeks went by with each post. What I realized was that more guests read the story then people who have an account on the forums.

I also know this has been brought up before: http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=29120.0. Though I still would like to know why there are so many guests compared to people who have accounts. Might suggest that all our guests that play sign on and have a voice in what goes on here? Certainly out of all the people who read my story I am sure more can let me know what they thought then have already. More importantly are the polls that are here to get a true and accurate answer. I for one would love to hear from more people. We all can have a voice here.

Thank you for allowing me to post my thoughts.

Mathy.

[Nikodemus]

As for polls, i think the comments are far more important that the poll result.

And for the quests issue. Since you don't have to log in to read, you browse without it as a guest. I'm sure many of these are lke this. As for the rest. They just don't feel like registering. Nothing wrong in that.

[Candy]

Some people just like to lurk. If I didn't want to say anything, I wouldn't have registered either; all my account would have done was sit there taking up space.

[Izzabella]

I know  a lot of people that simply just read the forums to keep up to date because to be an active member in this community you almost  always have to keep up with the forums in some way or another but at the same time there are a lot of people who don't like to state their opinions and such for whatever reasons, afraid of being flamed for one, sometimes forums can get very out of hand very quickly but I do know several PS players that simply just read the forums and don't actually have an account.

But the real question is does it really matter if we know who's doing what? I mean just do your own thing and go about your own business and let them do theirs. It will all work out in the end.

[Lanarel]

I know  a lot of people that simply just read the forums to keep up to date because to be an active member in this community you almost  always have to keep up with the forums in some way or another ...

Keeping up with new posts is MUCH easier when you are registered and the forum lists all new posts for you. But as long as you are not registered, you would not know that

[Izzabella]

Okay well I also know a few players that are not yet 13 and a lot of forums require you to be 13 or older and they find that a hassle.

but I dunno I was just guessing next time I see someone in game that I know only reads and is not registered I'll ask them why not so I can let you all know

[Mathy Stockington]

It just seems to me that if a person plays PS they would want to be part of the forums also. Let me know what you find out Izzabella please.

[Candy]

Okay well I also know a few players that are not yet 13 and a lot of forums require you to be 13 or older and they find that a hassle.

but I dunno I was just guessing next time I see someone in game that I know only reads and is not registered I'll ask them why not so I can let you all know

Tch, that never stopped me or the other 11- and 12-year-olds I knew back in my day.

Also, I've never read that whole agreement thingie, but I think under-13 kids are allowed to join if their parents say yes.

[Prolix]

One thing you should consider about the number of views is that it isn't unique viewers. The moderator looks at every post if they are not coming too fast but that may be separate and not count but it does increment every time you or anyone else reads the next post. If I were following the thread closely I may have accounted for 7 of the views myself. And then there are the times when I want to check posts that were on previous pages and may have 3 or more views open in different tabs.

[Mathy Stockington]

Prolix,

Does that mean of the 2697 reads, to date, for my story, less then half have actually read the story? They only looked at the posts that people made to it?

* Mathy Stockington is sad to think about that.

[Prolix]

Well, lets see. I just looked at 4 pages of your story and exited and re-entered the thread 4 times more in one session and the count only incremented once. I then closed my browser, opened it again, came back to the forum and entered the thread again whereupon it incremented again. It appears to increment only when viewed in separate sessions but I did not test it exhaustively. Now there are 38 parts to your story, judging from the chapter headings so that if every chapter was a different session, you account for at least 37 of those views. The original post does not count as a view. Of course some of the late-comers may have generated only 1 view by reading the whole thread at once, but your loyal readers who have been there from the beginning will have a larger number individual views. I think you could optimistically claim from this reasoning 1/5 of the total views as unique viewers though that is probably high.

Another method for determining how many people have read your story would be to count how many have commented on it and then double or triple that number. The true number is probably somewhere between the numbers derived by these methods. Unfortunately the forum software does not show complete statistics as might be desired.

[Mathy Stockington]

Prolix,

Thank you for the time and effort it took for you to figure this out. I hope you enjoyed my story.

In any case, if the forums are so important to the people who play the game, I would still like to see them register here so they can tell us what they think of things that are spoken about here just like you do.

Thank you again Prolix.

[Izzabella]

I figured it out!
I am so smart!
Its the flame wars and the pure nastiness you can get from posting your thoughts/ideas/opinions and whatever on the forums that scares people away.
It keeps people from registering so they don't post back or post something they thought was nice and get a rude response in return. I personally have had to be told by people in the past to back away from the forums or at least certain topics until I calmed down about the issue..and I don't mean because I was pissed  off ..sometimes it was because I was so upset or even in tears at what some of you guys were saying that my friends would have to tell me things like 'stop reading that thread for now!' "don't post for 24 hours" 'don't listen to what they are saying" or just whatever (and of course I never listened and you can tell what posts I've made where I was rather emotional and upset ) I don't think  people realize how much their words can hurt someone and they just post away as if they don't care about anyone but themselves.

And in fact I now know people that have switched from registered users to deleting their accounts and not reading the forums anymore or at least if they do they don't log in to an account because of this issue.

Also If you ask me it should NOT be mandatory to be a part of the forums to play Planeshift-- a game based on role play..because the forums are very OOC if you ask me. I mean yes there are a few IC threads and what not like I guess its supposed to be a sign or something that my char would see at harn's..but if I can't learn about it in game where my char is then I don't regard it as super important because not everyone uses the forums for their own personal reason but I think the main reason is because people can be just plain mean.

thats just my opinion.

* Izzabella steps off her soap box and prepares to be flamed.

[neko kyouran]

Izzy...............






wins a cookie. 

[Candy]

Also If you ask me it should NOT be mandatory to be a part of the forums to play Planeshift-- a game based on role play..because the forums are very OOC if you ask me. I mean yes there are a few IC threads and what not like I guess its supposed to be a sign or something that my char would see at harn's..but if I can't learn about it in game where my char is then I don't regard it as super important because not everyone uses the forums for their own personal reason but I think the main reason is because people can be just plain mean.

thats just my opinion.

* Izzabella steps off her soap box and prepares to be flamed.

True, but PM'ing and planning can enhance the game, too - especially if you don't catch a freind of yours involved in the same plot online much

(If Roled's player is lurking this: Hint, hint )