Closed vs. online registration

Tell us what you think or what problems you had

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Open, closed?

Open! The more the merrier!
1
13%
Will somebody close that door, I'm freezing here!
7
88%
 
Total votes : 8

Closed vs. online registration

Postby Raf » Thu Nov 06, 2003 6:21 pm

I know it was supposed to be a temporary measure, but I think this closed group thing is actually a good thing in the long run as well. I went by CG for the first time in long and what struck me was the enormous amount of stupid posts on the forum like "what does good espresso taste like" or "what's the best machine?" or worse.

4500 members like CG is death to any online forum, I think you can be much more effective - not to mention pleasant - keeping those numbers low (maybe a few hundred really dedicated people is the maximum). What do you think?
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

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Postby DrZeus » Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:16 pm

I have nothing against closed registration, but I also think that we need to be careful not to shut out people who simply wish to learn from those in the group. I am almost positive that, of everybody here thus far, I have the most to learn. For instance, I haven't a clue how to pull a shot of espresso because I've never owned an espresso machine.

So, will you forgive me if some day you see a post from entitled "What's the best machine?" :)
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Postby michel » Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:28 pm

I was hesitating for quite a while... but voted open. This open has to be a 'limited' open though, as I agree with Neku's points...
Is it possible to make some sort of question list new members have to fill in, and if the answers are 'good' enough and we can be sure we have to deal with someone who is really interested in coffee, has love for it and is willing to learn and share... we can let him or her join...

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Postby Steve » Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:38 pm

I like the closed community. The ability to have control over who posts and finding out about new members before they join is fun (control freak).
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Postby michel » Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:43 pm

Still thinking about this question list - as I really think more intellegent people like us :wink: would be nice (more souls, more joy, more info, more opinions)- but as it is not possible to make some sort of multiple choice form (we have to ask question which are more subjective I think, like: what's the best coffee you've ever had) it may take some time reading and 'judging' 'all' the answers...
But if we have a good form, we can send this to several newsgroups, and people will be begging to join in no time... In the meantime, we only let a few people join every month... so toomuchcoffee will be some sort of open/closed site with a long waiting list and a good reputation (hell, you can put it on your CV when you go sollicitating for a new job: 'Member of the toomuchcoffee club since...'.)

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Postby phil » Thu Nov 06, 2003 10:45 pm

What worries me is the hack attempt we had a few weeks ago, just before we integrated the forum into Postnuke.

Also I like to pick my friends. You guys are my friends. People who genuinely want to join the site and are aligned to our world view are really welcome, IMNSHO.

So whilst I'm keen to increase the group size, I want to do so in a controlled fashion. Postnuke's User module doesn't allow for approval of new registrations. The (external) xUser module does, and I like the facilities it offers, but I have at least one quality issue with it that's preventing me from installing it at the moment.

So I vote to stay as we are at the moment, and to review the situation in a few months. I find Neku's comment re the CG community quite compelling. In the mean time, if anyone knows of (European) people they'd like to join the group please share this info with the group in the first instance.
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Postby phil » Thu Nov 06, 2003 10:56 pm

Michel, I think what you're actually describing is what we have now, more or less. I have the registration function set to invite people to mail me (as the webmaster rather than as "phil") if they want to join. When they do, as happened with Alan today, I ask them to give us a bit of a CV so we can decide. As a result, of the two unsolicited applicants so far, we've refused Randy Poe (because of the European residency restriction) and Alan's application is still undecided as I write this.

Neku, I reckon this is driving us towards at least one of the FAQ entries being about what the site is and who should join. I think I'll move this info from the News block to the FAQ when we've got something there.

Erm, while I'm about it perhaps I should come clean. All of my postings to the SM list these days have our website address in the signature. This is a bit of shameless recruiting - although I don't say "the European coffee enthusiast's site" 'cos that sounds massively big headed. This is how Randy and Alan have found us. :oops:
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Postby Raf » Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:43 am

No problem, Phil. I think SM's list is probably the best place to do recruiting: homeroasters tend to be quiet, intelligent people, right?
This week I am eagerly anticipating the first god shots from my La Spaziale machine....

La Spaziale S1, Vibiemme Domobar (retd), Mazzer Mini Electronic, Behmor 1600 230V
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Postby phil » Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:36 am

Neku wrote:homeroasters tend to be quiet, intelligent people, right?
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Postby HughF » Fri Nov 07, 2003 3:11 pm

I voted closed - I've just seen the first aggressively dumb response on CG for a while and there is so much posting (with some repetition) that it takes a lot of time to keep track of it. Also, if you want to impose any restrictions e.g. Euro residence, it's a lot more aggressive to ban someone once they have joined and posted than to decline them politely beforehand.

Cheers,

Hugh
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Postby phil » Fri Nov 07, 2003 3:49 pm

HughF wrote:Also, if you want to impose any restrictions e.g. Euro residence, it's a lot more aggressive to ban someone once they have joined and posted than to decline them politely beforehand.


Absolutely. Well said.
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Postby alans » Fri Nov 07, 2003 4:48 pm

As the newest member and one who went through the "mail Phil to get in" procedure, I think it's not an excessive requirement to ask and at least at the moment I do think it's a necessary one. For me the Euro only stance was a big plus and I'd hate it if the group was diluted just to hear more voices. Although I did find it annoying that something saying "Click here to become a member", didn't actually let you join.

Perhaps we should allow guest access to a particular forum, so that people can just ask a question, or contribute to a discussion, without having to join something they may not be that interested in (of course it would have to be moderated and moderation = administration).

Longer term I can see either the group staying small (not necessarily a bad thing as discussed above), or having two levels of membership.

Either way I don't feel I've been in the group long enough to vote on this one!

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Postby Sunnyfield » Mon Dec 01, 2003 4:35 pm

The last couple of days I started to think we should open this forum. Five more new members and I have no idea who is who any longer. At the other hand, I think we still need to shape this forum a bit more before we have established our niche market / franchise / specialty (whatever you want to call it).

Another reason to think about opening up this forum to European residents only, is that I have found that most Europeans that appear on CG and AC are slightly better informed than new Americans. I think this has to do with the fact that the group of Europeans looking at coffee is genuinely interested, otherwise they feel inhibited to join a forum. Whereas Americans seem to find it much more naturaly to join a new forum if it suits them. This is not a judgment but merely an observation. To summarise, I think that any European that would like to join would be genuinely interested to participate (where is Nass? ;) ). Or am I talking BS?

Nonetheless I would like to keep this forum closed a little bit longer to form an identity.
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Postby mnemonix » Mon Dec 01, 2003 11:41 pm

Another closed vote here, although i'm a newbie myself a smaller community in which one can get to know the other members is nice. It's also one of the things that makes this site different from alt.coffee and coffeegeek (Eurocentricity aside - which is definitely a good thing) - growth may be slower but we won't run the risk of becoming just 'more of the same'
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Postby moccafaux » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:51 pm

When I firsted entered tmc (through a post of Neku on cg, I think) I was astonished of not being able to join in a whim. But I liked the reason behind it and prefer the familiarity of a small community anyway.
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