Donating members off topic forum Visibility but not Access to non-donating members

[Ratdog]

It's not that the idea doesn't have merit but I do think fewer folks would end up donating merely to participate vice browsing.
If it were my site and I was trying to cover operating costs, I wouldn't make the change. just my 2 cents

[VictoriaGuy]

.... but I do think fewer folks would end up donating merely to participate vice browsing.

Sorry, but I don't understand...typo?

[Zilla]

I think I've brought this up before, but since we're on the dawn of a whole new look around I'm going to resubmit this for your consideration.

What if the donating member off topic forum and all the treads were visible to non-donating members but the thread was not accessible to them? They would be able to see the topic of the thread but when they click on it they would get a "To view this thread please become a donating member" sort of message and maybe a link to the donating member page.

This would in effect become it's own advertisement so non donating folks could see what topics are available before paying for it and it would answer all the "what happened to my thread" type posts because they could see where it was moved to, but they would get the above message when they click on it.

What do you think?

I think it would greatly increase the number of donaters, put the pork chop on the end of the stick !

[pegleg56]

I agree. Let others know what they're missing and you may sway them.

[FlyingFox]

Good idea +1

[latriper]

Good idea!
I was looking for best place to post some pics of my camp cooking and read there was a thread in the donating members section. Signed up for two years . If I would have known that sooner, I would have donated sooner. It is kind of the same reason I joined HF in the first place. I wanted to see the pics but you had to register to be a member to see them so I did.

[attroll]

The reason the Donating Members threads are not available for everyone to see is because they are for Donating Members only, hence the name. The other reason is because they would also be searchable by the web site search engines. If they were available to the web site search engines then all the topics in the Donating Members section that have nothing to do with Hammock Camping would be put in the internet for people to search through.

Our goal is to keep the web site Hammock related. To do this we kept the main part of the web site Hammock related for people looking to search and talk about Hammocks Camping in them. For those that want to talk about other things we have extended that so that they can if they are a Donating Member. We did not do this to try to get money. We did it to allow Donating Members to talk about things outside the main discussions of Hammock Camping in the forums. We did this to allow the main part of the forums to stay Hammock related only.

[Nighthauk]

Just for clarification you are ONLY asking to have the thread TITLES viewable not the content? Is this correct?

[OutandBack]

The reason the Donating Members threads are not available for everyone to see is because they are for Donating Members only, hence the name. The other reason is because they would also be searchable by the web site search engines. If they were available to the web site search engines then all the topics in the Donating Members section that have nothing to do with Hammock Camping would be put in the internet for people to search through.

Our goal is to keep the web site Hammock related. To do this we kept the main part of the web site Hammock related for people looking to search and talk about Hammocks Camping in them. For those that want to talk about other things we have extended that so that they can if they are a Donating Member. We did not do this to try to get money. We did it to allow Donating Members to talk about things outside the main discussions of Hammock Camping in the forums. We did this to allow the main part of the forums to stay Hammock related only.

I really hope it stays that way.

[attroll]

I really hope it stays that way.

It will stay that way. I am just trying to clarifying the reason it is that way. Thank you