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Why are Status updates hidden from guests?


The Deleter

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Typically I find this just an annoyance of being logged out of my account for some reason, but with the amount of brand new accounts that make status-update-appropriate threads like the recent ones, and with the inevitable, continuous shutdowns of the threads saying "status updates are more suited for this kind of thing" constantly, I have to wonder... why are the Status updates closed off from non-members, and why do we treat them as if they'd be common knowledge for brand new members who've never even seen them before?


I mean it can't be for personal reasons; status updates for individual users are entirely visible to guests on their profile, so that doesn't stop anything there. And the All Activity stream shows them when they pop up from time to time, as well. But the page and side bar itself isn't accessible at all, for some reason, and all that does is make the forums appear to be composed of threads, only, and doesn't give the full picture to anyone outside.

And what about the illusion of a lack of activity on here that comes from it? On our end, the forum is one of the more active Sonic forums out there, but from a guest's perspective -- at least currently, while thread discussion is lower than normal -- it appears to be a paragraph-composed wasteland, resulting in lost potential regulars, possibly.


So why are they closed off? Wouldn't it be better for everyone if they weren't?

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Maybe some sort of automated message to newcomers telling them status updates exist? I sure did not know when i joined and found out weeks later.

 

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Even if status updates are still technically visible in user profiles, I think their content is often personal enough to warrant being only visible to members on the main page. It's not a lot in the way of privacy, but there's an expectation that actual forum users with accounts will behave like a community. That's also why I think that, for the most part, only users are going to actually care about what's going on in statuses anyway. 

2 hours ago, The Deleter said:

And what about the illusion of a lack of activity on here that comes from it? On our end, the forum is one of the more active Sonic forums out there, but from a guest's perspective, at least currently while thread discussion is lower than normal, it appears to be a paragraph-composed wasteland, resulting in lost potential regulars, possibly.

Activity has definitely slowed down. It sure feels that way to me, and it's to be expected, since we've gone through an information drought, and I'm sure some people have naturally moved on. It'll probably pick up again, and this place isn't a ghost town or anything, but I wouldn't call the lack of activity an illusion, and I wouldn't blame losing regulars on anything like not being able to see status updates.

As for why, I obviously can't say. I'm just throwing in my 2 cents. 

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I really don't think there's anything to gain in the way of "privacy" by having them blocked off to guests.  Takes 2 minutes to make a dud account, and as said, they're perfectly readable on someone's user page if anyone was sad enough to be actively and maliciously spying on a user's status updates on a Sonic forum, going to the source would probably in fact be more convenient for them.

Personally I feel The Deleter's logic trumps any worthless pseudo-privacy.

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Whether the statuses were visible to guests or not, I don't think many members are posting particularly personal information on the status area. Some stuff is posted there but usually it's because the user is comfortable with it being seen.

For the more serious stuff, we have the personal discussion sub-forum that can't be found without logging in so it's not like we don't have a place for users to talk about their problems in a more closed-off environment.

I'm in the same boat really, I don't see any harm in the statuses being visible to all. If people see the activity on it and feel encouraged to sign up and join in then surely that's only a good thing? I mean there could be some great people out there that we could end up meeting just because of this.

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