Wondir: To Register Or Not

Wondir: To Register Or Not?


There seems to be a debate going on about whether or not un-registered users should be allowed to answer questions on Wondir.

As you all know I’m not shy about throwing my two-cents around. So here goes.

Having been around Wondir for awhile now, I know how big a pest some un-registered users can be on the site when they want to be, but I have also noticed that a vast majority of un-registered users answer questions correctly and can be a lot more helpful than some of the registered user accounts that I have had to delete over the past many months.

I first came to Wondir in August or September of 2004, simply to ask a question. I waited and got bored so I started answering questions, that’s probably how most of us got started.

Now there seems to be a movement afoot to make it a requirement that people register BEFORE you can help anyone. I’d rather see there be other benefits to registration than just the ability to answer questions.

I’ll be the first to tell you that if registration had been a requirement to answer posted questions then I probably never would have bothered with the site at all.

It’s too much work and usually too much spam down the line to bother registering. So most of the time I just bail on the site entirely.

By requiring a guest to register before being able to answer questions and give advice I believe that Wondir would be losing a very valuable resource, NEW USERS!

People want to be able to feel out a site before having to sign-up for anything. (Plus, coming up with a cool handle takes time, planning and just the right amount pizzazz!).

I say let people have time to choose, to freely roam the site asking and answering questions, once they feel at home they’ll sign up, if they have to register first they might lose interest and not bother coming back.

Once they really feel at home (read: addicted) they’ll register and become one of the named masses that currently frequent Wondir. They’ll become regulars (as opposed to irregulars?)
As for the trolls there’s ways to handle them too and ways to identify them too! (I smell another post coming…)