Would you like to make the forum use by invitation only?

[TheBuddha]

You'd each get x-amount of invite codes and they'd replenish themselves ever x-days. (I can muck with those.)

Guests would need an invitation code in order to register. I can also replenish codes if there's an influx, though I doubt there would be much of one, but you never know. I'm thinking that some folks who aren't really 'goats' might want to visit, as I will probably share this site on a couple of other link aggregation sites.

It'd cut down on abuse/spam. It'd make the site a member's only type of site, which might turn some people off - or it may just make them want to join and participate.

I'm really indifferent, but think it's a nifty feature. As this site isn't about me, or necessarily even about what i want, I'm going to toss this at the community (such as it is.)

I'll be making zero changes until after the poll has expired. The poll is open for 14 days. Anyone can register in that time, regardless of how the poll ends up. I have confirmed and tested the modification and it will work with this site and with this theme. Please add any comments you can think of, with regards to this subject, as a comment to this thread.

[MrHarryReems]

Aww, looks like the voting is closed.  I would vote for invite only.  We need to keep those kids off of our lawn!!

[TheBuddha]

Yes, voting is closed.

The good news is that it will be going invite only. I would expect this change to take place in early January 2019. I will need to do some testing, but it appears to work. It's an SMF modification and those are sometimes buggy, so I'll have to do a bit of advanced testing that I've not yet done. I wanted to gauge community interest before investing the time to test.

Each user will be given x-amount of invite codes per x-amount of time. If they use those codes, they'll replenish themselves at the start of the next unit of time. Admins can generate extra invite codes as needed.

I am taking the entire month of January off. I was going to go on a real vacation, but that's no longer realistic. So, I will stay home and do only those things I feel like doing. Working on this site will be one of those things that I'll feel like doing. I will be doing zero work. Work is, in this case, defined as things I don't feel like doing at that point in time.

So, no date is set in stone - but it's likely to be January of 2019. I do want to give some time for folks to join and get involved early. I will be announcing when the change will take place. I will give people a couple of weeks, probably. I am assuming that I'll make three announcements.

After that, we go invite-only. We don't really have much of an issue with people trolling our community, but I'd like to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem. This is not a free-speech site. It's a limited speech zone. I don't really need the hassle of dealing with my hosting company kicking me out. So, we have limited speech - 'cause I also don't want to have to regularly use the moderation tools. I really dislike banning people and wasting my time removing posts.

This is not my first forum. No, no it is not.

[SandHog]

I voted to keep it public but I don't really have strong feelings about it either way. Probably much easier from an admin perspective to set it private, as you said. I'm good with whatever.

[TheBuddha]

It'll keep the riffraff out, should we get significant activity/growth.

I'll likely make an introductions/request invitations board.

I'd like to keep the board relatively functional AND I really don't care about the total number of participants. I care more about quality and activity. Active and good posts are preferred.

The goal is to provide the framework for y'all to build on. We don't need quantity for that.

I'll also make sure you have plenty of invites, at least to start. Besides, invite-only might make more people want to join. After all, it's an exclusive club. That might inspire people to participate.

[MrHarryReems]

Welcome to the Cool Kid's Club!

[SandHog]

I was told there would be punch and pie!

[TheBuddha]

There will be pie, but you have to come get it. On the way back from Farmington, I had the missus go the other way and we stopped and got two pies from the pie lady. They will be delicious!