Currently, several forums require that you log into your free E-sangha account before you may read posts within that forum. Gradually, the majority of E-sangha forums will be like this. Guests and members that are not logged in, will be able to view forum sections and see the names of individual threads, but in order to actually open the thread and read posts, you will have to be logged on to your account.

This is done to both preserve bandwidth for our valuable members and to encourage guests to register for their free E-sangha account.

DS

The need to register was a good idea for all the reasons you pointed.
The first time I noticed the number of guests we usually have online compared to the number of registered users I was really surprised.
For instance, now there are 197 guests,47 members 4 anonymous members
Plus, the board may save cookies that make login automatic if one wants to. It also has a command to delete all cookies, so it's all pretty straight forward.

I can also say that I never had any privacy problems (and as you can see I have quite an amount of data publicly available). Sometimes this concerns people, so I thought about commenting my experience. Never had a problem or received any spam related to this board.

Don't be shy people. It's free and it worths it. Registration is very easy.

Dorje Shedrub;

Regarding the need to log-in in order to read posts, I understand the reasons given for the change (bandwidth and to encourage registration) and have no argument with those reasons. I would often visit the forum (as a ‘guest’), read a thread, leave and return to read another thread without logging-in unless I wanted to read threads in the Traditions section or post to a thread. Still, for me it is not critical either way, but it may be for first time visitors. I am very reluctant and generally avoid joining any forum that I cannot visit and read a sampling of posts, even if not all sections are available to guests.

I would strongly urge you to keep the Beginner’s Buddhism and General Buddhism Discussion open to guests. Rather than encouraging registration, closing all sections to guests may have the opposite effect.

Do no harm,
clyde

Thats a good point Clyde and I support your idea to keep some of the forums open as I would always hesitate to register into a website that is unknown to me without knowing anthing about the content that is found behind it.

Mindful

Now it seems that the e-mail notifications of new posts won't work. When I went to my e-mail and tried to go to a link from the e-mail notification, I got a message that I had to be logged in but even when I logged in, the link in the e-mail still took me to the error message page (about having to be logged in first). I had to search through the new posts to find the one I was looking for - a bit of a pain and it makes the e-mail notification pretty useless.

Maybe I'm missing something - I'm not the most savvy techno-user.

Thanks very much.

Try clicking on "delete all cookies set by this board" on the lower right of the main index page; clear your browser cache, then log off and log back on. If you still have the problem with email notifications, please start a thread in the "Tech Forum" or give me a PM.

DS

well, i'm gonna have to throw my vote in with those who suggest keeping more of the forums open to guests. E-sangha is an incredible resource for those interested in Buddhism. Not everyone feels comfortable to join. How about if you are a Muslim in Indonesia, Iran or Saudi Arabia, interested in the Dharma? I think there are many who have gained a lot by reading this forum, but who would not feel comfortable becoming "members" of a Buddhist message board.

The Beginner's Buddhism Forum and Buddhist Comparative Religion and Philosophy Forum especially, seem to me like locations that should be open to guests. I support the idea of closing off many sections, but right now almost everything seems to have been locked down. Even the Current Events area! How does this demonstrate trust and open-ness to others, nondual awareness, the idea that there is in reality no "us" and "them"?

Respectfully, how are we helping to share the Dharma, when we create walls to knowledge and information?

peace,
chris:::

Ditto, and excuse any cynicism.

Thanks,
Abu

No opinions either way. Board management seems to be doing a good job in general. If this maneuver will eliminate pink screens then I am all for it.

Just to provide info for this discussion, right now there are:

269 guests, 60 members 11 anonymous members

I have two browsers on my Mac, Firefox and Safari, i'm logged in with Firefox and not Safari so one of those guests is me!

I got into this forum, but couldnt get into Buddhism News, Beginner's Buddhism, Zen and Chan Buddhism, Vegetarian, Beatnik Buddhism, Buddhist Media...

Even the Beginner's Buddhism Library is locked out to guests!!! That's a read only forum.

I wonder what those guests are doing, just walking around knocking on closed doors?

sigh

Count me in with Riv. geezlouize peeps, lighten up!
What's the Buddhadharma for? Hiding under a rock?
What does Kwan Yin think about that?

I just reread DS's original post. He did say that "gradually, the majority of E-sangha forums will be like this." It should be noted that as a guest it looks like some areas are readable when they are actually not.

Right now, as a guest, the Engaged Buddhism forum reads like this:

Today, 03:52 AM
In: Protected Forum
By: RiverKat

While Coffee Lounge reads as:

Today, 01:36 PM
In: Crazy ant problem
By: pema drolma

It looks like the Coffee Lounge is "open" while in reality both forums are closed to guests.

Which could explain why at this moment we have:

216 guests, 47 members 6 anonymous members

If a change isnt made soon, we will probably find those guest numbers dropping in a month or so, as people learn that there's no longer anything here for them to see...

Are the search engines like google "members"? I say this because I find it much easier to use google to search forums, using input like this:
site:http://www.lioncity.net keywords
than the internal search engine (which won't let you search for the word "zen" for example )

Metta
Mike

If it preserves bandwidth I am all for it. The servers have been getting slower lately.

I agree. Other websites are clamouring to get more people to visit theirs. Within the constraints of limited resources, E-sangha too should encourage all interested persons to "Come and See for themselves " (Ehi passiko)

I also must throw in a vote to leave at LEAST the Beginner's Buddhism and Beginner's Buddhism Library permanently open to guests, and preferably General Buddhism Discussion and Comparative Religion and Philosophy as well.

I'm a little surprised that members would be so selfish about how slow the server seems to be getting. Frankly, if it disseminates the Buddhadharma, I'm willing to wait ten more seconds for a page to load. I know that I did not sign up for this forum until AFTER I had browsed it as a guest and found it fun. By shutting out guests, you are reducing the rate of new members joining by at least half, I'd guess.

I'm against closing down these boards to guests. Or rather, I'm FOR re-opening them.

If we want to encourage guests to join, i wonder, perhaps the Mods might create some kind of welcoming message that describes specifically which sections are open. Definitely some of the libraries should be, no?

And Beginner's Buddhism is logical as well.

PS. Thanks to the Moderators for all the time and effort you put in here as volunteers. Hope you dont mind all us "back seat drivers" throwing our 2 cents in here.

i just read this thread as a "guest". i don't always log in when i come to e-sangha. i might read a few threads or blogs and only log in if i want to post. i have noticed lately that forums have been closed and that has forced me to log in, when i wouldn't have otherwise. I wonder how many "guests" are members who haven't logged in? If there are a lot more members like me out there, it won't help with the bandwidth, will it? We will just have to log in each time.

Also, is there a way to increase bandwidth? Excuse me, but i am ignorant of such things as bandwidth.

Hello All,

Some of the sites I visit ask for a membership fee to offset cost of operation, I notice here at E-Sangha it is free to use the site, so that's really great considering that sites cost money to operate, so the donations, of course, go to the operation of the site, the Mods are not paid, they probably spend literally hours helping to monitor the boards (of course that is meritorious).

IMHO it would be good merit for many of us that have been on E-Sangha as regulars over time, or those of us that appreciate such a site, to simply donate at a basic level maybe once in a while, just to help with the site's overall general funding. We can then dedicate the merit of that giving, and there are few places where people of many backgrounds in Buddhism, or for that matter people with different faiths (or no particular "background") can come to read and ask questions about Buddhism, so this is a unique opportunity in cyberspace in that regard. People can come and see what's being said about literally a myriad of topics, they can ask questions about teachers, teachings, and initiations, that's really great.

I think many individuals read The Beginner Buddhism topics, if you look at the numbers it shows lots of those topics being read. In this day and age, it is good to be able to study about teachings, and teachers, also where centers can be found, and all the topics we might have some question about. Many Buddhists are a bit isolated, there maybe no center nearby, and maybe they are in the middle of someplace where there's not to much going on at all, so I have seen many times on the site that people find out if there is something happening somewhere, especially a specific teaching or place which they might be drawn to, this can help further their studies in Buddha Dharma, many times I have seen that guidance facilitated for individuals through E-Sangha site, so that's great.

Keeping topics open is always a great idea, however one has to always look at the practical side of things too.



dzongmo

Guests have a separate welcome forum that does not appear to members - its in the tops news and announcement section - log off and view the main index page as a guest and you will see it.

Many of the guests you see listed are search bots. They are allowed access to the forum to do their thing.

All guests can view the board index and titles of the various threads - they just have to log in in order to read the posts or to make threads/posts themselves. Several of the forums were like this already, but previously guests could not even view thread titles, but now they can.

Since this is a free board, as well as the largest Buddhist forum on the Net, I don't see a problem with asking people to register a free account if they wish to have total access to the forum. Some forums require you to pay to have access. Those members that become donors help to offset the costs of running this board.

As we grow we hope to continue to offer new and exciting things. You notice that we now have many more subforums to meet the various needs of our members. This is for our E-sangha community. Being a community is another reason to require guests to register. We are not just a bulletin board for people to find information - there is plenty of that all over the Net. We are an Online Sangha with people that care about each other, help each other, share information, experiences, etc. This involves being a contributing community member. The most basic contribution is becoming a member, and after that, being active in the community by reading and posting.

DS