Members only forums

[Bayrat]

Every time I look I notice there are 5-10 times as many lurkers on this board as members.  Why not make some of the grow areas members only?  It's free, will bump up the # of members big time, entice some lurkers to post, remove some unwanted "spying eyes"and allow everyone to see who's online.   Is there a downside?  I would say any area with grow tips and pictures.

[Paradoxic]

I dont really mind lurkers. I think that if people couldnt view some pages without a membership they might just leave the site. I know I do that sometimes on other sites.

Perhaps we could have some other kind of board...something that might intrigue people but I wouldn't want it to contain important grow info.

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

Just my 2 cents... Before I joined this board I was watching and looking through grow logs for over a week to know what to do when my plants arrived and to get a better understanding of how to care for them. Only after my plants arrived did I sign up to start a grow log and be part of the community. I probably wouldn't have joined if I couldn't see there was quality information in this board beforehand.

JARG

[Bayrat]

I agree on some points, but not really.  There are reasons people do not want to sign up.  Some are underage, some are in the media, some just in it for a quick high etc..  There are probably thousands of lurkers that hurt this "hobby" a lot more than do good for it.  Salvia will be banned in the near future in all states because the "wrong type" of people are buying, growing and playing with it.  The only reason it is not all over the news now is that very few people have successfully learned to grow it, and even then most are not to the point of mass production to sell to the masses.  Once it gets into widely available mass production, it WILL be banned.  So why speed things up?  When the laws start to hit the fan, where will all those lurkers be to help the fight?  If they are too lazy to sign up they are too lazy to help the hobby.  It may hurt site traffic at first I guess, but may help the cause in the long run (and help there be "a long run".  I guess the question is do we want to spread the word about saliva to all, or to just the ones that want to learn and respect it.

If I sound a little paranoid, I am, and for good reason.  If it gets banned in my state the clippers come out. 

Jarg, I lurked a little too, but if I had to join it would not have made a difference.  If people want to join they will.  If they don't then the question is "why do we want them lurking and how does that help us?"  That's right, this is a selfish hobby and it should be or it will be illegal.    Membership might not make that big a difference, but we would at least have some sort of idea who and how many are watching. 

[Paradoxic]

You've definitely got a point Bayrat. I am considering doing it. If Salvia becomes illegal in a certain number more states say 20 I will three things:
1) Make much of the site members only.
2) Remove the experience reports section.
3) Limit the Knowledge section to information that does not directly describe how to use Salvia divinorum

I would push site to focus primarily on research and cultivation. I feel this would lessen the chance that the site be shut down. Thanks for the suggestion.

What do you other guys think about my strategy if things get significantly more sticky?

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

As the site stands now:
I recommend removing or limiting exposure to "Other Psychoactives" as personally I feel this doesn't help the Salvia Community being on here. I do find it interesting, but I think it sends the wrong message being linked with Salvia. I agree that the site should focus primarily on research and cultivation.

If Salvia starts to become widespread illegal:
I think your 3 points are good ones.

JARG

[Paradoxic]

Yeah, I think you are right about the other psychoactives board, but I'm sure people would post about that stuff anyway. I'll have to decide what to do. I want to have the whole community's support and understanding before I change anything drastic.

One thought I had was to allow discussion about psychoactives but to limit it to scientific, objective discussion...basically no posting about directly using the substances just information about them. What do you think?

[JustAnotherRegularGuy]

It's great to find information how how to safely experience psychoactives that are legal, but on the other hand you don't want information on this site being used as reasons why these plants should be made illegal. I think if posts are directed towards using psychoactives in a safe and responsible manner AND those posts were accessible by members only, there wouldn't be a problem.

I have decided that I now agree with Bayrat and think more of the site should be members only areas. I can see his point of the wrong type of people lurking and using the information to hurt the legality of Salvia.

If we don't allow threads along the lines of "Here is how to get really F'd up on Salvia" it should be OK. And the moderators would be able to take care of these type of threads if they do get posted.

JARG

[bohmars]

I was thinking that a decent idea would be to make most or all of the forum sections member only,
excluding the cultivation which seems to be the most used and most lurked upon.

People can get a feel for what the site and community are like from that one section, but if they want to
become more involved in the community or access the other topics based on how they liked to example
cultivation section, they'll be more than happy to join.

I feel like a lot should be made member only, but we still need to have a couple forum sections open to
lurkers lest people take a look at the blocks and disregard the site as a whole.

[DrYRHead]

You've definitely got a point Bayrat. I am considering doing it. If Salvia becomes illegal in a certain number more states say 20 I will three things:
1) Make much of the site members only.
2) Remove the experience reports section.
3) Limit the Knowledge section to information that does not directly describe how to use Salvia divinorum

I would push site to focus primarily on research and cultivation. I feel this would lessen the chance that the site be shut down. Thanks for the suggestion.

What do you other guys think about my strategy if things get significantly more sticky?

We could also expand the theme to include research about other plants, or even other members of the Salvia genus. Perhaps, even some gardening oriented sections. That is if SD becomes illegal/banned in more states.

[Sea Mac]

Yeah, I think you are right about the other psychoactives board, but I'm sure people would post about that stuff anyway. I'll have to decide what to do. I want to have the whole community's support and understanding before I change anything drastic.

One thought I had was to allow discussion about psychoactives but to limit it to scientific, objective discussion...basically no posting about directly using the substances just information about them. What do you think?

I think this is the best policy.  I know at least one other forum where this is the rule.

Experience reports about the illegal substances should not be encouraged unless they are couched in terms of a dream.

Oh, and just so you know, a lot of lurkers are search engines crawling the web and following links. But there is no brain behind the hit.