Logged in as guest
- Thread starter Prairie Dog
- Start date
You don't have to be a member to read. It's all public, with the exception of the Marketplace I believe.
Strewth
New member
It changed; if you log out and then come back to GOC, you can see posts. It kinda bugs me, but really, it's just like any of the other forums I Google; Rimfire Central, S&W forum, CZ forum, etc.
The only part I wonder about is if this makes the site more or less attractive to become a member of; I've signed up for a couple of forums because they were hidden, the open ones I just read, and don't sign up to.
I kinda think CGN has the right balance; as a Guest you can see the sponsor's forums, and the rest of the site is Googleable, but not immediately accessible like it is to members.
Just tried that, no go. I had to log in to see the forum. Could it be browser specific? I'm using Firefox.
Try again. It's the same for all browsers. I can read all but the Marketplace and the GOC Issues section when logged off.
Rusty Shackleford
New member
I can look around without logging in. IE 11. Not the off topic area though.
I too am one that thinks it would be better to have to log in to read. Give a few things out but not the good stuff. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?
Like most things that come out of the hole under my nose....just my opinion.
I too am one that thinks it would be better to have to log in to read. Give a few things out but not the good stuff. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?
Like most things that come out of the hole under my nose....just my opinion.
Lord Vader
New member
I want to bump this topic.
As of right now, there are currently 219 users online. 104 members and 115 guests.
Why don't we privatize a few more sections so that people are forced to log on? We might even see a few new faces.
As of right now, there are currently 219 users online. 104 members and 115 guests.
Why don't we privatize a few more sections so that people are forced to log on? We might even see a few new faces.
Strewth
New member
harbl_the_cat
Active member
I can't speak for the mods/site owners, but when it comes to website development, search engine optimization and page ranking is the key to attract traffic to your site and locking your site off is a great way to kill off search engine web traffic.
You'll notice CGN locks all their forums EXCEPT vendor forums. You'll notice CGN's ribbon bar has an enormous amount of sponsors and I'm pretty sure they still have a user base in the 100,000 range - ergo, they can probably (for now) get away with locking down their forums for non-registered users. They have a huge base of users and revenue sources and not much need to aggressively grow their forum.
If the GOC founders/owners aren't locking off their forums it's because they are actively trying to grow their site - which I think is a good thing.
So as an example, if I'm a gun loving brony googles "AR 15" "My Little Pony" and sees 10 threads started on GOC by a guy named Harbl_the_Cat, including thesis length analysis of individual episodes with philosophical analysis of each different pony and how each of them personify a particular technical feature of an AR 15, they are inclined to visit the page.
If they can read through Harbl the Cat's detailed and insightful posts and from each one they find a thorough comparison about the ballistic characteristics and terminal performance of apple pies versus party cannons, they are inclined to join in on the discussion, further contributing to increased page rank, greater short and long teal search engine hits, and more traffic drawn in, along with registrations.
In other words - more people need to write mega posts, at least 2000 words long, so that if someone does a search on Google for a related topic, GOC will be page ranked higher. I suspect that's one reason the mods only give me the occasional light flogging about posting random BS in huge quantity.
Case in point. As of today, Google search: "Canada Guns Bible study" guess what's page ranked second?
That's right: http://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/showthread.php?13569-Bible-Study
Perhaps Jwire and Zulu have me on payroll as a GOC shill...
Seriously though - I don't think the sight owners should close off the forums - I don't think most of the members should want them to either.
Remember, the Tavor contest REQUIRES 12,000 members to join by December. GOC's at about 8500 and the year's half over - so there's quite a way to go...
You'll notice CGN locks all their forums EXCEPT vendor forums. You'll notice CGN's ribbon bar has an enormous amount of sponsors and I'm pretty sure they still have a user base in the 100,000 range - ergo, they can probably (for now) get away with locking down their forums for non-registered users. They have a huge base of users and revenue sources and not much need to aggressively grow their forum.
If the GOC founders/owners aren't locking off their forums it's because they are actively trying to grow their site - which I think is a good thing.
So as an example, if I'm a gun loving brony googles "AR 15" "My Little Pony" and sees 10 threads started on GOC by a guy named Harbl_the_Cat, including thesis length analysis of individual episodes with philosophical analysis of each different pony and how each of them personify a particular technical feature of an AR 15, they are inclined to visit the page.
If they can read through Harbl the Cat's detailed and insightful posts and from each one they find a thorough comparison about the ballistic characteristics and terminal performance of apple pies versus party cannons, they are inclined to join in on the discussion, further contributing to increased page rank, greater short and long teal search engine hits, and more traffic drawn in, along with registrations.
In other words - more people need to write mega posts, at least 2000 words long, so that if someone does a search on Google for a related topic, GOC will be page ranked higher. I suspect that's one reason the mods only give me the occasional light flogging about posting random BS in huge quantity.
Case in point. As of today, Google search: "Canada Guns Bible study" guess what's page ranked second?
That's right: http://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/showthread.php?13569-Bible-Study
Perhaps Jwire and Zulu have me on payroll as a GOC shill...
Seriously though - I don't think the sight owners should close off the forums - I don't think most of the members should want them to either.
Remember, the Tavor contest REQUIRES 12,000 members to join by December. GOC's at about 8500 and the year's half over - so there's quite a way to go...
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I'm not sure I agree with you. In my opinion, we won't gain new members if we let them access everything without registering. To be clear, I'm not proposing this just to reach the win-a-gun number. I sincerely want GOC to grow. Of course, with growth comes the inevitable barrage of nonsense, conflict, trolling and derailing. I don't want to attract the riff raff that pollute other forums. Such members only attract bad attention. What I would like to see is a place where we can have civil discussions; a place where like-minded people can share stories; a place where butting heads can share opinions and hopefully come together as one.
Granted, the site does benefit by allowing people to read everything without posting useless jibber jabber.
We have had it open in the past and we have seen more growth since we opened the forum for most sections to read. People see how we conduct ourselves and join because they want to join in, not because they have to.
We would rather have open communication with those that want to be apart rather then those that are only members because they have to.
We would rather have open communication with those that want to be apart rather then those that are only members because they have to.
Strewth
New member
In light of of comments made in the recent Search Function thread, I'm bumping this old thread.
As of right now:
Call be cynical, but while I understand the rationale as explained by jwire above, and while and it's obvious that we're being watched by our overlords, my impression is that these 420 "guests" aren't here for open communication or even to be a part of the community. I don't believe that asking people to sign up and be signed in to read the forums is much to ask. But maybe that's just me. As explained, they join because they want to join. If they don't want to, then they probably don't really want to read our conversations all that much. If they're just here to snoop and gather intel, so be it. At least registering helps cut down the what might be a whole lot of bots harvesting data.
Aniest
Well-known member
I would guess that about 320 "guests" are bots of some type from Google, Bing and others, as well as those set up by anti-gun people and organizational agencies. The other 70 "guests" are likely people who got sent here by a bot, someone searching a topic and GOC ended up one of the links. The last 30 will be the individuals here, as you say, not to be a part of this community.
Don't kid yourself though: needing a log in doesn't change the fact that everything on CGN is logged by Anti-gun people, groups and organizations. I don't doubt that one of the reasons the names of logged in people is hidden now (I believe years ago the logged in names used to be bottom of main forums page with the other stats) is because active members got curious of the organizational bots, the names that were on 24/7 but had a zero post count. I can also say that a log in doesn't keep the anti-gun people from being on the site and taking notes as I got one of those in the family. Oh, and that person is here too taking a lot of notes about certain members and what they say, more than happy to bring select quotes to the people who write anti-gun legislation.
In the end the decision to make what parts of the site open and what parts limited is up to those making the decision based on readership, participation, sustainability, image, revenue and so forth. If anti-gun people and organizational agencies are reading, recording and/or quoting everything will not be stopped by a membership log-in so that should be on the bottom for reasoning; and only Google bots and the like will be stopped by it, and that may not be a good thing to stop in every case.
spider69
Active member
Posters,whether members or guests,would do well to remember that there's no such thing as a closed internet site,especially,ones such as these even with a "secure log-in". All "anti" organizations regularly monitoring these sites is well known. Also,intel gathering security organizations have unfettered access to every aspect of sites and forums such as this simply from the standpoint of tracking people whom may be regarded as risks to national security after some of the sketchy posts against political figures and/or posters or even lurkers from out-of-country networks. There's no such thing as privacy on the internet.......period.
Doug_M
New member
Coronavirus/COVID
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/sh...e-arrival-of-SARS-like-coronavirus-from-China
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (1 members and 0 guests)
5 of the Best Cartridges for Hunting Western Big Game
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/sh...-Best-Cartridges-for-Hunting-Western-Big-Game
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Memes
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/showthread.php/52203-You-Laugh-You-Lose-VOL-3?highlight=coronavirus
There are currently 18 users browsing this thread. (1 members and 17 guests)
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/sh...e-arrival-of-SARS-like-coronavirus-from-China
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (1 members and 0 guests)
5 of the Best Cartridges for Hunting Western Big Game
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/sh...-Best-Cartridges-for-Hunting-Western-Big-Game
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (1 members and 0 guests)
Memes
https://www.gunownersofcanada.ca/showthread.php/52203-You-Laugh-You-Lose-VOL-3?highlight=coronavirus
There are currently 18 users browsing this thread. (1 members and 17 guests)
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There are, but the technology is always evolving. You plug a hole, and they find another.
harbl_the_cat
Active member
A lot of those "guests" are people who find public GOC posts through web searches.
Over the years, I've gone back and found my old posts simply by Googling topics I posted about before.
That's one way for a forum like this to grow - by having good, public content that's easily search engine optimized.
The downside is anyone can find it, theoretically.
The upside is most people who find it will find it based on topics that they can find through a google search and a lot of the traffic will be focused on that content to begin with.
I stumbled upon an ANTIFA forum that is also public a few months ago but I doubt that anyone here would be able to find simply because the odds of most people here searching for easily search topics that those people talk about is quite low.
Also I was doing some very advanced hackery to find them... it's seriously like going into the twilight zone seeing what some of those guys talk about. They talk a lot about the same sort of gun related stuff we talk about, but then they go on Doxxing witch hunts, reputation and career assassination, coordinate boycotts with leftists political groups, and of course, organize riots... it's REALLY creepy.
I'm pretty sure the site operator here know which forums get the most traffic and keep those open for search indexing. It's a good strategy to promote growth.
A good way to make money is to have private forums that are only accessible to logged in members OR that can only be found by sharing links. Both have different use cases that can be used to generate growth, revenue, and community.
Interestingly, YouTube does this too. There's 4 different states for YouTube videos from monetized partners: Public, Private, Unlisted, and Membership. Public is optimized for Google / YouTube search. Private and Membership are by creator invitation only, and unlisted is by shared link only.
This is how web content naturally organizes itself into surface / deep web layers of the internet.
Interesting to know is that content can be both public and deep web. It all boils down to SEO. In that scenario, from a practical standpoint it's almost as good as being secured and unindexable by a search engine.
Over the years, I've gone back and found my old posts simply by Googling topics I posted about before.
That's one way for a forum like this to grow - by having good, public content that's easily search engine optimized.
The downside is anyone can find it, theoretically.
The upside is most people who find it will find it based on topics that they can find through a google search and a lot of the traffic will be focused on that content to begin with.
I stumbled upon an ANTIFA forum that is also public a few months ago but I doubt that anyone here would be able to find simply because the odds of most people here searching for easily search topics that those people talk about is quite low.
Also I was doing some very advanced hackery to find them... it's seriously like going into the twilight zone seeing what some of those guys talk about. They talk a lot about the same sort of gun related stuff we talk about, but then they go on Doxxing witch hunts, reputation and career assassination, coordinate boycotts with leftists political groups, and of course, organize riots... it's REALLY creepy.
I'm pretty sure the site operator here know which forums get the most traffic and keep those open for search indexing. It's a good strategy to promote growth.
A good way to make money is to have private forums that are only accessible to logged in members OR that can only be found by sharing links. Both have different use cases that can be used to generate growth, revenue, and community.
Interestingly, YouTube does this too. There's 4 different states for YouTube videos from monetized partners: Public, Private, Unlisted, and Membership. Public is optimized for Google / YouTube search. Private and Membership are by creator invitation only, and unlisted is by shared link only.
This is how web content naturally organizes itself into surface / deep web layers of the internet.
Interesting to know is that content can be both public and deep web. It all boils down to SEO. In that scenario, from a practical standpoint it's almost as good as being secured and unindexable by a search engine.
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FALover
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If those 'guests' have not been invited, then they are technically party crashers.
Dewey Cox
Señor Member
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There's always bots trying to get in, but there's a whole boat load of folks who just come here to see what's being said without really posting much.....half are probably CSIS spooks. HI BOB !!
(not RangeBob) LOL.At the time of writing: "There are currently 481 users online. 9 members and 472 guests"
Dearest GOC owner, are you paying attention? I realize there's an admin and mods here running the show for you. But since you took over the place and some other member announced that big changes were coming...crickets.
Lock this place down, please. No, not a la covid lockdowns. Lock the front door and give the key to members only.
Dearest GOC owner, are you paying attention? I realize there's an admin and mods here running the show for you. But since you took over the place and some other member announced that big changes were coming...crickets.
Lock this place down, please. No, not a la covid lockdowns. Lock the front door and give the key to members only.
Dewey Cox
Señor Member
What difference would it make?
It's not like you have to send in your social insurance number to get a membership here
It's not like you have to send in your social insurance number to get a membership here
It's an added layer.
Sure, bots are sophisticated these days, but anything helps. And it's not just the bots. It's the bad actors. Sure it's easy to create a free account and just lurk. Many people do it. But a serious forum admin can monitor IP addresses and activity. Yes, you can use a VPN, but there are other ways to fingerprint.
Better than a mere account creation though, is a system where members in good standing have to vouch for new members. There are options to help clean up the place. Mind you, there more than just a clean-up needed here. But it seems the powers that be are more interested in advertising deals on the competing forum.
Anyway. Food for thought.
OK Awndray and others who want to restrict access, analyze me.
I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think overall my contributions here haven't been detrimental.
I just follow the same rule wherever I go on the wild & woolly web... I don't say anything thru the keyboard that I wouldn't say in person.
Having a front end that requires signup before even browsing a topic of interest is a non-starter for me, I move on.
I suspect many eyeballs have the same opinion, given the glut of information that is always just a keystroke away.
And a vouch system? There are actual gun clubs I won't go near due to that stuffy attitude.
In my world, everyone gets a chance to prove who they are by their actions.
Anything less is a thought-crime scenario. I won't be part of it.
I stumbled across this forum by following a daisy chain of links that started with something posted on the 'other' forum -
It was free to check out, so I became interested. The culture here is on the whole, more agreeable here and so I spend far more time here than the other place. Kudos to the mods for keeping it sane.
I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think overall my contributions here haven't been detrimental.
I just follow the same rule wherever I go on the wild & woolly web... I don't say anything thru the keyboard that I wouldn't say in person.
Having a front end that requires signup before even browsing a topic of interest is a non-starter for me, I move on.
I suspect many eyeballs have the same opinion, given the glut of information that is always just a keystroke away.
And a vouch system? There are actual gun clubs I won't go near due to that stuffy attitude.
In my world, everyone gets a chance to prove who they are by their actions.
Anything less is a thought-crime scenario. I won't be part of it.
I stumbled across this forum by following a daisy chain of links that started with something posted on the 'other' forum -
It was free to check out, so I became interested. The culture here is on the whole, more agreeable here and so I spend far more time here than the other place. Kudos to the mods for keeping it sane.
You're reading too much into it. Look at the other site. Like it or not, even they do it. Many forums (for all subject matters) do it.
I've said enough.
I've said enough.
harbl_the_cat
Active member
The reason there's so many guests is because some forums are indexed by Google and people doing a google search often find threads here.
I've actually been creating some threads specifically to test how Google crawls this site and indexes it's content.
Search traffic is essential for the growth of an online community like this - because otherwise the only way to grow is direct share / word of mouth traffic.
One of the reasons I dog on you so much Awndray is because I KNOW a lot of people see your posts based off their search traffic - and a lot of that traffic is from other gun owners doing research.
It doesn't help them when they see a repeated theme of: "Everything is hopeless, we should all just give up" but a lot of your posts come up with common Google searches.
The Google algorithm has text parsing and machine learning algorithms that can specifically target language that convey certain emotions - in your case fear, uncertainty and doubt (the algorithm LOVES that kind of content, because it's easiest to go viral)
Given that we know Google developers are primarily anti-gun - giving them the power of your emotional metadata gives them tremendous power to distribute your posts out of context to an audience that can use your words against you.
Moreover, in the Web 3.0 ecosystem the greatest threat malicious actors have isn't their ability to doxx you or access your private information.
It's to cancel you completely and make it so no one can find you.
Locking down the forum so no body can find it actually serves the anti-gun agenda, not ours.
Given the influx of "guests" we've seen in recent days, I'm confident in saying a lot of those "guests" are gun owners who previously were complacent or ignorant to the goings on of the Liberal government and were taken by surprised by the new laws.
Seeing them gravitate towards this site is a good thing - because it means we can attract more gun owners who potentially can help the cause.
Think about Operation Turf Mark Holland that CGN ran, I think in 2009.
It was because CGN had such a large active user base they were able to fund raise and get on the ground volunteers (grass roots organizing) to get Mark Holland turfed in that election.
Growing GOC would enable us to do something of that nature again.
The problem now is that Trudeau's enablers, handlers, and core support are basically bought for and paid by the Trudeau liberals (and the Federal government).
To counter that, we need more grassroots communities, like GOC, to keep growing and better assert our influence.
I've actually been creating some threads specifically to test how Google crawls this site and indexes it's content.
Search traffic is essential for the growth of an online community like this - because otherwise the only way to grow is direct share / word of mouth traffic.
One of the reasons I dog on you so much Awndray is because I KNOW a lot of people see your posts based off their search traffic - and a lot of that traffic is from other gun owners doing research.
It doesn't help them when they see a repeated theme of: "Everything is hopeless, we should all just give up" but a lot of your posts come up with common Google searches.
The Google algorithm has text parsing and machine learning algorithms that can specifically target language that convey certain emotions - in your case fear, uncertainty and doubt (the algorithm LOVES that kind of content, because it's easiest to go viral)
Given that we know Google developers are primarily anti-gun - giving them the power of your emotional metadata gives them tremendous power to distribute your posts out of context to an audience that can use your words against you.
Moreover, in the Web 3.0 ecosystem the greatest threat malicious actors have isn't their ability to doxx you or access your private information.
It's to cancel you completely and make it so no one can find you.
Locking down the forum so no body can find it actually serves the anti-gun agenda, not ours.
Given the influx of "guests" we've seen in recent days, I'm confident in saying a lot of those "guests" are gun owners who previously were complacent or ignorant to the goings on of the Liberal government and were taken by surprised by the new laws.
Seeing them gravitate towards this site is a good thing - because it means we can attract more gun owners who potentially can help the cause.
Think about Operation Turf Mark Holland that CGN ran, I think in 2009.
It was because CGN had such a large active user base they were able to fund raise and get on the ground volunteers (grass roots organizing) to get Mark Holland turfed in that election.
Growing GOC would enable us to do something of that nature again.
The problem now is that Trudeau's enablers, handlers, and core support are basically bought for and paid by the Trudeau liberals (and the Federal government).
To counter that, we need more grassroots communities, like GOC, to keep growing and better assert our influence.
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I don’t have much to add to this conversation other than my personal experiences, I frequently roam around on other reloading forums if I’m looking for some kind of information about different things. I do so as a guest and if I’m unable to enter a forum without creating an account, I just move on.
That’s how I found this one, I lurked around for quite a while before deciding to join because I enjoyed this site over cgn. I don’t know anything about bots or cyber security I just think we would have fewer members and fewer future members if the front door was locked.
That’s how I found this one, I lurked around for quite a while before deciding to join because I enjoyed this site over cgn. I don’t know anything about bots or cyber security I just think we would have fewer members and fewer future members if the front door was locked.
