Please Reverse New Login Requirement!

[robertkc]

A unilateral descision has been made to require that visitors register for this site in order to view pictures. Please reverse this descision!
Its not my site, but making such a change with no consultation with the members who contribute - some over many years - and make the site both a useful resource for those building or thinking of building here, and a link to their building stories with family and friends - is inconsiderate to all, and to me, unacceptable.
Not everyone visiting this site is tech savvy, or even particularly interested in building houses; I have friends ( some with minimal computer knowledge) who follow my family`s building story here and forcing them to register as members just to view the photos is, well ...against the spirit of the freely shared info that`s been the backbone of CTH, and boneheaded enough for me to take the time to write this plea.

[BKKBILL]

I will certainly second this comment.

It seem to me paranoia has taken over the site. It is difficult enough posting when your mail box starts filling up with a certain member taking you to task for what you post claiming a higher ground of it’s not me but for someone else.

With most posters walking on eggshells concerned if language used would pass muster to this new low of blocking pictures and links from being displayed.

For shame I say.

Wonder how long this will stay up.

[geordie]

As one of the less computer literate members (no secret there Bill ) I have to agree with Robertk
How annoying it can be if you have to log on to view pictures
I do not unless following a reference go on other forums and when i follow a reference and find the pictures are unavailable i usually log off
Most members put in a lot of effort to the site as a media to family and friends who can follow their progress when they have moved to thailand and started their homebuild
The availability of the pictures freely is an important one as even casual freind,s will when bored will enter CTH as visitors and not only your own build will get attention so will others
The close freind,s and family will persevere and log in (those that can) others will be wary of what is going to be put on the pc uninvited are you going to be bombarded with cookies adverts (thats one of my fears)
Some sites seem to take control of your computer and you have no idea what they are doing when you are having a read
I now have a firewall and three virus scans on here and its suprising how often i get a big bleep and a message stating something has been blocked(not CTH)
The picture gallery is as important as the script to casual visitors family more so they want more detail
How many people have looked through the gallery to see what can be done before they built
I for one did
Probably because it was accesable to pictures i joined the forum and buit the mum in law,s
house
How many people joined because of the ease of obtaining info and now share the forum with us
How many CTH members take a look at what is going on as visitors because th do not want to log in (i used to)

[dozer]

Ok, break it down for me.... what is so hard about logging on? It isn't that extreme, there are many sites which only allowed registered users to view the site.

[otis-a]

perhaps is issue of another pasword
& user name to recall
maybe
just ask email& set session cookie to allow pic view?
max, is that not a simple possibly?

[dozer]

Once someone logs on they will stay logged on all the time (if they check the appropriate box), so they can see the attachments anytime they view the site (it is in a cookie). It is all automatic all ready.

[robertkc]

there are many sites which only allowed registered users to view the site.

yes, and I for one chose to post my build story here, in part because of the ability to view with or without registration. My objections on the principle of moving goal posts without consultation or communication stand- other reasons of convenience and easy access for family, friends and casual visitors have already been explained - I have friends in their late 80`s who barely figured out how to email - trying to walk them through registration over the phone?
And we have yet to hear a reason.

[dozer]

It was poorly configured in the first place because earlier versions of the forum software didn't have the level of sophistication in the permission system to set it up. At first on this site we allowed guests to post, until we had a lot of guest posting going back an forth and not knowing who the guests were. Then we allowed users to always edit past posts, until someone went back and just blanket deleted all of the posts. Then there was the restrictions on the PM system. Although these points don't have anything to do with guest access, they do show that the site evolves over time. On CTH we get flooded with spam registrations continuously. There is an automated program which detects bogus users and flags them for deletion, but it requires that we force real users to log on. And there are other security concerns as well. Many sites do not allow guests to view the forum at all. If it would help I can create some user IDs/passwords that bypass the registration system.

[geordie]

Creating a by pass for the login helps no one really i am not that great with computers but surely it would work if i just gave the friends family my password????
not a bright thing to do or we could all fake a second third fourth ID and pass on that to friends and family then we all become subject to anonymous crud as what happened i believe with the forum before
Today i switched off my automatic login and not a lot of what i read made any sense without the pictures to match what was being described
lets face it HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE POOL jpeg3754 does not make sense you are missing half the story and usually a vital half who would watch a movie all the way through without the audio
I watched the forum for a while before i posted anthing to try and learn what i could A because i had never been on a forum before and B anything i did not understand there was usually a picture
I think its underestimated how many guests study the forum before they sign up if they sign at all and because there are pictures of what can be acheived FREELY available they come as guests and stay
Is having the pictures available some sort of security risk

[Roger Ramjet]

I think the administrator/moderator should read the first building posts of many, if not all of the people who have posted here over the short period I have been here, most say they have been looking at the forum for some time before they decided to join. Geordie is totally correct when he says a picture is worth a thousand words, in most cases the picture actually tells the story. Can you imagine someone who rarely uses English as a first language trying to explain why he/she chose a certain colour and what that colour was? A simple photo augments the words!
And for us old blokes who were not raised with computers and having now become feeble of mind over the years, remembering dozens of logins for names and passwords is mind boggling to say the least. The mere fact that there is, on every internet site a message, saying "have you forgotten your password"? means I am not alone at feeble mindedness.
Countries evolve over time through parliaments, and sometimes dictators. Laws are made to counteract events or things that have bearing on the country that the majority would like to see happen, but in the majority, people like to leave things as they are if something actually works and keeps the population happy and increases the population of said country. I'd hate to see the forum become another Libya, Iran or Iraq through over regulation of simplistic things because it would defeat the purpose of the forum.
I say, let everyone view the photos or are we into discrimination? We are trying to show our own little Utopia and why we are doing it our way and our reasoning behind it. People join forums because they wish to impart their knowledge gained over years of life, if you curtail that passing of knowledge by restricting the forum pictures to member's only, it defeats the whole purpose of a building forum.

[MGV12]

Apparently this change has been reversed and is being given further consideration ... I just checked as a guest and was able to view all attachments.

[dozer]

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time upgrading the forum, blog and picture gallery software (as of late). This is site is run by the excellent moderation help and also the help of the host but fortunately or unfortunately there is only one webmaster, that's the guy that spends all of his free time tweaking the back end so there is even a forum (blog/picture gallery) to post to. At the moment I feel like I invited everybody over to my house for free pizza and beer and they are complaining that the pizza isn't crispy enough and the beer is warm! I will defer the change and communicate by any members who are inconvenienced via PM or contact form, but the change will be coming.

[elgato]

This was brought up in a thread by robertkc back in Apr but that thread is locked. http://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/view ... =20&t=2533
Many good points were made about non-members, guests etc. being able to see what's going on here. I don't think that my family and friends back in the west should be required to join this forum in order to see what myself and others are doing in Thailand.

[John]

An internet based forum is a place where registered members discuss topics. They were not designed to be information portals or public picture posts. At most busy forums, members who make regular contribution welcome access restrictions because they hate silent lurkers.
Where CTH differs from other forums is in the “build story” forum. Many members have made huge photo contribution and it’s quite understandable them wanting to share with friends who have no interest in posting here.
I believe phpbb allows varying restrictions for each forum but at the end of the day it’s up to the webmaster and his decision being final I can fully understand.

[dozer]

Thanks for the feedback, and I can understand the concerns. Unfortunately at least for the time being you will need a logon to view attachements. If anyone needs help addressing or issues with getting a logon please use the feedback form or PM me. This change was announced a while ago and then suspended temporarily so everyone could have time to get those who want to view pics a logon.