#184 Unregistered Guest posting Comments with Name, e-mail & URL

[Jagan Mohan R]

For those who run Blogs on Xoops News Module,
irregular readers coming from Google, Technorati and
such places do not necessarily register. Only 10% of
any blog's visitors are regular readers returning
frequently to warrant registration. Other 90% are blog
hoppers who come to read a single post or two and
might return very infrequently. They do not register for
there is no incentive to do so.

However, such readers leave comments as 'anonymous
or guest'. When a number of such 'anonymous and guest'
comments are made under a news article, it makes the
discussion very hard to follow.

Every one is just marked as 'guest' and therefore who is
writing what and agreeing with whom becomes jumbled.

All mainstream Blogging tools and platforms like Blogger,
Wordpress, My Journal, MovableType, SquareSpace, b2
evolution, Blog:CMS, UBlog, .Text, BlogWare and
Xaraya, etc all give visitors a chance to post comments
without undergoing full registration process.

They provide a form with options to either remain
anonymous or provide their Name, e-mail and URL.

I would like to see Xoops provide such a facility too.

An user should be given the choice to comment and
also the choice to enter a name, e-mail and url.
After they enter these details and also their comments,
they can be taken to a new page, where they may be
offered extra fields to fill for a regular full membership
(the normal registration form).

This will make it easy for the webmaster to encourage
visitors to register. Entering a comment with
personification will enable the user to forge ties with the
blog and will induce him/her to visit back to see how the
discussion is progressing.

Lack of this feature makes Xoops very primitive in
encouraging formation of communities, optimum
discussion environment and ease of use for visitors.

Provision of these features will take Xoops into the next
gen platform for serious Blogging too. It is about time
Xoops is positioned as a flexible and feature rich
blogging platform. Thank you,

Jagan Mohan (@Fireater)