Blogs and Guests

[bradl]

I received a support question by PM. So that we can learn together and help each other, I've answered the question here in forum support.

 

 

I gather a guest is someone other than a member of this Forum?  By  not allowing guests to see and commenting on my blog, I am still allowing forum members to see and comment.. Correct?

 

Short answer: yes! You got it exactly right. 

 

A "guest" is anyone who visits the forum — or gallery, or blog — without registering and being logged in.  For instance, googlebot, bingbot and the various search engines crawl the forum with guest permissions. People who follow a search result link here are guests (until they register and join the fun )

 

Guests cannot post, comment, vote in polls, view profiles, view signatures, access the member list, access the map, or access chat. 

 

I allow guests to read nearly all the forums and subforums because I want people searching for information or help to be able to find it easily. Participation is an added benefit of registering but not a requirement to read the forum. It exists to be a public resource and community. 

 

Blogs are different.  As the blog owner you can decide who you want your audience to be. When you create a new blog you can choose to exclude guest access.  You can also change your mind and make it public later (and vice versa).

 

Thanks for asking this question.