# Join already!!



## ArwenStar (Sep 25, 2019)

There are at least 50 guests on ttf every time I am on it! Why can’t they join if they are always on here! I joined after seeing it once! Join already!

Ps. If you are a guest and reading this, become a member 
(Or i’ll send a Nazgul after you!)


----------



## Squint-eyed Southerner (Sep 25, 2019)

Many are bots. Some people are hunting through various forums for info, or just browsing.

Actually, we have a number of new members -- check the "Newest Members" section. But many of them don't seem to post; maybe they're shy -- or they register to avoid the popups.


----------



## Olorgando (Sep 25, 2019)

Same thing on those other two JRRT sites I visit.
A-U says "In total there are *110* users online: 1 registered (that's me), 0 hidden (whatever that means) and 109 guests.
Spam bots have done the majority of posting there recently …  (no new posts at all right now)
CoE says "Users Online" has "46 guests" in the info column on the left, if you click to see the list it shows "26 guests" and "20 bots". So the latter bots are undisguised; the former?
In CoE I have often found actual users (with user aka member names) online who have never posted anything that I found. Maybe just using the chat function?
Oh, and only one new post in the "Games Forum" there. ☹


----------



## Alcuin (Sep 25, 2019)

TTF is an active forum, so there are more users and “real” visitors than usual on most forums. I’m an admin on another Tolkien forum, Entmoot, and spent much of the past 12 months fighting spammers and malicious posters. (A “malicious poster” is someone who’s trying to post links to websites or images that will get government authorities angry with you, that are “not safe for work”, or that will cause mom or dad to block your access to the website.) These constitute the majority of attempts to register and log into the website, and I suspect this is true across the board for every forum on every subject. Anti-spam software only goes so far in reducing this abuse: the rest of it is up to the mods and admins of the site.

*However,* it is _also_ usually the case that someone interested in joining will watch a board for a while before signing up. And people who have already joined will drop by, read the active threads, and decide whether or not to post in them; or will consider opening a new thread, searching to see first if there’s already an active thread on the topic (or not! ). That’s always the part of the traffic that’s most welcome.


----------



## ArwenStar (Sep 25, 2019)

Squint-eyed Southerner said:


> Actually, we have a number of new members -- check the "Newest Members" section. But many of them don't seem to post; maybe they're shy -- or they register to avoid the popups.


I have noticed that a lot. Can bots sign up? Cause any right minded person (aka me) would spend the next infinity on TTF


Olorgando said:


> 0 hidden (whatever that means)


how are they hidden if you know if they are there or not?


----------



## Olorgando (Sep 26, 2019)

ArwenStar said:


> how are they hidden if you know if they are there or not?


Under the section "Privacy" in your account, you have the privacy option "Show your online status: This will allow other people to see when you are online."
If you deactivate this, the number of members shown as active here of TTF will be higher than the number of member names shown.
Same is probably with the "hidden" on that other site.


----------



## ArwenStar (Sep 26, 2019)

Ok. I have noticed that some times it says 3 members online, but only the names of two. Interesting...


----------

