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How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:03 pm
by BostonCharlie
The other day there was a sweet deal posted that wasn't visible without logging in. I think that's a good idea for bringing in the lurkers.

I think I just figured out how to do that, myself. Let's see if it works:
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Did it work? ... Yup!

Next time I find a really good deal I'll try it out.

EDIT - Adding this for testing by others on other platforms:
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Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:11 pm
by Robotaz
Very good to know. If I have a juicy deal I’ll use it. Thanks for posting.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:18 pm
by 59yukon01
I'm logged on using Tapatalk and I can't access it??

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:21 pm
by MoT
I'm a strong believer in the free exchange of information. I'm not sure if I'm on board with the idea of using that feature at the moment.

Also, it seems it would be incompatible with Tapatalk, which produces a slew of other issues.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:24 pm
by Robotaz
59yukon01 wrote:I'm logged on using Tapatalk and I can't access it??

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
No. But you can just type it in, right?

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:27 pm
by 59yukon01
Robotaz wrote:
59yukon01 wrote:I'm logged on using Tapatalk and I can't access it??

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
No. But you can just type it in, right?
I don't see a link to type in?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk



Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:29 pm
by 59yukon01
This is what Tapatalk users see.Image

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk



Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:47 pm
by Robotaz
59yukon01 wrote:This is what Tapatalk users see.Image

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
I’m a tapatalk user.

Look at what OP posted in brackets.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:55 pm
by 59yukon01
Robotaz wrote:
59yukon01 wrote:This is what Tapatalk users see.Image

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
I’m a tapatalk user.

Look at what OP posted in brackets.
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Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:30 pm
by BostonCharlie
ManOnTime wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:21 pm I'm a strong believer in the free exchange of information. I'm not sure if I'm on board with the idea of using that feature at the moment.

Also, it seems it would be incompatible with Tapatalk, which produces a slew of other issues.
I thought of this only today when I posted an exceptional deal on a Seiko and the seller showed only two left. I wanted members to have an advantage over lurkers. The barrier to membership is negligible, so I suppose that to the extent your fears are unfounded, my hopes are unrealized. ;-)

I won't use it if you prefer. Its biggest impact is probably psychological, anyhow.

In the past, I have PMed a user with a deal before posting it if it seemed like something he might like. That practice probably fits both our goals better, eh?

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:58 pm
by MoT
BostonCharlie wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:30 pm
ManOnTime wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:21 pm I'm a strong believer in the free exchange of information. I'm not sure if I'm on board with the idea of using that feature at the moment.

Also, it seems it would be incompatible with Tapatalk, which produces a slew of other issues.
I thought of this only today when I posted an exceptional deal on a Seiko and the seller showed only two left. I wanted members to have an advantage over lurkers. The barrier to membership is negligible, so I suppose that to the extent your fears are unfounded, my hopes are unrealized. ;-)

I won't use it if you prefer. Its biggest impact is probably psychological, anyhow.

In the past, I have PMed a user with a deal before posting it if it seemed like something he might like. That practice probably fits both our goals better, eh?

I'm not the prohibiting type (to an extent). Membership here is free, and will remain so and allows the user to access the information. If members want to utilize that tool to obscure a particularly juicy deal, they can do so.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:17 pm
by yinzburgher
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I did it for a few reasons, some of which BC has mentioned. One was just to see if it worked. Also, when you click here, you can see how many members are on the forum, their screen names, and when they joined. I wanted to see if posting members-only content would incentivize those on the sidelines to get in the game. As far as I can tell, it didn't. An Aside: What did get a little uptick in people signing up was this thread on WUS. That may be related to MoT having a clever little link in his signature. Anyway, my plan was to unlock the post the next day. But I had a full day of travel and when I finally got back to checking it, the thread was already unlocked. Also, it seems unclear how many lurkers there actually are on both the new deals thread and the old one. Some have said that most of the lurkers are actually Tapatalk users. I honestly have no idea but my inclination is that they are non-members or member that are not signed in. Also, like BC mentioned, I thought it would be useful to have a way to make sure other members have first crack at a deal and this was my way of testing that. There could be a scenario in which there is a deal with only a few watches available or one in which the deal is so good (like this good!) that it will certainly sell out quickly. While I'm generally not in favor of most forms of tribalism and in-group favoritism/out-group exclusion, I do think that in these scenarios it would be nice to have a way to alert members and contributors first before Joe Lurker buys them all. For the record, I do think my Citizen Promaster post is a heluva deal but my intention was more to use it as a test in the event something like the above referenced Eterna deal comes up again. I still think it could be useful in that type of situation (assuming the lurker phenomenon is real), but also understand if the practice is generally frowned upon or doesn't get the MoT seal of approval. You could still always PM to alert someone to a deal they might otherwise miss out on.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 8:54 am
by MoT
I think I need to clarify my position;

The fact that I won't be using "hidden" shouldn't be taken as a demand for everyone else. If a member wants to utilize the feature, especially on a really limited or tasty deal, please feel free.

Re: How to Create 'Members Only' Posts

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:27 am
by BostonCharlie
Thanks, yinzburgher, for reporting the results of your experiment. And thanks, ManOnTime, for the clarification.

From an administrative point of view I can think of a couple good reasons for such a feature: 1) The site has T&Cs and somehow the content requires a user's agreement to the T&Cs, 2) as a defense against automated HTML scrapers (could be related to #1).

I will be watching the above sample hidden blocks to see if they automatically un-hide after awhile. That would be cool.