It sucks that you have be logged into to use half the website

[koaftder]

Here recently I wanted to share a link to something in the picture gallery with a friend, but it didn't work because you have to be logged in now to view a picture. I notice you also have to be logged in to view blogs, use the search tool and view a profile. This is idiotic and breaks hordes of links in the search engines. Please fix it. Making the website harder to use will not help increase membership.

[paul1981]

Here recently I wanted to share a link to something in the picture gallery with a friend, but it didn't work because you have to be logged in now to view a picture. I notice you also have to be logged in to view blogs, use the search tool and view a profile. This is idiotic and breaks hordes of links in the search engines. Please fix it. Making the website harder to use will not help increase membership.

I'm inclined to agree with you.

[James2002]

Even the other forums that use Vbulletin you have to be logged in to see picture gallery in yours and others.  It mostly a security feature from my basic knowledge of Vbulletin.  It also depends on settings from the Admin. Not recommend changing settings. Things can break in Vbulletin.

[Bamiga2002]

Yes why is this? Bring back the old behaviour and not force everyone to become a member to see and read things here.

[gertsy]

It's been like this for years. Or am I missing something?

[Bamiga2002]

It hasn't always been like this you know. Maybe the site administrator can tell when the change was made? Maybe create a poll to ask if many others liked the "old" behaviour more...

[koaftder]

It's been like this for years. Or am I missing something?

The things I mentioned here are new behavior, as in within the last few weeks.

[Karlos]

It's been like this for years. Or am I missing something?

No. It was always possible to browse the forums and gallery without logging in.

I'm not sure why this has changed. It seems that some of the forums are still browsable without a login, but the gallery is completely off limits.

[F0LLETT]

No. It was always possible to browse the forums and gallery without logging in.

I'm not sure why this has changed. It seems that some of the forums are still browsable without a login, but the gallery is completely off limits.

Its nice to be able to browse galleries, but then it opens the door for leaching.
Used to get this alot on my own sites.

So its swings and roundabouts.

[amigadave]

The things I mentioned here are new behavior, as in within the last few weeks.

I don't know why the change was made, but I do know that Matthew has been working on the Site Software, doing updates and patches on the software that runs this place.   Perhaps one of those patches has changed some things as a side effect, not an intended result, but only Karlos or Matthew could answer that question.

I don't have a preference one way or the other regarding having to login to this site to view anything, as I automatically login every time I visit this site anyway.

It is a double edged sword trying to keep site software up to date and also trying to run it with any regard toward keeping it available and working on ancient web browsers that still work on Motorola 680x0 based Amiga hardware, or is that even possible any more?  I have not tried to web browse on any of my many Commodore Amiga computers for a long time, though I know at one time or another in the past, there was some effort to keep this site viewable from Commodore Amiga computers without Phase5 accelerators running AmigaOS3.x.  Maybe some progress has been made with newer 68k compatible web browsers like Netsurf, but I don't know about that as I have not tried to use it on any 68k Amiga.