In this
thread , David Rosenthal talks about journals' submission guidelines in respect to poems that have been workshopped online, and it got me thinking . . .
What do people think about removing guest access to the workshop forums? In my experience, allowing guests to read posts serves two purposes: first, requiring registration actually deters it; second, it prevents lurking. Lurking can be desirable for some discussion boards (i.e. those devoted to spreading specialized information to a broader public), but does not offer any advantages to a workshop which thrives on replies more so than new threads.
On the other hand, anything that discourages new membership requires serious consideration. However, leaving the non-workshop boards open to guests would serve as a bridge and help mitigate any negative effects.
So, what do people think? If we removed guest access to the workshop forums, our poetry would maintain full eligibility for journals, and I think the downside would be negligible. I would at least like to give it a shot and see how the change affects new registration, as that is the only counter-argument I can think of.
Scott