Guestbook? - What are your thoughts?

I just figured, why not giving guests a little spot to post in?
Of course, it'd be very limited. Only the registered members would get full access to all the forum's features.

So I have been thinking about a "Guestbook" section, where guests can write something in.
Perhaps it'd give them more motivation to join, if they could try things out first?

What are your thoughts on this?

It couldn't do much harm, but I really don't think it would garner many new members either. This site will probably stay pretty small until Shantae 3 comes out and the fanbase exploads from shear awesomeness.

An interesting idea, really. ^^ While Forumotion allows us the option for guests to posts. My only concern is that spam bots would take advantage of it and flood the guest board. If we get an IRC channel it would negate the need for it anyway, assuming they're interested in mingling with the community.

Registering an account is so quick and easy there's no point in not joining if you're going to post. They would have to read the rules before posting anyway, so how would we ban trolls for being trolls in there? (Outside of blacklisting their IP, of course, but that's overkill.) I'm only really worried it would become a cesspit for the most part.

Well, good point.

The main reason why I have been thinking about a Guestbook, is because you contemplated on making the chatroom for staffers only.
Which, honestly speaking, is a bad idea in my eyes.

I also wanted guests to have a solid ground here.
Cuz apparently, to some people, registering isn't that easy at all.
I remember a guy on DA who was so against registering (regardless of how simply it is done), saying it'd be way too much trouble and fell to much like a commitment.

Yeah, such people exist as well apparently...

As far as making the IRC channel for staff only, I was mostly considering that route if it was going to diminish the purpose of the forums, but if the idea of limiting it to the staff comes across as bad either way, it's hitting the trash bin. XD

Wow, I have to question the logic of not wanting to register to a site, (Maybe they don't want an extra password and alias to keep up with?) but it would crazy not to compromize and soften the entry barrier any way we can. We can't release the floodgates to spambots, but there's gotta be something we can do to make the guestbook work.