It would be a great idea to have a feature that restricts the number of views, a guest can view before he gets directed to the signup page.
I saw that on another form and I think it would be great to have in order to increase the number of registrations.
What do you guys think?
I think it will annoy people, and there's no way to do that without preventing users from cheating the system.
Cookies:
Users can clear their cookies or view the board from a different browser to continue viewing things
Sessions:
As soon as the session expires, the user can view things again without registering. Also allows users to browse the board as a guest from another browser.
IP logging (logging the IPs in the database, then checking the user's IP on every page view):
Extra database queries that aren't needed
Requires extra functionality to prevent this from happening to search engines
Causes problems for those on shared computers
Causes problems for those using routers, especially for those using school or corporate computers (every computer will have the same IP)
It's relatively easy to change your IP in many cases
Just let guests browse at their own pace. If they want to register, they will.
Ok I guess you are right, thanks a lot for you reply!