Who are all the guests?

[tamarav]

[SIZE=4]Over the past couple of weeks I have been noticing the number of members and the number of guests that are online at any particular time. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]Who are the guests? Simply curious people that want to learn more, tranny-chasers who will search for any possibility to find us, or potential members that have yet not summoned up the courage to sign up.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]For those potential members, there is no harm in joining, we are very friendly and have a lot to say, and you are safe here.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]Please feel free to join and help round out our membership.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=4][/SIZE]
[SIZE=4]Any one else have any other thoughts on this?[/SIZE]

[Tomara]

Hi Tamara
I have often wondered about why so many people do join and only visit that one day , I would guess that ties directly into your question , who are these people ? Are they afraid to be themselves ?
Tomara

[bianca66]

Or it could just be me to lazy to log in

[Sheila]

I sign in but appear offline so will be one of the "guests"

[AKAMichelle]

I think they are just too scared to join yet. Fear of being found out and many other fears. But all guests must realize something. Who is most likely to keep your secret?

1) A Friend
2) Another Crossdresser with something to lose themselves.

We are all afraid of coming out of the closet. Some of us have done so over the years while others quietly sit in the closet wishing for the courage to get out. We don't bite. Well maybe I do, but the rest of the girls are safe.

Come join us. Find others like yourself.

[Stephanie Anne]

Ok I am exposing my geek side here.

Some things that can cause it:

Occasionally spiders (those automated things that "crawl" websites for search engines) can appear as guests.

Zombie bots (essentially infected computers that are used to compromise systems) can attack weak points in online forums such as the software running this and can appear as guests while trying to create accounts. I have run tons of vbulletin boards and it is a pain keeping up with "defense against the dark arts" so to speak.

Social news sites such as digg.com or reddit.com can pickup a forum post and as such tons of visitors can flood a forum.

Google cached a thread here and it is hitting the first page in an unrelated topic thus bringing in extra traffic.

People have caught on and are curious but are too embarrassed to create an account.

[Freddy12]

There are lots of reasons that there are guests. I think it's important for folks to be able to see the kind of conversation that goes on. It will make them understand that we are welcoming, non-judgemental people. I, myself, would not have joined had I not been able to be a guest for some time.

[Crissy Kay]

I was a lurker here for some time myself, before I decided to join. It just may take more time for some to decide to join then others, as Tamarav has suggested.

[CherryZips]

I expect sites like this have more lurkers than an average site.

[betty36]

i to was a lurker for almost a year before i decided to join. BETTY36
LOL YOU GIRLS

[nikkijo]

most of the time I read the general access forums in guest mode and log in to read the member forums.

[t-girlxsophie]

I was a watcher of the site for nearly a year,due to lack of Internet access,and a Relic of a Mobile Phone,Been on here 6months now and never regretted it,can even follow it on my new mobile with the bells and whistles LOL
Its great having a place to visit,where even if your disagreeing with others,your allowed to be yourself and Pick up lots of tips and support along the way

Sophie xx

[Tamara Croft]

I sign in but appear offline so will be one of the "guests"

Nope, you will appear as invisible, but not a guest, because the staff can see you online

[Sheila]

Nope, you will appear as invisible, but not a guest, because the staff can see you online

Sometimes I wish I damn well was invisible ty I stand corrected ........... now wanders off to person who gave me wrong info

[Cassandra Lynn]

And then there are computer illiterates like me who didn't know i could lurk, and was too eager to get on here and post, so i joined and thought 10 posts before i was totally in, what's up with that?

But, i can certainly see why one would want to test the waters.

Zombie bots and spiders? Crawling search engines? Dark arts? Yikes.....enough for me to run off and fire up my Atari game machine, and make a call on the ol' rotary telephone!
mj (Cassie)

p.s. for you kids a rotary telephone was........oh, forget it.

[Loni]

And then there are computer illiterates like me who didn't know i could lurk, and was too eager to get on here and post, so i joined and thought 10 posts before i was totally in, what's up with that?

But, i can certainly see why one would want to test the waters.

Zombie bots and spiders? Crawling search engines? Dark arts? Yikes.....enough for me to run off and fire up my Atari game machine, and make a call on the ol' rotary telephone!
mj (Cassie)

p.s. for you kids a rotary telephone was........oh, forget it.

the good old days insert the digit and scroll release then tac tac tac so many times. then do it again for the next number.

and your ring tone was well a ring, ring, ring. everybody knew it was a phone. and people walking around talking...were just talking to them selves and not on the phone .....


.

[Karinsamatha]

I had been a "lurker" for a number of months before I joined. I have absolutely no regrets about joining.

[Gerrijerry]

I always try to log in. However there are times that for some reason I am reading posts and find I am no longer logged in when I go to reply to a post.
Personally I would welcome anyone who is tring to understand thenselves or the community as a whole.

[victoriamwilliams1]

I know for me I just jumped right in when I found the group! I also have at times just passed by and saw a interesting topic so I logged on and posted a response.

[GingerLeigh]

I was a lurker here for a few months. I was nervous about joining this forum. Heck, I was nervous about searching crossdressing online at all. I think you have to be a little accepting of your crossdressing before you get the courage to join a group of kindred spirits. The longer I lurked, the more I found I had common experiences with those in this forum and ultimately I joined.
Honestly, joining this forum has led to better acceptance of who I really am. It led me to reveal my crossdressing to my father, and to stand up to the "bullies" at work. It had shown me how to do things I previously thought were unattainable. I have a modest wardrobe now, with shoes and makeup.
I don't always like the responses I get from others here, and I seem to have stepped on a few toes. But for the most part, people seem genuinely interested in offering help and it has had a positive impact.
Sorry if I went a little off topic....

Ginger

[Sweeterica]

I can understand people holding back wanting to be sure what a forum is like,ive done it before,this forum is so clearly friendly i joined very quickly,learnt so many things made new friends,so come on all you guests out there join us you wont regret it.

[pj]

Occasionally spiders (those automated things that "crawl" websites for search engines) can appear as guests.

That's the most likely cause. If you don't block or limit them, spiders like Yahoo can send hundreds of bots to your site at one time. There is another bad one called Cuil.

This forum software is configurable to show the spiders as spiders and not just generic visitors in the "who's online" list (but they don't list the guests here anyway, so that's a moot point). Also a simple robots.txt file in the site root could knock out 99% of their activity. I see that they do not use that file here.

Most forums have more unregistered readers than active registered readers. That's not uncommon. But when you see an unusually high number of "guests," it's almost always bots.

[carbonara]

I guess i'm guilty of this as i'm always too lazy to log on to forums!

[Jamiegirl1]

Hello everyone, I have visited this site for about a year,I just joined last month.I was afraid of getting E mail that someone might find.A friend set me up with a Yahoo Email,and I joined.I really enjoy this site and can relate to everyone here. I have been CD'ing for 15-18 years.I recently bought my first wig and now a second.my first jewelry,and I really enjoy going out occasionally en femme,I would love to go out more often,but I am still in the closet with my wife.So to all you visitors,get another Email address and join this site,I enjoy reading and posting here.I will post some pics in the near future........Jamie

[Naomi Rayne]

For me i read one post on this website because i was searching something crossdressing related into google and stumbled across this site. After i read one post and the responses i was hooked and i joined straight away.

To any guest searching these forums I would say:

Join Up! Dont be afraid. Everyone is great here and super friendly.