Hello everyone,

I am new to all this forum area, but am actively developing a web-site with lots of relevant content, and an integrated forum...

Prime objective is to get people to use it regularly and to register.

I have planned phases of growth, which will work best if I know more rather than less about people, and am stuck/dithering with the following question:

What personal data will people actually give when registering in a forum, and what will put them off registering?

My thoughts are there are probably 4 categories : Required, Ok - I Will Then, Maybe, and No Way?, which could be as below

Required:
Username, Password, Email

OK -I will then:
First Name, Year of Birth, Where I heard of the site

Maybe:
Surname, Date of Birth, Location Guide (City/State)

No way:
Home Phone number, Home address, Zip/Post-Code, Qualifications, Relationship Status
Salary
Employer
Employment Function

Any help with this or views or references of sites/fora that do this well would be really appreciated...

I know that the relationship and relevance will help drive some lower levels up the list, but what other methods could there be?


Thanks,

Sandysays

People would rather give their birthday instead of their year of birth. For example, I don't mind telling a forum that my birthday is November 11th so that this way, every year on my birthday, the forum system sends me a little happy birthday email (DaniWeb does this, for example.) But I am going to be hesitant telling a forum the year of my birth or my age.

Thanks for this, I'd not looked at it that way, and it makes me look at other data bits in broken down mode, rather than the full bit required....

Cheers

Sandysays

It would help to know what your growth plan is but i would say the following:

Required:
Username, Password, Email

OK -I will then:
First Name, Surname, Where I heard of the site
(If you're collecting the first name then why not the surname as well? - they're either going to give you the whole truth or not at all!) You should also state why you're asking for their name in the first place.

Maybe:
Location Guide (City/State)
male/female?

No way:
Home Phone number, Home address, Zip/Post-Code, Qualifications, Relationship Status
Salary
Employer
Employment Function
Age

From personal experience, I can tell you that on an older site I had, LOTS of people don't like giving away but the bare minimum of information about themselves.

One way is to require email, username, password for new users to join,.

Once they join, offer a poll where they can submit other info and preferences.

The fewer requirements to join a site, the chances are that you'll get more members.

Just my $0.02.

Rob W.
vibist.com