[xxzone2zonexx]

I think its a GREAT idea... a way to spread the KPOP LOVE

[lordbordem]

I'm sure the admins have thought this through before introducing it but it does seem to be a double edged sword.

it's true that opening the forums up will make access to info a lot easier for outsiders while eliminating all those zero post users that just register to see content, clogging up the forum databases.

but opening the forums will most likely cause an increase in content abuse with stealing and hotlinking to images and other materials posted in those forums, atleast with the closed forums it made it less attractive to do this.

i'm sure a forum plugin can be utilized that hides images unless you are logged in or the requirement to post to see content but I've noticed these things tend to clog up threads with a large amount of useless posts.

also with the added view counts, one has to wonder how many of the pictures and content will get pulled down due to bandwidth overuse. The added attention is also not going to help people that upload content links. They are going to start showing up more easily on individual google searches and search bots and with a forum of this size, copyright owners are going to take note of it.

The excuse that soompi doesn't actually host the content and therefore immune to copyright notices seem to be a moot point especially with whats happening lately in the sharing scene lately (torrents would be a distant example).

Not saying its very likely considering most Korean copyright holders (E.g the broadcasters and publishers) seem rather lax about enforcement currently but the possibility is there.

[Manyhx3]

I'm afraid that we would get sue by the korean companies when it comes to DL links of korean dramas and korean movies
when they find out. They would file a sue case against us.
It has happened to a chinese- american forum before, they had to shut their forum down after many years of running.
but it's your decision.

[Indogurl05]

to be honest, i personally don't like this idea.. I like how soompi is now. I'm worried that if any of the thread is open for public, then it would be messier.. so yeah.. I disagree with this one.

[shinai]

I agree with the above said.

There is a lot of download links in the threads which can cause copyright issues in the future. I've seen a japanese forum taken down because of this copyright issue. We've seen what happening to some of youtube users.

I hope soompi will re-consider this.

[meimei__KOUSEKI]

i'm okay with this but i'm worried about taking out content (pictures, dl links from clubbox..etc)
or may...like a function that keeps guests from viewing links? i think AsianFanatics has that kind of function...

[chaegyeong]

i think it's an okay idea but maybe keep download links hidden from public view until u've made a reply to the post or press the thank you button like in midoyo.net. i thought that was an excellent way to show appreciation

[judeism]

I don't like the idea, I can foresee a lot of problems because of this but if you guys find a way to hide the important contents of posts from members especially those who strictly don't want their posts to be copied and pasted on other people's blogs or sites then.. Go, but still.. I don't like the idea at all. But it's your decision so yea.. I respect that!

[selvaspeedy]

I think this is a very bad idea, sorry
don't get me wrong! I want to spread the love of Korean dramas/movies/music all over the world, but the problem we've been facing lately in the dramas section is that some people create accounts here in soompi and then take the pictures/news/download links... etc outside into their forums without even crediting the source!!!! and now we're opening the forums for whoever to just take whatever they want without even creating accounts not just that, they also HOTLINK the pictures and don't bother to re-upload it themselves!!!!! it's like we're saying: yeah it's open feast people! you don't have to create accounts to read all of these news and see all of these pictures!!!!! feel free to take whatever you want and then don't even bother to thank the people who posted these news and pictures here!!!!
and I'm totally against creating a water mark on your pictures here, because I love making a collection of pictures saved into my PC so I can create banners, posters, icons... etc, and the watermark is just making it harder for me!!

maybe you can open the forums for everyone, but can you please somehow make it impossible for them to know the pictures url so they will upload it themselves, and also hide the download links!!!! I don't know, create something in the system that disable the appearance of the pictures' url and the links or something!!

Something like this would be good to have. Could it expanded into some kind of general feature that lets only logged in members see the content? Some kind of hide code that could be applied to anything i.e. text, pictures, links, etc.?

yeah I totally agree with that!!

[zaineshi]

honestly, i don't really like this idea.
I mean, sure it's a great way to spread the KPOP love
but it's gonna be easier for random people to just steal
links, translations, pictures and uploaded videos by the users without crediting.
AND if they really want to know more about
some stuff, registering isn't that hard is it ¬.¬"
So I disagree on this one. I like the way soompi is right now.

[hseliz]

hm i don't really like the idea as well.
i mean, what's so hard to register?

[cRoSsTaGe]

good to expose more people to it but hope that we kind souls aren't taken advantage of for our entertainment here.

[gelliegellie]

Hmm this is a good idea and bad news for some. Lol I'm 50-50 on this as well.

A good idea cause more people can explore the kpop industry.
However, there will be an issue for the downloadable links and hotlinking of photos.

Because, I, myself, experienced hotlinking issues many times. O__O

Question:

Is it possible that Guest can't highlight all the info that was posted on the forum?
LOL Selfish much (?)

[cmaster18]

i don't really like the idea of opening the 2 sub sections to guests as well....

if they really want to do some serious reading, they CAN always register...

opening it to public will create a LOT of problems :S




how about starting a poll to see what the other people here think as well?

[qweqwe]

I don't like the idea of opening up the subforums to guests...

I mean if we can register ourselves proper, what can't those people who are interested to peep into Soompi?

and we will definitely bump into nonsense like stolen images, information..

[kdsnabi426]

lordbordem brings up some good points about copyright. Although soompi posts already show up in google searches if you know the right keywords, I'm sure the frequency of them showing up would increase if the forums go public. I wonder if soompi will have to sacrifice downloads of k-drama and variety shows like it did music a while back to avoid copyright issues? Hm, that would be unfortunate. I think it would be better off to use soompi's homepage to spread the kpop info about artists and shows. Like instead of just the groups thing that tells about artists, there can be a page of info about each artist, each drama, each variety show etc. This info is already available in most of the official threads. If you can make an easy to navigate index with these pages, that would be sufficient for giving newbies the information they seek. And can't those pages have comments? If they had questions they could always post a comment. And be sure to put a link to the forum's official thread of the artist, show, or drama so that if they want to carry on more discussion, that would be an incentive enough to register. I think instead of opening it these forums fully to the public, maybe only open them up as far as the topic lists. Meaning guests could see the topics without seeing the posts. Then they can get a kind of feel about what's in these forums but they have to register to really get the goods. But oops I think my plan has a flaw, if registering is a requirement to post comments on soompi's homepage.

[raman]

I don’t know if that’ a good idea. Outside people might do some profane stuff. At least in the community you have the threat of your account being deleted or something like that. If a ‘guest’ does it nothing really happens.

Just wondering. What would happen if something profane does happen and we have bad mothers coming in? That would suck. But if you want it, it would be a good try. But I’m a bit skeptical about the success of it.

[yumei86]

I dun think its a good idea because ppl tend to steal translation that other ppl provided in the thread. Like in the variety section.
I seriously feel soompi should rethink this decision wisely.

[INSANE]

Perfect timing!
A lot of Korean artists are coming over-seas to establish themselves as U.S artists.
I'm sure a lot of non-kpop fans would get curious about these singers' backgrounds!
Spreadin' the Hallyu wave haha

totally agree with you

[ihlubdbsg]

I think we can do a hack that lets us hide links to guests. So they would be able to see the content, but not the links. let me see what I can find. This should answer people's concerns:)

This idea of opening to the public would be a great way to spread KPOP to the masses but I like it even better with ^^^^that^^^^ included in it.