A lot of industry, media, and organizational web sites have member areas (or
at least registrant areas). NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times require
registration. WSJ requires subscription. Gliderforum.com requires basic
registration. EAA requires membership. DrJack requires subscription for
full access.

If you've been following RAS for a while, you've found that throughput still
costs money. It can amount serious money for some media formats. Those
using their corporate or broadband access to download soaring videos and
images may have occassionally found the path blocked. Tells you something.

Now I don't know what arrangements the SSA's made for bandwidth and
throughput, whether it's metered or not. It's probably not free or
unlimited. In Colorado, about 1590 pilots have glider ratings.
Approximately 530 are SSA members. I can't make any assumptions about the
1060 non-SSA rated pilots' activity, interest or whether they have a pulse.
I do know 6-7 with the rating that are not currently active in gliders for
the comtemporary reasons of family and unemployment.

So you make an interesting point. It might be good to allow people to
'verifiably' register for access to an expanded area (either permanently or
for some term). This would allow the SSA appropriate leverage also.

Frank

"Mike" wrote in message
ups.com...
First, I'd like to commend the new SSA leadership and its webmaster for
the improved website makeover. Second, in a sport which is in great
need of increased visibility in the face of decreasing membership, I'd
prefer to not lock out anyone that's making an attempt to find out more
information about soaring as his/her potential hobby. If we can get a
potential member to our doorstep, let's not make any obsticles for him
or her. For those things which need more security, such as personal
member information, a password entry is just fine. We just can't
afford to turn people off by an unwarrented exclusivity.

Mike


Roger wrote:
I wonder what is so important behind the members only part of the SSA
web site?