How do communities manage online users?

[Wren]

Hi,

We have a very small member group and are closed access to anyone who hasn't registered; however since guests can still view the registration page including any bots it means this counts towards our online user count - is there a way to reduce this at all? how do other communities manage this issue to avoid having to pay large fees based on the online users

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

I have no idea what I'm talking about – except that our Webmaster recently blocked off access to our test site by implementing some kind of "auth" – whatever that means – but the effect is to present us with a blank page and a little request for an ID and password.  Once you fill in those access details in the entire site is revealed

I don't know if that helps. It adds another obstacle to access of course and there may well be better solutions. I have no idea. So if you have a Webmaster, ask about "auth" or else no doubt there will be somebody in this community who come and explain and give you a better way to handle it.

[opentype]

9 hours ago, Wren said:

how do other communities manage this issue to avoid having to pay large fees based on the online users

It shouldn’t be an “issue”. Bots/guest accessing a single registration page shouldn’t create “large fees”. 
You can of course turn registrations off in the ACP. But having “something” visible, so your users can at least go somewhere to login in pretty standard. To shield your page completely you would need to password protect it at the server level (e.g. htaccess). 

[Wren]

thanks ... i just saw an unexpected spike this morning and panicked 😄

[Ryan Ashbrook]

I see you have a CiC package. In that particular instance, if you ever have any concerns with online users being reported on your account, please feel free to submit a ticket and we can take a look for you. 🙂