Hello, I had an idea for a website that would be targeted towards the elderly (perhaps one could even say the older, the better?), though there would likely be a hefty percentage of younger users as well. The primary function of the website would be to create posts, much like a forum. And I’m playing around with the idea of allowing comments and/or likes etc. The website is meant to be more wholesome, so it might not naturally have the tendency to attract provocateurs, though we all know the internet can quickly become the wild west.
Should I require the user to sign up and create a profile in order to post?
Obviously, the biggest con is it might deter the very same user I am hoping to attract (if they are online at all at).
However, it might potentially benefit the community aspect of the site, as well as it gives me some amounts of power to ban troublemakers should they arise…
Am I missing anything? Pros or cons to not requiring user sign up?
I am extremely new to web development btw. I am a welder by trade, but I’ve spent the last couple weeks learning basics of html and css and just began attempting to touch ground on js, though it feels like a whole new can of worms. That said, go easy on me please!
Creating posts - this one should require some sort of authentication just for responsibilities sake. Letting others post to your site without some sort of oversight opens YOU up to a whole level of scrutiny/legality which is not desirable.
Comments/likes - these can be done anonymously, providing you allow yourself a mechanism to remove comments which would violate the image you want the site to portray. This is a lesser issue because posts have an implied “ownership” stake where comments do not.
The other issue is what the end goal is. If you want to just provide information to a specific audience, then authentication/profiles are a luxury (except for the posting portion).
However, if you want to create a community with a lot of engagement (getting the same people to come back regularly), then authentication/profiles become more important because it gives your users a sense of ownership and belonging.
If you are targeting the elderly because you believe them to be not ‘web savvy’ then I would have issue with that as I am 72 this year and all my friends are very web savvy and indeed spend more time on the internet than many younger people simply because they have more time in retirement.
If you are targeting them for other reasons (such as health and fitness) then that’s ok as obviously those things are more difficult as we age.
If it’s a community group for the elderly then there should not be an issue signing them up as long as you do it efficiently. Some sites are so complicated to register that even as a web developer I give up.
Though if you are “targeted towards the elderly”, now might be a good time to cover topics like privacy, personally identifiable information and legal requirements. Particularly if any of your visitors will be coming from countries covered under the GDPR…
Oh it will attract them alright. One thing to know about the Internet is that it can be a cesspool of provocateurs and a wholesome site is exactly something they would hit. I mean, they go in and grief kids Minecraft servers and try to scam the elderly all the time.
I think if you want to allow posting, you have to have authentication otherwise you are going to get hit hard with random garbage.
Very good point! Thank you. I suppose I’ve been spending a lot of time around my grandma who is 94 and her smart phone’s entire purpose is solitaire haha. It would fall under the community group category.
I think you need to really, really, really think about how a person would use your application if they are not technical enough to use other social networking applications. You can do that without being technical. Think in terms of how they would think. If you can think of something that is easier for them to use than other applications then you will have a major breakthrough. Asking here is unlikely to help since if someone here has a good answer then they would have already gone with it.
It is possible to use Google and Facebook as mechanisms to authenticate. If someone has an Android phone then they have a Google account. I do not know what the equivalent for iPhones are.
