@AffyAvo My understanding was that guest access was quietly removed again very recently with no announcement. But there is a guest in the general request queue right now, so the situation is not clear.
@RarelyCharlie If it's not a bug I think admin should at least be transparent about the change. I thought this had been looked at and was found not to have an effect on safety so I don't know why this option would be removed (or made extremely difficult for some users),
@Laura
Guest acct still exist. we just closed some of the doors guests can use to join the site. you can use the site as a quest if you sign up from a Q & A page.
i will add that we have a long term stratgy to remove quest accts completely, but that is not the case right now. I have no information on the timeline, but i will share more info as i get it
@Laura I have no idea what this means—"as a guest" and "sign up" are opposites. If you have to sign up, you're a member, not a guest.
@RarelyCharlie
yeah, that was confusing wasn't it?
sorry about that. I just meant, you can use the site as a guest if you enter from the QA pages.
@Laura I tried that, but it didn't work for me. After entering from the QA pages it still wanted my e-mail address and date of birth.
That would make me think the answer to the original question, "Can guests still chat with listeners?" is no, they can't, except that there is, again, a guest in the general request queue right now as I type this.
Charlie
@Laura When a button says Connect Now I do think that's what it should allow people to do, especially considering the point of the feature is to support people including those in distress. I feel like it's rather unfair for this to lead to a popup to make an account and not actually connect someone.
I disagree with making the process so difficult for guests - it looks like some get through and some not. Some of it appears to be buggy as I can't actually seem to connect as a guest when I try - but one time simple opening the site up and I think I may have clicked one link (nothing related to connecting) connected me to a listener.
As for phasing out the option to chat as a guest - you already know my opinion on that, I think having a completely anonymous and quick option to chat is valuable.
@AffyAvo
cc @7cupscommunity
@AffyAvo
Thank you for your feedback! We will look into this and get back to you
@AffyAvo
We have received various feedback on guest accounts. At the present time guests can browse our public forums and the Q&A section, but cannot access group support rooms. Certain browsers will not allow guests to connect to a listener and will prompt a sign in.
