Guest Books in General

[Ricardo]

I'm not sure I've ever signed a guest book while visiting a site.

Do you think that they're still fairly popular, or are they becoming more a thing of the past?

[AJH]

I have never seen a site that offers a guest book. Or if I have been on one I have not signed it. What type of information are they asking for? I would think it they asked any type of personal info that people would not take the time to fill it out. If it is just something to leave your name that you were there, than maybe. I would not see the effectiveness of having a guest book though it the purpose is to just leave your name.

[infoserv]

I only recall a short period of time; it seems like forever ago; that guest books were even used. It seems to me that they added them to fantastico and cpanel and never took them back out. You will occasionally find a newbie web site owner put one up!

[AJH]

I looked into the ones that fantastico had and cpanel and did not really see where it would make an improvement to my site. As I said before, I do not see this as very effective and would most likely not opt to use this tool.

[rlhanson]

Guestbooks are pretty much a thing for personal websites, in my opinion.
With that said, they could be an enhancement to your site if you used it for customer testimonials or feedback on particular items. (Though I wouldn't refer to it as a "guestbook".) This is also achieved through the forum interaction placed on sites, which is what I am seeing more of because of the member interaction.

A warning if you do decide to use a guestbook, make sure your code is defined to reject scripts placed in the comment section! You definately don't want to risk the integrity of your site. (I only mention this as I tried to hand-code my own one time - and was strongly cautioned as a result!)