Members' only threads?

[Andy M.]

Alix, +1

 

[Cerise]

I'm in favour of a forum which doesnt have so much open to the public. So I understand what CWS is getting at.

I have run a private forum for many years. I was a member of open forums and we had a few break off groups for those who wished to communicate but not in such an open manner. This isnt about bitching or gossiping but it was about making new friendships and being able to share things you couldnt share on an open site. Since then many of us have built very firm relationships, and have met in real life too now.

I "understood" what CWS was getting at, when same explained it back on page 1 (re hijacking threads).

As far as "gossiping" (to use my words, again), I was referring to my experience on a different site, where members needed permission to join a group (started by members). After I was accepted into the private group, I didn't appreciate the gossiping & badmouthing of other members, so I left.

Noone is saying friendships cannot be made. They can here via PMs, etc.

TaxLady re not wanting to post a pic in public: I tried posting it in my user profile. The problem was, when I set it to be viewed by friends, after I logged out, it could be still be viewed by all.

Re posts in general, lately I've seen certain members nitpicking & being contrary to my posts. When such activity continues, people walk; & certain members have for the same reasons.

 

[Alix]

I never said anything about gossiping or suggested that was what I figured would happen behind closed doors. That was entirely your own invention Cerise. I'm sorry my words brought that up for you, but I didn't suggest or imply that. This is not a nitpick or anything of that nature, its a clarification of my own post.

I meant exactly what I said, a member's only area will diminish the feeling of community here at DC. If there is an area where Member's are allowed but others aren't, then they tend to spend more time there and not with folks just arriving. The sense of welcoming is lost and the sense of community is gone. As for friendships, well I have several on here that I established via the public boards. I PM rarely.

Like anything else, if you establish any kind of separation, or an Elite it causes friction and ill will. Its just human nature.

This has come up because of some stupid "post jacking", which in the grand scheme of things is really not that big a deal. If you post on the Net, your words can be c&p with no attribution from here to kingdom come. Its not worth the headache. If you don't want your words shared, don't post. Its just that simple. Its not fair, or ideal, it just is.

Again, IMO just ignore stupid crap and let those who are mandated to deal with it do so. Keep posting and having fun.

 

[Cerise]

I never said anything about gossiping or suggested that was what I figured would happen behind closed doors. That was entirely your own invention Cerise. I'm sorry my words brought that up for you, but I didn't suggest or imply that. This is not a nitpick or anything of that nature, its a clarification of my own post.

I meant exactly what I said, a member's only area will diminish the feeling of community here at DC. If there is an area where Member's are allowed but others aren't, then they tend to spend more time there and not with folks just arriving. The sense of welcoming is lost and the sense of community is gone. As for friendships, well I have several on here that I established via the public boards. I PM rarely.

Like anything else, if you establish any kind of separation, or an Elite it causes friction and ill will. Its just human nature.

This has come up because of some stupid "post jacking", which in the grand scheme of things is really not that big a deal. If you post on the Net, your words can be c&p with no attribution from here to kingdom come. Its not worth the headache. If you don't want your words shared, don't post. Its just that simple. Its not fair, or ideal, it just is.

Again, IMO just ignore stupid crap and let those who are mandated to deal with it do so. Keep posting and having fun.

I wasn't referring to your post, nor have I read your posts, I quoted someone elses.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

There is a way this could be done and the forum's vBulletin software supports it. All that would be necessary would be to create a new forum section, perhaps call it "Members Only," and set the permissions so that a member has to be logged in to view or post in that area.

Many forums have such an area. The advantage of doing so is that robot scripts and search engines cannot access it because they do not possess the capability of logging in. Search engines like Google would not be able to access it, and the rip-off website we were discussing would not be able to copy the posts from that forum.

It's only a small amount of security though. Obviously anybody who wants to see what's in it has only to create a free account and they can see it. It wouldn't be impossible to write a script capable of that too, but probably wouldn't be worth the hacker's effort as in the recent incident.

(And anyway the hacker site just wanted just enough content to fool search engines. It appeared to me that most but not all DC forum areas were being duplicated. I doubt the hacker would bother. It wouldn't be important to what he's doing.)

A more extreme option would be to create a private forum area. One such forum where I'm a member has a NSFW section (not suitable for work) which allows more adult content than the general forum areas. Members must request a permission to be added to their account to access the area. This is done to ensure that non-adults cannot view the material, and the forum management decides on a case-by-case basis whether they believe the member is an adult, usually by considering the members previous posts on the forum. (The title of the area can be seen by public but none of the contents. The description says to contact an admin to request access.) Of course this would place an additional work load on DC management, so only they could decide if it was worth the effort.

I don't see any particular need for either, but then I'm not intending to post any private family pictures or discuss personal information I don't want on the Internet.

However, the best reason to have an area where members must login to see it is to have a place where you can discuss topics that you don't want the search engines to index, so that whatever you say there won't be searchable by Google.

 

[FrankZ]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. This thread really has run its course.