Are we making all the forum traffic private and invisible by stealth?
For instance I see the “new purchases” thread has a shadow counterpart now.
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Yes. Because I don’t like search engines and AI looking at my online discussions.
I think it’s fine if some people feel uncomfortable posting publicly. The public threads still have higher traffic.
I think that dumping everything into private categories is becoming ridiculous.
If this continues I’m afraid to say that it will jeopardize the continuation of the forum
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Honestly I can understand that a Selfie thread goes private but I fear that many of us are overdoing things by making everything private
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selfie thread should be only the private one
all other private threads should be banned IMO
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No problem. I can just create a private community, splinter things.
We will be keeping this forum in some hybrid form of public and private. I dont think we have to go as far as to limit to selfies only.
I think the members have spoken. Both in @shutterbug ‘s poll and mine that they prefer to keep this forum a hybrid of the two. So thats the way it will be.
This is a free country(countries) @shutterbug . If you choose to make a private community separate from this site, that is up to you. I have no intention of trying to stop you. Not that I could anyway. As a matter of fact , I’ll join it if you want me.
But this sites members have made it apparent that the majority want the hybrid of the two.
And I think that is a wise choice if we want to grow or even maintain membership.
I say go for it. You tried something like this previously and failed. I’d love to see if you learned anything from your previous attempt at splintering the community (into “high functioning” and non high functioning if I remember correctly).
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There weren’t enough high functioning to make it work. There are enough people who prefer to post privately. My preference is to have a private option here for those who are inclined. You also forget that at the time the other community was also getting overrun with BP users who didn’t have Sz or SzA and it was frustrating as heck.
If someone starts a public thread, then we can assume they don’t want it private. You seem to not be giving people that option.
If you see a popular thread that someone has created as a public thread you attempt to take it private. Riding roughshod over the thread creator’s preferences.
If you or anyone else wants to create a private thread, I’m not going to create a public thread version.
It’s arrogant and irksome.
I don’t care if a thread starts out as private, it’s when it’s public and basically hijacked into being invisible to the public is an issue.
For general discussion I don’t mind public threads, but sharing what I bought, pictures of my animals, and maybe one day a selfie, I’d prefer that to be private.
From an inclusion standpoint, having an option for private threads is incredibly inclusive and offers accessibility to members who may struggle with social exposure and/or paranoia.
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You’re ignoring the fact that there is still a public thread they can use if they want. It’s an option.
Polite disagreement.
The original thread remains visible. If no one wants to use a visible thread then that tells you where the community wants to go.
I think the private threads are important in that there are real reasons why people feel safer with them. I don’t totally understand why there’s an issue with it.
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Seems like the main issue is the site has certain rates of attrition and growth. If the site is only private it will limit the growth rate, so the site could die.
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