I very much like the idea that laureanna proposed about changing one's poster ID if one intends to leave the board. That should at least give an appearance of someone still have being here, but under a different guise.
Although, when anyone of the posts is responded to or quoted, it will not be too difficult to figure out who the poster was, since the replies will not be edited. Just something to think of. So, it really does not provide a truly workable solution.
On the other hand, I do not think it should become the job of admins to delete or remove access from boards that a poster is willingly leaving. I would think that as responsible adults, we can and should be trusted to ignore a MB that we are having problems with on our own willpower. Otherwise, I can envision a future where we have people asking to be removed, then changing their minds, etc. which could become ridiculous.
Ethel is an adult, and if she cannot find the willpower to stay away from this place, then, too bad.
I DO understand where she is coming from, but I do not agree with it this time.
I know for myself, the attractions of a closed board are nill. I choose to edit my own information at the source, and if I did not feel comfortable doing so, I would not be posting ANYWHERE. In that regard, I see no problem with an open board. I envision the open board being on the new site, and then whatever issues are still around about "he said/she said" being available here in certain threads should be moot.
I also find myself being somewhat frustrated by being rightfully considered a "new member" but still having some serious thoughts on all of these issues. It seems like we all love to talk about some of this, but there never seems to be a consensus about when things will be ready. I am not being pushy, but does everything have to languish in a quagmire during the interim constitutional process? Why cannot we just have some forum wide votes on a few very routine issues in the meantime to address some concerns? The two that come to mind:
1. Should admins bar or ban existing posters who ask for it without very valid reasons (and I CAN think of a few very valid reasons, but they are not the reasons that have been requested so far. Valid reasons should be ones that protect a poster's privacy, due to stalking, identity theft, hacking, legal issues, perceived recriminations, etc.)
2. Should the Invite process be resumed as it was before during this interim period? Change nothing, but, it seems like things are jsut dragging down in the meantime. Certainly a limited number of new invites should not bog down the process any further.
My own thoughts: NO to the former and YES to the latter.