Hi Cerin,
Here are my (excerpted) suggestions - you have access to read them in full if you would like - as posted in the Thinking of England forum. If you do read them and wish to quote anything from the ToE access threads that I have said in this forum, you have my permission to do so.
July 24th:
Truthfully, ToE is the one forum that still feels "safe" and less vulnerable, because it IS still closed - and unfortunately, that's only for a fleeting period of time. On the main board, there have been several topics I wanted to start, but no longer feel comfortable doing so. And as far as ToE goes, I just don't see it working if it's anything other than a group of people who have at least some semi-sense of who they are talking to, posting their experiences, because of the very personal nature of the conversations. I don't think I've posted too much here, but will remove all my posts as soon as ANY new members are allowed into this forum, forget Snowdog. I'm sorry that I was busy with starting a job and other RL things and couldn't advocate this POV vigorously while the ToE discussion was happening, but it's perverse at best to expect people to be able to talk about their sex lives, fantasies, and desires in a setting that is not fully anonymous and NOT have that be at least somewhat exclusive.
(Note: I've backed off of this position only insofar as my new willingness to wait to see who the new members are before deleting my posts.)
July 25:
If there was support from current ToE members to move the forum elsewhere (essentially start a new, private board, wouldn't that mean?), I'm not sure how that decision would be received "politically" by others. I would personally support that decision, but I think it would anger others.
July 25:
Personally, I think that if there is sufficient interest from the current, posting membership of ToE, the best solution is for the membership, quietly (in the sense of not making banner ads about it) to move to its own site. I don't think there needs to be "official" approval from b77 for members to decide to take discussion of personal topics to a non-public board.
July 25:
The only reason I didn't express this viewpoint more vehemently (I did express it tentatively at least twice) is that everyone was so insistent that there was a heinous exclusion going on that I assumed that there must be too many people who needed to be in here, but were not, to maintain a closed board system. It turns out that this is not the case. So, IMHO, I feel that we sacrificed a wonderful thing - the intimacy and comfort of posting within a community - for a less inviting, less welcoming thing. Within less than three months, there will be people on this forum that none of us have any idea whatsoever about, and how on earth that could be a good thing escapes me.
I didn't say anything today that I haven't been saying for months. Why was ToE not moved off b77? Because other people feel either that ToE will die away from b77, or that b77 should be given a chance first. I think they are wrong. b77 did not die away from TORC, and ToE will not die away from b77. However, as far as I know, I'm in the minority on this. Of course I will not copy other people's thoughts written in ToE into this forum, but you should take a look, since I don't think you were part of the initial discussion that occurred there in July. I have always agreed with you that a closed, private ToE is incompatible not with a democracy, but with the Mission Statement and Key Principles (which I oppose). However, if a majority of others feel that the two things are not incompatible, then I am not entirely opposed to having a closed ToE on b77 - although I'd feel vaguely uneasy with a perceived hypocrisy until and unless the Mission Statement and Key Principles were amended.
Voronwe - thanks. I understand why you disagree strongly and respect your POV very much.
Nin - I'm really not sure how many people would have been kept out. Now, granted, some people would never have been invited unless they took the initiative to ask to be invited - indeed, I fall into this camp myself. I'd disappeared from TORC and no one would have thought to invite me (in fact, I don't even know if anyone had my contact info to get in touch with me if someone had eventually thought about it). I was invited simply because I asked. I know that Cerin has posted that she also asked. I'm sure others did.
Aside from people like us, are there really a lot of people who would have been vetoed or voted down had they requested admittance? Certainly the person who has caused all of this nonsense would have been vetoed. I can think of one other quite controversial person who joined the board opening day whom I think might have been excluded for a while longer - and at most, a third who would not have been allowed in due to his statements about the board, but has since reconciled with a lot of people. Are there really more than three, tops, who would have been excluded?