board77

Poll A:

When board77 opens, will at least one forum be readable by non-members? (People will still have to register to be able to post.)

Yes
No

Poll B:

If members vote to have at least one forum readable by nonmembers, which forum(s) should it be?

<20 options ranging from individual forums to "everything but Business, ToE, and Outside" (and Jury Room?)>

Edit: Imp, I don't see any harm in running them concurrently, especially if we discuss a while longer first. Then if Poll A is "No," Poll B must be thrown out, but if it's "Yes," we save, what? Ten days?

Who in hell said anything about a Poll A and a Poll B?
I said Poll 1 and Poll 2.

sm00ch

Well, I had to say you were wrong about something.

What about an option to make ALL fora readable? Both Nin and I have expressed that as our preference. Would be nice if the option was there on a poll.

(except ToE, Business and invites...and btw, once open the invites forum is archived and disappeared, yes?)

Impenitent wrote:

However...Before the poll should come discussion. Gut reactions are not always the best way to go.

Thanks for saying it again, Imp!

Seemingly it hasn't helped, though, so I thought I'd just point it out once more.

All fora from me, too.

Am I nuts or are we not discussing things?
I am starting to think you people are crazier than I am and that is saying a lot.
I am going out now to consume mass quantities of beer, and forget about all of you weirdos for a while.
Oh woe is you when I return.

Imp and Hobby, yes, an option like that would surely be on the poll, though I think Outside should also not be readable under any option (BikeRacks, Jury Room, archives).

Nuts to you!



erm...nuts to Holby, of course, and Prim, yes I forgot about outside - should not be viewable til one has signed in blood.

Holby, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Though it sounds as if you should be more worried about it hitting you on the way back in.

Are under 13 year old children going to be able to view these forums? If so, does it matter to the Americans? I hope the posters in whatever forums are open won't be expected to censor themselves for that reason.

Tosh, we are not going to allow those under 13 to register and post. U.S. law seems mainly concerned with taking personal information from younger children, which we won't be doing or allowing. There should be no reason for self-censorship of the conversations here, if what I see on other public U.S. boards is any indication.

U.S. law matters to all of us, because this is legally a U.S. board—the server is in the United States. We can be held responsible for a violation of U.S. law on this board, once we own it, even if it's committed by someone outside the U.S. who is obeying their own local laws. This is why we have had such an intensive discussion of Thinking of England.

I was under the impression that this board was in the UK.
Why did I think that?
Wouldn't things be easier if we did have a server in the UK?

You guys, I hate to throw a wet blanket on things, but this is not a good way to conduct the poll.

Suppose just the Subfora Welcome, Turf, and Symposium, and the Forum Dicisne etc. are available for people to choose from. ( I leave out the Business Room, Outside and TOE as unacceptable on principle grounds, and Made in Dale as too likely to attract <13 year-olds and misrepresent the overall tone of the board).

Let Welcome = 1, Turf = 2, Symposium = 3, Dicesne = 4. To let people choose the option they want, you have to offer:

[1], [2], [3], [4], [1,2], [1,3], [1,4], [2,3], [2,4], [3,4], [1,2,3], [1,2,4], [1,3,4], [2,3,4], [1,2,3,4]

Fifteen options. Add one more forum to the mix and you have sixteen additional options. This is not practical.

I don't think there's a quickie way to do this. We'll have to have a discussion lengthy enough to decide what forums are fair game, and then we'll need a formal ballot.

Is this something that needs to be done now? Can we postpone this decision until after we open?

Jn

If we postpone opening any forums to the public, then there will be no visible change in the board when we open beyond a front-page statement that anyone over 13 can now register. The board itself will still be invisible.

It's true that there is no reason related to the timing of opening why we have to settle this now.

Given the list of back "invitees" it's not like we'll have a shortage of new faces...I think this is a complex issue, as jny notes, and it shouldn't slow up the opening.

Primula_Baggins wrote:

If we postpone opening any forums to the public, then there will be no visible change in the board when we open beyond a front-page statement that anyone over 13 can now register. The board itself will still be invisible.

I beg to differ
Right now nothing (except a pretty bleak front page) is visible to non-registered members but we can make the forums visible without allowing people to view the threads. All they'll see is the different fora with their descriptions but they cannot enter the fora. All fora are currently set to private VIEW but there is a different setting possible for VIEW and READ. Only through enabling READ can people actually enter the fora and read in the threads there. So different level's are indeed very possible.

I would definitely go for VIEW of ALL fora (except the Confidential Admin section), but the READ setting for only certain ones.
Actually, I'd also be for opening up READ access to non-registered members across the board except to those already mentioned: Business, Outside, TOE, Admin. Posting rights should only be given for registerd members (I'm sure we pretty much all can agree on that).

One thing I'd like the 'reluctant to open' people to consider:

As a stumbling by 'guest', do you seriously see them delving deep into the history of threads, trying to digg out information posted... even last week? Sure, there are no guarantees but I'd say in 99.9% of cases 'guests' will just have a quick browse and then perhaps will consider joining or not. The more fora are readable the better 'spread' we possibly can offer.

And of course 'Invites' will disappear as will e.g. the Address thread (which can/could be restarted if people are willing).

_______________
Resident witchâ„¢
a candle for Areanor

Sorry Alandriel! I expressed myself poorly. Yes, we can allow the forum names to be visible, and should, but I don't see much difference between that and nothing—the names and descriptions don't really convey the flavor of the place. I agree with you that something needs to be out there, but maybe we do need to settle it in a less rushed way and keep our focus on the parts of the charter that are still unfinished. Discussion could still perk along here, and perhaps a better poll would emerge from it.

Although I'm still wavering—it would be nice, when we open, to actually open something.

Jn, you are right. There is no reason this needs to be absolutely decided before we at least open our doors to those who have expressed an interested in getting in.

But I STILL think that there is no reason why we can't just do a poll in each forum and decide it that way. I'm afraid I simply don't understand the objections to that idea.

Oh.. but you see, I do see a difference between nothing and having at least the forum names visible, especially IF we fine-tune the descriptions a bit.

Add to that the very good possibility that people would readily agree to have the welcome forum open and readable, packed full of info (and a bit re-organized) well, it would go some way to entice people into registering yet keep the fly-bye's out.

_______________
Resident witchâ„¢
a candle for Areanor