Replies to post #22743 on The Question and Answer Board (IHUB)

[fung_derf]

Bob has more important issues to deal with. Like figuring a good place to put a "Bang your head here" button.

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I can't have my own opinion and ability to determine what I think are the pro's and con's of Private Boards?

My "proposal" wasn't one. It was a discussion of pro's and con's (mostly con's) and highlighting the more important requirements I would have for being able to get along with the whole notion.

Personally, I think that under the model I "proposed", the whole idea would be ruled right out.

Nearly every single person who has argued the "need" for private boards and for free filtering has been a free member and will always remain one. Jim is very much the exception to that rule.

What he seems to be asking for is the ability to remove a person because their presence is "a disruptive influence". That would work, but is not acceptable and doesn't address what the real problem is in those situations.

Personally, I think having the board unavailable to free members would solve the problem, but that's not an option since it's company-specific.

Well, it'd solve *that* problem. There's a far bigger one that bothers the hell out of me.

A free member has PM'd me twice saying that they have a "following" of 200 members who read the IDCC board, are using filtering, and never post (nevermind the fact that the database says only 29 people fit that category). He says that he instructs all of these people to immediately filter specific people before reading that board.

He wrote me to complain that free filtering is needed because he claimed to have been receiving lots of emails along the lines of "Is what this person's saying true?" when filtering was disabled and was getting tired of having to tell them that the person was lying and therefore needed to be "ignored".

"Private Boards" if they're readable by everyone, would make that problem worse.

By making them only readable to subscribers and to people who have been "permitted" to read such boards only after reading the disclaimer and on the approval of the moderator, that problem will be somewhat alleviated.

Edit: Now don't go putting a lot of time into busting my chops over this. I'm still awfully busy and already regret having offered my opinions. It's not something I'm in a position to actively discuss right now.