Public or Private forum?

[circular]

As the CST Tribe, should we remain private or should we open CST Forum to the public? We respect your opinions firstly because you have endured the troll, spam, hack screening process to secure an account.

What do you see as advantages and disadvantages? Which do you prefer?

Thank you,
RMAX.tv Productions Management.

[WarpedMind]

I'd like to suggest a compromise. Have an area available for all the public. But if they want to see the rest of the board (private area), they have to be a member.

[Bill Ripley]

There are several boards that I used to frequent a lot but now seldom do because of the childish nonsense that gets posted.

Another board that I frequent, Bugei's sword forum requires that users register with their real names. It seems that this practice, plus peer pressure, plus compentent moderators keeps the sound to noise ratio over there at a reasonable level.

Just an idea.

Bill R

[pookaboy]

I prefer this board to be private. If somebody becomes interested it is public enough that they can always join if they want. Plus, as a private entity it keeps the assinine posts to a minimum as is the case when you get somebody that doesn't agree with something in a very negative :x kind of way.
Tom

[Connie Brown]

I actually don't understand what it means to be "public" with this software. No account needed, no moderation or control on posts? or could a moderator pull posts after the fact?

Advantages of private:

- CST able to manage the signal-to-noise ratio (no junk posts)
- people self-select; if you engage you are probably serious about CST
- able to watch dialogues and correct misinformation
- "welcome mat" shows it is about tribal relationships, not just blowing internet smoke

disadvantages of private:

- someone has to manage the accounts and enforce the rules
- does it scale well? what is the difference between 600 members, 6000, and 60000?

advantages of public:

- does it kind of run itself?
- cost of entry is way lower so more people might get exposure to CST
- relationships can be done here too - lurkers and impostors both ways I guess

disadvantages of public:

- people could say anything? much more noise mixed with signal ?
- on the other hand, low cost of entry means info might be not valued much either

I will want to read CST info either way. I would prefer a good signal-to-noise ratio, and I would be willing to "pay" for that somehow.

[James Boelter]

It seems easy enough to join the CST forum in its current 'private' mode; I can't really see the advantage in going public. I share other members' concern about the trolling, childish nonsense and flame wars that could easily start up if new members aren't expected to provide their 'real' names and to be responsible for what they post.

The posts, topics, and threads that currently appear here are almost always extremely helpful and/or informative and/or interesting. Even those few that aren't are well intended and sincere. I'd hate to lose that.

However, I will continue to support the forum in whatever form it takes as long as RMAX and Coach Sonnon are the driving forces behind it and our esteemed CST Alpha Cadre members continue to contribute.

[circular]

Due to your feedback, CST Forum shall remain "private" to registered members. However, we have added a section for General Public Access for questions from those who are tentative about joining our forum. Furthermore, the Open Discussion section is now viewable by non-registered guests, but only postable by registered guests. All other section remain invisible to non-registered guests.

We do this as a probationary period. If any of the above improvements prove to be detriments and not improvements, we shall return to completely registered members only.

Lastly, we added a registered members only section for exercise descriptions.

We hope this adds to your experience and increases new member drive.

Thank you,
RMAX.tv Productions Management

[circular]

Unfortunately, we discovered that exhibiting any "public" sections to CST Forum makes username searches on posting history available to non-registered member "guests". In other words, if a member is online, non-members may search the member posting history and view and post to all threads which the member contributed to.

We removed Public Access section, made all sections member-only. This is only way to control and prevent trolling, hacking and spamming.

We also removed Exercise Description section since this will no longer be needed.

Thank you,
RMAX.tv Productions Management

[Arthur]

Unfortunately, we discovered that exhibiting any "public" sections to CST Forum makes username searches on posting history available to non-registered member "guests".

I think I can help you set it up so that isn't possible. Shoot me an email if you'd like.

Arthur

[jimmy23]

I much prefer a private forum, it helps keep things on-topic here

[circular]

The price has not yet increased. The promotional offer has been extended slightly.

[Shaf]

I like this forum the way it is. The posters here are helpful, and there is less crap to wade through than gets posted on public forums.

In addition, the registration will stop 99% of the "drive by trolls" who just want to cause trouble.

Steve Shafley

[Scott Sonnon]

Knowing what you must endure, that's sage advice. We decided to stay private and mod-heavy... despite all of the crying from those that don't make it past the gate-keeper.