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The idea of having a private forum available for all topics came up on the discussion thread about deleting posts. A private forum would require that you request access from the moderator, and that you are logged in to view the forum. There would be no requirement, other than being a member, in order to be granted access. As is true for the Sensitive Issues and Intimate Discussions forum, no topic information, aside from the time and date of the most recent post, is displayed on the front page of the forum. The contents of the forum would not be available for a Google search.

I would like to open up the idea of a private forum to discussion by forum members, as it has been the case in the past that changes to the forum structure have affected the dynamics of the forum. Since a change like this will affect all members, it seems like a discussion before implementing is a good idea. I have included a poll below to gather some information about member's use of the forums and prediction of how a private forum might be used. This would allow members to give their opinion anonymously, if desired. I would also though, really want to encourage people to post and discuss the idea. Thanks.
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Sorry, quick note on the last question about PMing. I could have structured the responses better but people have already started answering the poll and if I change it now, I lose their votes. If you answer yes to using PMing for groups, I would pretty much assume that you also use it talk to individuals. I think when I was formulating the responses I thinking of it as a progression from no use up through group use. Thanks.
In my opinion, and (admittedly limited) experience here... the private forums that are here serve an established purpose. The rest of the site operates under a strong anonymity of 'usernames' without personal information attached... thereby accomplishing the same thing as a private forum.

And, from the stand point of owning and operating a large forum based site myself - Discussions being open and 'google-able' bring in more users, which can only add to the wonderful discussions already going on here.

In my opinion..
The longer I have been a member and contributing on the open forum, the less I am writing and I am deleting more of my old posts.

I feel very exposed because people can google my posts and without too much trouble I could be identified as I am one of a couple of people who post from my country.

Posting on the open forum is a problem for me - and I am posting less and less.
The larger the membership has grown and the more people that I feel are googling and reading posts the less I have been willing to contribute. I have been very tempted to ask for a mass delete of all of my posts as well, but have refrained thus far.

Honestly, I'm not convinced (as I said on the other thread) that a private forum does anything other than address the google issues. If old posts under a username are googled and someone thinks it is someone they know then they can join and start reading in the private areas once they have access and specifically search out that particular member. Changing the username does nothing unless you delete everything and start over. If you search back far enough you can figure out who they were before. Anyway, I'm sure for the vast majority it isn't an issue but having private forums accessed by brand new and unknown members seems to defeat the purpose other than getting around the google issue, but this is just my feeling on the issue.
I feel if there were a private forum, I'd be more open. I have to kind of re-word things on the OF because I am scared of someone finding me, or identifying me through a google. I'd definitely be willing to share a lot more knowing that my privacy was protected just a little bit more. I've deleted a couple of things just because they were too identifiable.

--Brokes

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