Discussion Topic: Private forum vs. PM's and Email

[BAD]

One would hope that those who come after would learn from the private discussions in the past, rather than take offense to them....

[Chacal]

Putting on my information security consultant hat:
A private forum is different from e-mail and PMs because it is possible for a poster to come back and edit posts, thus deleting embarassing/incriminating evidence. Worse, a privileged user can alter any post without leaving any trace.
Participants rarely keep private copies of forum posts. It is thus possible to rewrite history.

With e-mail and PMs, the sender does not have access to the message after it is sent.

[Aloys]

One would hope that those who come after would learn from the private discussions in the past, rather than take offense to them....

Haha, I totally agree with you, unfortunately experience proves that it is not always the case.
Hopefully it uncommon enough to not weight too much in the decision we are debating here.

[BAD]

Putting on my information security consultant hat:
A private forum is different from e-mail and PMs because it is possible for a poster to come back and edit posts, thus deleting embarassing/incriminating evidence. Worse, a privileged user can alter any post without leaving any trace.
Participants rarely keep private copies of forum posts. It is thus possible to rewrite history.

With e-mail and PMs, the sender does not have access to the message after it is sent.

Right, and no one can deny writing an email or PM to someone.

I think some are putting way to much weight on this issue. A private area shouldn't be used for day to day discussions. Only for situations where privacy is needed. If the Council had to discuss a matter that involved private information about you, would you want them discussing it publicly?

I have been a member of many private (even secret, oh no!) forums, and I have never encountered a moment I felt I needed to delete or alter (beyond adding clarification, correcting spelling errors) a post of mine. If I had permission, I would gladly make them all public.

[Chacal]

If the Council had to discuss a matter that involved private information about you, would you want them discussing it publicly?

Yes. Well actually I don't want them to discuss about me at all. They can talk to me if needed.

[andylegate]

With e-mail and PMs, the sender does not have access to the message after it is sent.

Actually, you can. At least the board that we are using over at the GoMa you can delete your out going mail before someone reads it. I'm not sure what version they are using......hang on a sec....it's phpbb, just like here. I know this as someone sent me a PM by mistake, and was able to delete it before I read it (it actually said "PM deleted by sender."

Emails, no. Once you click on Send that's it........

Unless your Timmy Turner with a couple of Fairy Odd Parents......

[BAD]

If the Council had to discuss a matter that involved private information about you, would you want them discussing it publicly?

Yes. Well actually I don't want them to discuss about me at all. They can talk to me if needed.

That is a given. No one wants to have problems that will need the advice of others, especially those perceived to be in authority. No one can truly be an island on the internet tho. At some point it may become necessary for the Council to discuss someones fate. Whether it be a ban on a problem user, or on a more serious issue, they will need a place to discuss those matters without causing the person in question public humiliation. PMs and e-mails will only add confusion to the discussion. Taking away from the focus they will need to properly handle it.

Just thinking about this, we could argue about this forever. There are obvious ups and downs to this topic. I think if the GC thinks they need a private area for discussion they have a right to it. If they feel it is unnecessary, that's fine too. Ultimately it is up to them, IMO.

This is me bowing out.

[Jennifer_P]

Once everybody has said their piece, shall we put this decision to the vote?

[Pryftan]

I haven't had the chance to catch up enough to get involved in this discussion. But here's a note: Unless there really is a vote in which a ton of people say "never make private forums", I'm planning on moving important discussions I have with other Guild leadership into private forums. There is really little difference between a PM conversation and a forum conversation on this board (you can certainly edit old posts) - the only difference is that if we want to let others into our discussion, or make it entirely public at some point, it is infinitely easier to do so.

Let me make a proposition to those who don't like the idea of private forums: What if we agreed that all such discussions would become public when the day came that it was no longer necessary to hide them?

[Nadnerb]

Let me make a proposition to those who don't like the idea of private forums: What if we agreed that all such discussions would become public when the day came that it was no longer necessary to hide them?

This would require a valid reason for hiding them in the first place. What could you possibly discuss with the other guilds (explorers all of them, just like us) that would need to be so secret?