Thread: What to do with the private forums

Originally Posted by LuLu

with a time stamp showing when the edit was made I'm fairly certain no one would think that the edited post was legit. The words I spoke in the private forums were never meant for new members. there is a very strict requirement to get in those forums so I felt safe saying what I wanted with some very old friends. I would rather have my account deleted altogether as I dont plan on continuing here but I would like to know my private posts were gone. especially my semi nude birth photos that I can now not delete

To clarify no new members would not have access to the private forums unless they met whatever qualification is currently required.

we've been dealing with trolls and scammers in here for over a decade. We have had the ability to edit all these years and it has not interfered with putting them in their place yet. Playing with trolls is actually quite fun.

Originally Posted by Brad

I'm not saying that you all would abuse it. However, the membership of this site has been fairly stagnant for a long time. In fact new members haven't been allowed at all for a long time. Soon this will change and there will be new members. I'm hoping that many of you will be there to guide and help them as many of them might be in the same position that you were in 10 years ago. But some of these new members might try to cause problems, and one of the ways that they can do it is by going back and editing their posts to change the meanings of conversations.

Changing it to one hour is just standard practice when we take over a forum. It is not, however, set in stone. Although I now worry that some of you are so angry that you might in fact go back and just delete every post that you ever made. If enough did this then the conversations would lose their meaning and therefore their value to anyone trying to read them. I'm just being honest about how this seems to me. Please try to see it from my side and understand that I want to come to some solution that makes everyone happy, including me.

Again not meant to be insulting just telling you how I feel. At the moment I don't care about standard practice this is not a standard community. You are currently alienating the largest and most vocal part of this community and the longer you hold back on the edit feature the chances of any of them staying are slim.

Originally Posted by Brad

To clarify I mean the option for you to edit your own posts in the private forums indefinitely.

I understand what you meant, I want the edit back in all forums. There are posts I made on the market board that I want to edit not many but a handful. My intention is not to wipe my existence at Amity's but if that is the only choice you leave me with that is what it will be.

Believe it or not, I appreciate your input on this. When I changed the edit time I said that it was not necessarily permanent. To say there has been a backlash would be a bit of an understatement. It is possible that due to the specific topics discussed here that it is occasionally necessary for one to go back and edit a post. And that it can be done without causing harm to other participants in the conversation. I am willing to consider that, but I am telling you that it is highly unusual. I want to come to a compromise on this, and it may take a few iterations before I get it right. All I am asking is for a discussion and not what reads like a screaming match.

Originally Posted by Brad

I'm not saying that you all would abuse it. However, the membership of this site has been fairly stagnant for a long time. In fact new members haven't been allowed at all for a long time. Soon this will change and there will be new members. I'm hoping that many of you will be there to guide and help them as many of them might be in the same position that you were in 10 years ago. But some of these new members might try to cause problems, and one of the ways that they can do it is by going back and editing their posts to change the meanings of conversations.

Changing it to one hour is just standard practice when we take over a forum. It is not, however, set in stone. Although I now worry that some of you are so angry that you might in fact go back and just delete every post that you ever made. If enough did this then the conversations would lose their meaning and therefore their value to anyone trying to read them. I'm just being honest about how this seems to me. Please try to see it from my side and understand that I want to come to some solution that makes everyone happy, including me.

I understand that a large portion of what you bought here is the content. But I think it's really important to understand the context of that content. We knew the membership was stagnant; we got very close in a very insulated-feeling environment. We became overly-relaxed and posted in a manner that we might not have in a busy board that had a steady influx of new members. We shared the things we did because of the bond we have formed over many years. I did not post the gory details of my ex spouses arrests and how that affected my kids to provide an interesting thread for people to read. I didn't post about how we didn't expect my daughter to live several months ago to keep new members interested.

I understand that you want interesting content to provide to new members to draw membership and raise advertising revenue. And I would imagine that nearly all of us will change how we post now, knowing that there will be new people, and that we cannot edit later. What is to stop my ex's current spouse from joining, gaining access to Sisters, and reading everything I have ever posted there? When we were a small, insular board that wouldn't have been allowed to happen. Joli would have denied her access. We don't know how you plan to handle situations like that, and it has many of us running scared. You truly have to understand that while you may not be interested in the details of those conversations, there are people that are. There is content in sisters and over the rainbow that could end marriages, cause a great deal of harm to people.

What I would like to propose is this; what will make you happy is advertising revenue generated by interesting conversations driving new users to the forum. We like interesting, fun conversations and new people. Truly. What we don't like is changes in protocols that have been in place for many, many years. What about a compromise? What if you froze Sisters? No more posts, and no new members. Freeze it for 3 months, allowing members ample time to copy any posts they want to keep, and then wipe it, a clean start for that forum. People can delete the content they don't want available, you get to keep the forum and the posts that people want to have remaining. The people who still want Sisters get to keep it.

I tried to fix my double post and go this message:

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.
AmityMama.com

Thank you. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your reply. Your option is something that could work, and I would like to hear others opinions on it.

What if sisters were left as it is, and we agreed on some fixed requirement before any new member could have access? Like must be a member for 5 years and have at least 1,000 posts, for example. What if that was combined with the ability to edit indefinitely?

Originally Posted by wethreepeeps

I tried to fix my double post and go this message:

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.
AmityMama.com

That happened because I had already deleted the double post.

Originally Posted by Brad

Believe it or not, I appreciate your input on this. When I changed the edit time I said that it was not necessarily permanent. To say there has been a backlash would be a bit of an understatement. It is possible that due to the specific topics discussed here that it is occasionally necessary for one to go back and edit a post. And that it can be done without causing harm to other participants in the conversation. I am willing to consider that, but I am telling you that it is highly unusual. I want to come to a compromise on this, and it may take a few iterations before I get it right. All I am asking is for a discussion and not what reads like a screaming match.

I am asking again Brad because you didn't answer the first time I asked. Why are you trying to fix a part of the community that isn't broken? If you came here to help with technical issues and open up the board to new members to create revenue for yourself and your "company" just say that. Give long standing members a chance to process that fact and edit what they need to edit. Instead you came in and within the first few days are banning people, name calling, locking our edit feature. You have asked us to understand where you are coming from. Now I am asking you to try to see where we are coming from.

I do see where you are coming from. In hindsight I would do things differently, always.

Originally Posted by Brad

Thank you. I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your reply. Your option is something that could work, and I would like to hear others opinions on it.

What if sisters were left as it is, and we agreed on some fixed requirement before any new member could have access? Like must be a member for 5 years and have at least 1,000 posts, for example. What if that was combined with the ability to edit indefinitely?

I would suggest putting a poll in the main forum to gain a consensus. I wouldn't dare speak for the entire group, but I think that making the group feel that they have options and that this is an evolving process will go a long way towards maintaining the heart and soul of this forum.

ditto Wethreepeeps.

Originally Posted by Brad

I do see where you are coming from. In hindsight I would do things differently, always.

Ok so make it right. Brad it is a wonderful mostly reasonable group of women and everyday that goes by with this line drawn in the sand really only hurts your investment. We will carry on elsewhere, I would like it to be here but if it isn't it is because you took the hard line here.

I'm off, but will definitely give this some thought.