Public and Private forums?

Do you think we could have a little icon or something on the top of the forum or thread pages, that would tell us wether or not it is a private forum.

We may already have it, but I am blind sometimes. I just last week discovered the "skip to new" that everyone talks about. I knew it had to be somewhere because everyone talks about it.

I know I can go the the main forum page and see what it is, but it would be easier if, when I question wether or not to post something, I could just look at the top of the page and find out wether its private or not.

chris

I'd like that, too. It'd be easier than going to the main forum page.

I know the "closed" forums aren't all that private (still shouldn't go posting my address or anything I don't want generally known), but there's still a distinction to me between the public forums and the subscriber-only ones.

I have a vague memory of this being discussed before... I think admin may have said something about it creating an issue with non subscribers (maybe making it more obvious where they were & weren't welcome or something, but it's a pretty vague memory and I could be all wrong)... but I think it would be useful to non-subscribing members also, to know at a glance if this was a forum where they could only read the first post of threads and couldn't respond.

I also think it would be useful to both subscribers and non subscribers. Plus I dont think its all that bad that the non subscribers, find out that there is something they are NOT getting, for what they are NOT paying for.

If that is a problem then we could have an indicator on top of the pages only when they are private. This way the non subscribers would never see it.
If it there for us, then it is private. If its not there, then its public.

I also know that private, is not really "private", but I still would like to know when I am on a subscribers only page.

Here it lists all the forums and the subscriber only forums are marked with a red asterisk http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/

Does that help? It's under the Communities tab, then in Discussion Forums.

Right... that's what Chris mean, I think, by going to the main forum page and checking there. It would just be more handy to have that info as a little icon or something at the top of each forum page, also.

Yes, thanks critter, thats what I mean.

Example of what I am unsuccessfully trying to say...
Sometimes I am in the middle of typing something and the thought crosses my mind wether or not it is an open public thread. I have to stop typing and go back the main forums page to find out what that forum is. Then when I go back to typing what I was doing, I always lose what I was typing because I forget to copy it before I hit the community tab.

This site is run by magicians and they make everything look magically easy.
So I just figured I would ask for something that my computor illiterate brain sees as easy.
It may be way more complicated than clicking a button, so if it is something that is involved, then just forget I asked. Its not like I cant go get the info from the forums page.

I hope that explained what I mean.

chris

If subscriber vs member forums bother you, and I really do not understand why it should, why don't you limit your home page to subscriber forums or maybe a couple of member forums that you are aware of like the beginner forums.?

This message was edited Apr 6, 2009 5:47 PM

Hi Farmerdill,

Subscriber vs member forums dont bother me. I am on both quite often.
Sometimes I get caught up in conversation and say things that I might not have said or give info I might not have given, unless it was a subscriber forum.
Sometimes I will post pictures only in subscriber forums.
I just thought it would be nice to have. If it just took the swipe of a magic wand.

Just think how many of the 7,000+ subscribers "lurk" in various
threads, read all your posts and see all your pictures. It's best
never to assume that subscriber forums are private at all.

Right, but they are still less totally "public" than forums open to non-subscribers. To me, there's a distinction, and it does affect how I post in various forums. It would be nice to know at a glance where I was... most of the gardening forums are now subscriber-only, but I think the non-gardening forums are very mixed as to access.

I see no distinction at all. The 7000+ subscribers are the most active members. They are most likely to have DG on for many hours of the day - including when they are not in front of their computers. Therefore, there are potentially many others who can 'see' what's going on. I am constantly reminding people of that when it comes to photos and information. There is absolutely NOTHING I would feel more comfortable about posting on a subscriber-only forum than a general one.

I remind people of the same thing. But I still think an asterisk or something on the forum page as well as the community page with the forum list would be useful.

Or is your concern that being able to tell at a glance that a forum is subscriber-only would give people a false sense of privacy/security?

It would also help me when I respond to non-subscribing members... often, I want to direct somebody to another forum for more info. Currently, the only way I can see if the page I'm trying to link them to is subscriber-only is to also go over to the main community/forums page and check. Being able to tell at a glance is easier, especially since sometimes I forget to double check and then confusion results.

Thank you critter, that is exactly what I mean.
I agree with you, hopefully its an easy add-on.
I have also not realized I was talking to a non subscriber and referred them to a restricted forum.

You still have to go to the member page to determine whether or not the person is a subscriber, if you are in a member forum. As long as you are in a subscriber forum you can assume that the person is a subscriber.

Thats exactly why we would like an icon on the pages in each forum, to tell us that we are in a subscriber forum.
Its just easier than going back to the community tab to find out what forum we are in.

Actually, you can just move your mouse over their name, and their member/subscriber status will usually pop up.

I think Chris made a pretty simple request/suggestion, and I hope admin will consider it if it's easy to implement.

What is your objection to adding an asterisk or a small icon to the top of the page? Is it just that you would not find it helpful?

I would like it, too. What's the big deal? Those who don't care can ignore it.

Everyone has their own comfort level, ideas of who they want reading what they post - or whatever other reason they want to know which forums are which. It says nothing bad about subscribers and should not be that difficult to do.

It's not a big deal and it doesn't matter a bit to me whether there's an
asterisk or not. No one should ever develop a false sense of privacy/security
on any web site, even DG, but that's up to each individual and their
comfort level with what they choose to post.

Dave is very cooperative about giving subscribers what they want and I'm sure
he will do so in this case.

Sorry if my comment sounded harsh - I didn't intend it to. :-{
I'm afraid sometimes we 'overthink' these things.

No problem, KaperC. Never let an asterisk come between friends. ;-)

I agree that it would be helpful. Sometimes I wonder which ones are subscriber only, and while I know there is a page that could tell me, I never want to go out and look for it. I would be in favor of some kind of icon also.

I too would like to see this implemented. I'd find it very useful, also. Once I kept trying to link a new thread to a forum that was closed but didn't realize it. I couldn't imagine why the link wasn't working, since I usually don't have problems posting links. I'm also less free with info on the open forums.

I wonder what admin thinks of the idea?

Hint, Hint, ^_^

chris

I've looked and can't find out if Dmail is Public and Private, I've been getting dmails from non subsribers and I dmail them back but don't get a reply to my dmail.

D-mail is available to all members.

Dmails are private, offline messages. Non-subscribers can initiate up to 2 new dmails in any 24-hour period. (We put a limit on their ability because of the proliferation of spam--a lot of the "my husband was an assassinated diplomat" stuff that people would actually sign up here and try to pull on our members...sigh.) It's unfortunate for the legitimate non-subscribers, but it has cut way down on that particular problem.

Reacting to unsolicited dmails is up to you: if the request seems legit (requesting to use a photo, asking about a plant, or indicating they are in your area and just want to strike up a gardening conversation), you are welcome to respond to them. They can't learn any more about you than you are willing to reveal, and never your email address unless you give it to them--and you should probably think twice about giving your email address to anyone, unless you like getting more junk mail in your personal inbox ;o)

If you don't feel comfortable responding, then you are under no obligation to do so. You can disregard the note and drop it into your "deleted" folder if you don't want to correspond with them.