private boards?

[PinotNoir]

Hey, been a while since I've posted, and this is not the reason for that (been working on life), but just something I've thought about before and wanted to post (I think this has come up before actually).

Could the boards end up being private or just have certain sections private? This would mean you'd have to go through the free register process to view/post. Of course, I could see Chase still wanting to link to certain sections/threads in his articles (main site), so he may only want certain sections private/public.

Also, could there be a new Field Report section that only paying subscribers can view/post in? This would be in addition to the free one (so not taking away from free users, just adding to paying ones). I've withheld some reports just because of this. It's not really about my image, but about the women. Some of my past FRs I feel a bit embarrassed that I shared something so personal about them because I know the girl so well now haha. Of course, the likelihood of them ever finding out is pretty much nil, but the thought is still there, and I'm sure they wouldn't like what I posted about them Or maybe they would like the attention, I don't know.

Just thoughts,
PN

 

[Franco]

PN,

I can think of multiple pros and cons to this idea, although I'll run it by Chase in case he has his own reasons for possibly wanting to implement or withhold features like this.

- Franco

 

[Chase]

Hey Pinot-

I'm not completely opposed - I kind of imagine that as a sub-forum to the Field Reports Board, except it'd be invisible to anyone who was not logged in, yeah?

The weird thing about it is it makes things a tad more confusing, navigation-wise; do you post in the top-level FR board, or the private one?

There's also the chance it just becomes kind of a ghost town, or, alternately, another conceivable path it goes is if several active members decide to post all their stuff in the private field reports board and not the public one, and everyone follows them over there, then Field Reports dies out and one of biggest "attractors" on the board to new members (seems like a lot of guys join after spending a while lurking on FR, and finally decide to take the plunge and join up) goes away. And one of my major concerns with starting another forum was that it was consistently attractive to new blood... because boards that don't get new blood die a slow (and increasingly clique-ish / groupthink-ish) death.

The idea of a private board for subscribers only is a bit more intriguing to me, and is actually something I've been thinking about a little as-is - we're building a new sales funnel for GC programs, which ideally we'll pump a lot of cold traffic through and generate a large list of new ebook or other program buyers who are serious about getting good, and a separate forum for program-owners / site subscribers (to discuss stuff from the programs, go through the homeworks there, plus other general questions, etc.) would be solid. On the other hand, getting a fresh forum off the ground and running successfully is a lot of work and I'm not exactly in a position to spend a lot of my time in a forum willing it to succeed myself at this point, either.

Right now, I think the "private field reports board for registered members" idea is a little confusing and potentially risks stagnating the boards and stemming the tide of new blood if it takes off (or just generally distracts and clutters if it doesn't); the "program buyer / subscriber private board" is an interesting concept and one I like (private boards are smaller and can be quite good IF you can get a good group of guys on there + a steady supply of new recruits... although this board operates almost as good as any private board I've seen, honestly - I think we have a pretty tight community with a good balance between guys who know and respect each other, and new blood coming in to keep things fresh), but it's going to take some brainstorming to see if it's something we can reasonably build / pull off any time in the next 4 or 5 months or so.

If I could wave a magic wand and the buyers/subscribers one was set up and running just the way I wanted it instantly I'd say yes, definitely, but these things are a tad trickier than that... this board took about a month and a half to get up and running before we even opened the doors to anyone, and sucked up a fair bit of my time to make sure was off the ground and had the right culture instilled in it the first 4 or 5 months it was live. A new board is a big commitment.

Chase

 

[PinotNoir]

Mmm, I see. I never thought about all of that. I too have seen a lot of boards die off due to the lack of new members, so makes sense. Especially here, once people reach a level that they're comfortable with and then help out a few people, there becomes less reason to come back.

It's like a lot of programming boards that I used to be a member of. You use the boards to learn the specific tool/language well and to ask questions. Then once you've mastered it to a satisfactory level (whatever that means to you), you only visit the boards to help new members. Eventually, you get tired of helping (because you get little back for sometimes draining questions or repeating questions), so finally, you just come back once every few months or once a year when you have a major issue that you can't figure out and hope that the veterans see it. I'm nowhere to this level on GC, but it's a similar trend that I see happen here.

Anyway, I'm sure it will work out. I've been happy with each new iteration of GC so far, unlike facebook or other sites haha. I'm sure the right things will be done if a subscriber section is made, etc. Are polls enabled for this forum? If there's not a high demand for it, it's probably a waste of time to make it anyway. It's just something that I would personally like, but I don't know about others.