Question re public boards

**MusicalSpoons** · December 2nd, 2019, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by Kat

That was my thinking. Anyone could register just to buy things, which will then give them access to the parts of the site we keep non-public for the very reason that we don't want just anyone seeing them.

They still have to have 25 decent posts to see the blogs, albums and social groups and 100+ posts over 60+days to see what is arguably the most sensitive part of the site, the community meets. And anyway, if someone buys off the swap board, how likely are they to be the kind of creeper we don't want?! If they never post they won't get access to the parts creepers want to see anyway

Originally Posted by jane_marie

I know that. Please don't misunderstand. I only meant that it seems like most people are comfortable with the buy/sell being public and so that isn't likely to change.

Personally, I think it's great that people looking to start into using hair toys can turn up results for LHC. I mean, different people come here for different reasons. Some people (like me) get results for LHC while researching henna, other people probably find it because they are looking for styles and some... I assume might type "hair fork" into google. If you want to keep a community alive you need a stream of new people. So, it makes sense that buy/sell is visible... just my opinion of course.

THANK you.

I've said it before, I totally understand that people might want the seasonal swaps to be private with all the personal info shared there. I still do not think the entire swap board needs to be.

**jane_marie** · December 2nd, 2019, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by MusicalSpoons

I've said it before, I totally understand that people might want the seasonal swaps to be private with all the personal info shared there. I still do not think the entire swap board needs to be.

Yeah, different people use forums differently and I don't know that we should... discriminate against that. Sure having the swap board open means that newer members can buy things but I really don't see what the harm is in that. People buy and sell a lot of things online these days without knowing the buyer/seller. Some people aren't comfortable posting and I think that's fine... that doesn't mean that they should be shunned from buying things.

Not that it's related but I also tend to think that humans should purchase more used items it's a small way we can decrease out impact. Having the swap board opens means increasing sustainability. In that more global sense I think it does a lot more harm than good to make the entire swap board difficult to access. These days online buying and selling is pretty safe and anonymous IMHO.

**neko_kawaii** · December 2nd, 2019, 08:44 AM

There are two separate issues here and each have their own complexities.

1. The group gift swaps are in the Swap Board and are thus public. People may not be aware of that and post more personal information than they otherwise would on a more restricted part of the board.

a. I don't personally see this as an issue. I don't post personally identifiable information (PII) anywhere on LHC. My device cameras are not allowed access to location data. People don't need PII to select good gifts for each other. If there is something someone is uncomfortable posting on a public board, they can instead post in their blog and link to on the swap thread.

b. People may not be aware of that and post more personal information than they otherwise would on a more restricted part of the board. I have no problem with moving the group gift swaps to the Meets Forum or looking into creating a sub-forum in the Swap Board that has higher permissions (I think that is technically possible).

2. The Swap Board is public.

a. New members may discover LHC via search results that point to the Swap Board. "New members" interested in their own hair is good.

b. Most people use the LHC PM system to exchange information for payment. (I rarely post about what I'm buying on the Swap Board, that is all through PM with the seller.)

c. The Swap Board is use at your own risk. Sellers can decide not to sell to "new members" and buyers may not wish to buy from "new members" judging the risk too high to interact with someone with no reputation on the forums.

d. "New members" can't PM until they reach 25 posts and sometimes do post their email on the Swap Board in order to purchase items.

e. Mods are already overwhelmed by "why can't I access xyz" complaints via email and threads.

f. The Swap Rules need to be public so that vendors who wish to become members can see them (and not get auto banned for spam) and those are located in the Swap Board. Having the same information in multiple locations gets confusing as changes have to then be made in multiple locations and that rarely happens correctly.

g. Sellers can edit their sales posts to their hearts content (like the blogs and unlike the rest of the forum where editing is restricted to spelling/grammar and ETAs). People can and do remove the complete contents of their sales posts after the items are sold.

Some of 2.a-g supports the Swap Board remaining "public", some is against, and some could go either way.

Discuss!

**MusicalSpoons** · December 2nd, 2019, 09:04 AM

I think 2d is still not a problem that can only be solved by making the board private - people can choose to post their e-mail addresses in the "name [at] email . com" format, or make a new address specifically for the buying/selling, or as a last resort ask the mods to remove their address once they've made contact (not ideal, but only as a last resort and people don't *often* post their e-mail addresses anyway). Ideally a warning/reminder not to post personal e-mail addresses would be good but I don't know if that's even possible - people don't always read the stickies anyway, so unless there's some alternative techie way to trigger the warning if an e-mail address is detected or something? I don't know. It just seems one single 'against' out of a multitude of 'fors' as far as I can see, and isn't a Huge Issue as it doesn't seem to happen very often

**Hailwidis** · December 2nd, 2019, 10:54 AM

Thanks all for taking the time to respond, I now better understand the reasoning behind the swap board being public. 2a, 2e and 2f convinced me that this is advantageous enough to outweigh the issue of e-mail addresses and buyer info potentially being accessible to the general public.

I do still think group gift swaps are a separate type of thread and deserve different privacy settings. They have rules that make them member-only, and only allow active, committed members to participate, and they contain a lot more more private information and pictures as people share details about themselves (I know this is a choice and one can restrict what one shares as much as one wants, but that sort of goes against the spirit of the activity).

Having read neko's post above, I think 1b would be a good solution to the issue I have with the group gift swaps being public. I would personally be in favour of creating a private sub-section for group gift swaps.

**lapushka** · December 2nd, 2019, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by neko_kawaii

b. People may not be aware of that and post more personal information than they otherwise would on a more restricted part of the board. I have no problem with moving the group gift swaps to the Meets Forum or looking into creating a sub-forum in the Swap Board that has higher permissions (I think that is technically possible).[/INDENT]

I think that is a really good idea!

Originally Posted by neko_kawaii

e. Mods are already overwhelmed by "why can't I access xyz" complaints via email and threads.

Back when I joined... I actually can't remember if I got an e-mail or not, but would it be an idea to put something clarifying that in the welcome e-mail?

Hmmm... See... Now I'm unsure again. I still think swapping is something that's done among more established members, and often things are shared that might be more personal, so. I mean, what's the reason not to make it private. It's not like it has to be public for a reason.

**MusicalSpoons** · December 2nd, 2019, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by lapushka

Hmmm... See... Now I'm unsure again. I still think swapping is something that's done among more established members, and often things are shared that might be more personal, so. I mean, what's the reason not to make it private. It's not like it has to be public for a reason.

Like what? Nobody has to post any personal info

Edit: I also agree with 1b as a solution

Edit 2: I am really liking the yellow announcement box thing

I hope it resolves a lot of the questions about permissions and makes the mods' load a little lighter

**neko_kawaii** · December 2nd, 2019, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by MusicalSpoons

Like what? Nobody has to post any personal info

Edit: I also agree with 1b as a solution

Edit 2: I am really liking the yellow announcement box thing

I hope it resolves a lot of the questions about permissions and makes the mods' load a little lighter

Oh! I’m playing around with that, but I can only see it when I’m logged out. It should appear to new members and prospective members (not logged in). Where you logged in when you saw it?

**jane_marie** · December 2nd, 2019, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by neko_kawaii

Oh! I’m playing around with that, but I can only see it when I’m logged out. It should appear to new members and prospective members (not logged in). Where you logged in when you saw it?

I can see it when logged in.