Forum Access Changes

An example is the "No Offense" thread. Yesterday, I could post in t. Today, I cant, even though my post was responded to.

Freedom to post and discuss topics is not restricted anymore than it was before the change. Everybody is free to post in the new discussion forum all they want. Recent hot topics can (and may) be easily moved over to the new forum by a moderator for our active guests to resume discussion.

Keep in mind, there are other forums that are not even seen unless one reaches the rank of apprentice, knight, and councilor. None of these have hindered the activity and general freedoms of users. They are for organization and moderation and they do an impeccable job at just that.

If you feel this is personal, it is not. If you insist on seeing this as personal, the chances are, it may not be because of our decision more than it is one's own issues already held for one reason or another not associated with TOTJO specifically.

Adjustments can (and may) be made over time to refine this decision and maximize its flexibility. Until then, please feel free to create topics in the new forum (which will be renamed to something more suitable).

*bolded is edited clarification

While I understand why this is being done, and I am very much a part of the group that is frustrated by the regular occurrences of people turning up for reasons other than sincere participation, I have to wonder if this is the way to handle it.

If people cannot discuss things in a manner which is appropriate and adheres to common courtesy and our rules, we should not tolerate them for nearly as long as we do.

There are already members only areas. Why do we just not highlight which those are more clearly and encourage people who do not wish to interact with guests to post in there.

I can be pretty quick on the trigger when people are being deliberately disruptive or upsetting other members, but I don't know that insulating our members further from others has the intended outcome long term. Bubble wrapped Jedi?

not to mention the fact that some of our long standing guests are very active participants. I think it would be a shame to lose their voices in our general discussions.

I've changed my mind about posting (sorry Elizabeth)

I've changed my mind again... I am going to say what I think...

Freedom to post and discuss topics is not restricted anymore than it was before the change.

This not true... by restricting guests on posting you (not you personally), by the nature of that change, have restricted some freedoms to post. If we can all post in the guest forum it seems pointless to restrict them from the rest of the forum... we may as well just post everything there which surely defeats the point. And guests are now unable to respond to threads in which they have already participated.

I don't like that we are cutting out the opportunity for guests to discuss things that we are discussing..... just because someone joins and are not a member does not mean they should feel that they have to join in order to participate.

We shouldn't be pushed into changes we are not all happy with just because of a few heated discussions... changes which I believe should have been communicated to us before they were made.

I am not taking this personally because it doesn't affect me personally..

This discussion isn't over, we (the Knights) are talking, but we are holding off on doing anything at the minute until some minor points are ironed out. Voicing your concerns is good feedback, something will be settled very soon, but some of these criticisms are already on the verge of being addressed, we just want to get to a good conclusion before making a load of changes we might then take back because we've changed our minds in the end lol.

Regardless of what we decide as it stands now this is not what the final decision will be, we just don't want to do anything until the on-going conversation reaches some kind of conclusion.

For those that remember this is like the IP changes a while ago, people offer suggestions and they are taken into consideration it's just that we wait until we're sure before we actually go about acting on the feedback.

This important statement bears repeating:

"Freedom to post and discuss topics is not restricted anymore than it was before the change. Everybody is free to post in the new discussion forum all they want. Recent hot topics can (and may) be easily moved over to the new forum by a moderator for our active guests to resume discussion." Proteus

Restricted is not the same as changing some posts to a different location. The language used, for example 'restrictive' or 'cutting guests from posting' is unnecessarily emotive when we might just as easily say 'protective' or 'enhancing'.

"If we can all post in the guest forum it seems pointless to restrict them from the rest of the forum... we may as well just post everything there which surely defeats the point." Edan

Exactly, if we agree that the point is to protect and enhance, and not censor or restrict. The freedom of Members is not in any way restricted.

Alan wrote: Restricted is not the same as changing some posts to a different location. The language used, for example 'restrictive' or 'cutting guests from posting' is unnecessarily emotive when we might just as easily say 'protective' or 'enhancing'.

But I didn't mean protective or enhancing...

The freedom of Members is not in any way restricted.

There are a great many discussions in the forums that guests will not be able to comment in... we may be able to post new topics in the guest forum, but they will not be able to post in existing ones.

I agree with Edan and however we dress it up we are cutting guests of from posting in some threads.

elizabeth wrote: I agree with Edan and however we dress it up we are cutting guests of from posting in some threads.

Yes we are. But what Alan is referring to in terms of "protecting" is the fact that recent events have made multiple members feel uncomfortable in posting their thoughts at all. So which ever way you dress it up, before now we were "cutting" members from posting in some threads...