General Discussion and OT

[font="Verdana,Arial,Helvetica"] 1) Since we are a site dedicated to open carry, freedom, liberty, firearms and gun rights, all posts should relate in some way to one of these topics.

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Now, while I think that is a great idea, here is the sad part I also thought of - what if OCDO already has such a private forum and I just haven't been invited in

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Given the number of LEO and media who do visit this forum, I can well understand John and Mike's reluctance to allow things to wander to far afield. The longer I have been here the more I have come to understand their perspective on that issue.

On the other hand, given that I am not in a geographically desireable location in relation to most of the membership I get frustrated at the inability to just talk about "stuff" with people on here I want to get to know better and cannot meet with in person. Most of the VA and PA members have had opportunities to do so. For me to attend an event where I could meet several other active members would entail a 12-15 hour drive, $400 in gas and hotel expense.

As such I have been pondering this quandry for a while and have an idea: If WowBB is capable of it, I would like to see a private, hidden forum only available based on certain criteria. I have been a member, mod and admin on forums with this set up. Usually the private forum access requires at least a minimum post count for access, typically 3-6 months of average posting for the board, and a minimum time of membership in the 3-6 month range. Around here I would think the minimum post level would be set around 150 posts. Admin/mods retain the right to not admit at the minimum if most of those 150 are postwhoring. In other words, you have to be pretty much a regular for at least 3 months to be granted access. That eliminates the lurkers, trolls and hit and runners from being in there. From my experience, such hidden forums are loosely modded if modded at all and have no topic limitations, excepting that any NSFW material MUST be clearly labeled as such in the thread title or you get booted out of the private forum, and the normal rules about personal attacks and such apply. Most forums have such places for forum staff anyway.

Now, while I think that is a great idea, here is the sad part I also thought of - what if OCDO already has such a private forum and I just haven't been invited in

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• What's wrong with going "off topic"? Just about any conversation that happens in person veers off of the original topic. Must we really compartmentalize everything on these forums? The minute somebody thinks of a side issue, must they really start a whole new thread, even if their side issue goes along nicely with the original thread? I don't understand the danger of veering "off topic". I do see the danger of veering off into inappropriate topics, but simply having the topic evolve is just a part of human conversation.
  
• Who cares how many times somebody posts in a thread? If they are posting empty, spam-containing, or nonsensical posts, then sure that should be stopped. But should we really be counting what percentage of posts in a thread belong to a person...and make a cutoff? I certainly don't think so. Some people make really long posts, and that's fine. Similarly, some people like to more numerous, but shorter posts. Is it really any different from one big long post?
• What's with the personal attacks? Why are people saying what others have or have not done in their professional lives? How the heck do you know? This is simply insulting and not fact-based. Can we please leave out the personal attacks? This is generally a common rule on internet forums, and I think we'd be better off if we abiding by it here, too.
• I don't always agree with actions that internet forum moderators take, but generally I find it much easier to get upset with them when their personal opinions start colliding with their moderating abilities. Let me explain this outside of the internet-realm, and put it into perspective. Let's talk about police officers. While on duty, police officers are supposed to enforce the laws on the books, and not be political about it. You're not supposed to pick and choose and say "oh, I don't like motorcycles, so I'm only going to write motorcyclists tickets today." Once you're off duty however, you can be as political as you want. Go to rallies, protests, whatever! There certainly aren't set rules about being a moderator, but I think things are just easier when you separate out your political opinions from your official moderating capabilities. When you moderate right beside your personal opinions it makes it really easy for people to perceive your moderator actions as being related to your personal opinions, whether or not they really are. You can do it (I'm not telling you that you can't), but just know that when things can be construed a certain way, they usually will be, so be prepared to handle it. A better solution would just be to avoid the even perceived conflicts of interest, but I realize this is a relatively small board, and maybe there aren't enough left over mods to moderate a thread in which many of the other moderators have already voiced their own political opinions.What's wrong with going "off topic"? Just about any conversation that happens in person veers off of the original topic. Must we really compartmentalize everything on these forums? The minute somebody thinks of a side issue, must they really start a whole new thread, even if their

deepdiver wrote:

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Well you pretty much hit why unfortunately we can have a free for all here. While we are stronger than ever and are spreading out, we are still pretty much the hub of the open carry movement. A few prolific trolls could polarize the forum with unrelated issues, and hurt the cause. We already have to fight too hard not to be seen as anti police. I think we all would rather not be seen as against anything else we are not.

+1

As for another forum, it would be nice, kinda like the split between The High Road and Armed Polite Society. You want to pay for it?

No, you misunderstood what I meant. I should have termed it a "sub-forum". What I am suggesting, as many forum have, is that there would be a hidden sub-forum. Like we have the General Discussion forum, we would have a hidden forum named say "Invited Members Only Discussion". It's existence wouldn't even show up on the forum home page except to invited/approved members and admins.

To anyone not invited in the forum home page would look exactly the same as it does now. To members who have been invited to that sub-forum they would see the hidden forum listed under "General Discussion" or where ever the admins decided to put it in the listing. Only those invited would know it is there. Only those invited could post in it. One forum I was on had a rule that disclosing the existence of the hidden sub-forum or repeating on the open forum anything said in the hidden forum was grounds for immediate and permanent banning. Access to such hidden forums is usually taken quite seriously.

No totally new forum. No competition with OCDO. Just a sub-forum on OCDO where members who meet certain criteria, usually of both time and post count to keep out lurkers/trolls/media/etc, can be invited to chat. Such hidden forums usually become the OT section for the regulars. Because postings there are not public and only other regulars can see them, they usually have some pretty personal discussions going on about many things that happen to people in life. Relationships, families, other hobbies, etc.

As I said previously, most forums have such a hidden sub-forum for forum staff where mods and admins can discuss forum issues, problem members, how to effectively mod certain situations, etc. I learned a lot about how to mod effectively exchanging ideas in staff discussions in such hidden sub-forums.
As for feeling alone in your area, the solution is to recruit more OCers. :celebrate

That is problematic as OC is prohibited in my city. I have recruited a few people who OC elsewhere in the area where legal, however, they are not inclined towards participation on the forum although they have lurked from time to time.

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It's interesting that a site devoted to liberty and freedom is becoming so censored. This board is basically under the owners and moderators control and they control what is being said on it. It's not the same board I joined last year and with the recent choices on moderators it will get worse.

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My solution is to not use any but your birthcertificate name, suggested quite a number of times. If you won't say it to your boss or your momma than it shouldn't be said. Note; I am retired and have no boss and to that extent am not equal.

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How about this, deepdiver, the next time I find myself in the area, we can arrange an OC dinner somewhere in western Kentucky



Edited to fix punctuation

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deepdiver wrote:

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No, you misunderstood what I meant. I should have termed it a "sub-forum". What I am suggesting, as many forum have, is that there would be a hidden sub-forum. Like we have the General Discussion forum, we would have a hidden forum named say "Invited Members Only Discussion". It's existence wouldn't even show up on the forum home page except to invited/approved members and admins.

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