dod said:
My solution would be for those who want Private Forums for the reasons DB has outlined should have them but they should be viewable by all t2w members in exactly the same way as any other forum. However, only members of the specific Private Forum could post. Membership would be determined by the 'owner' of the forum, just as it is now. If someone applied to join, and was accepted, but then posted in a way that disrupted discussions, then his or her membership could be withdrawn. If someone who was known to have a disruptive influence applied to join, and wasn't accepted, I don't see that he or she could have any cause for complaint.
In other words, matters would be organised as they are now, but in public view. The only possible objection to this would be if what was being discussed on a Private Forum alluded disparagingly to non members, or was somehow 'exclusive' to members, neither of which (I assume) should be the case.
Unfortunately, this would not work. As it is now, there are only a few, like Roberto, who continue to snipe at the PV Forum and at me, in public, due to what they believe are terrible wrongs. Since Roberto in particular has shown no signs of winding down, it is likely that this particular burr will remain under his saddle for the rest of his life. If the PVF had never been public in the first place, none of this would be a problem.
By making the forums open to public view, whatever fights are avoided within the confines of the forums themselves would simply be transferred to a public thread somewhere, much as Roberto et al has done and is doing now. Unless the forum owner and the forum members simply block all of this out, all of the attendant distraction takes place anyway. The only difference is that the threads within the forum would be shorter than they would be if they included all the tantrums and the bombast.
In the case of the PVF in particular, there are two "classes" of thread. One is the general, having to do with setups or principles or mental preparation, etc. The other is the journals, which is what makes the forum unique and useful. Since few if any of the journalists would be maintaining these journals in public (even the private forum is too public for some), those efforts would end and there would be no point to continuing the forum at all.
Personally, I don't care. I don't require a pulpit. I can't think of anything I've said in the PVF that I haven't said over and over again in public over the years. The forum enables me to say it yet again, but only once, and anyone who's interested can go look for it, as with my book. Those who aren't needn't be subjected to it. If somebody wants instead to work with me privately, I may do so, but it won't be for free.
Those who aren't members would likely be surprised by how little goes on in my particular forum. The focus of it is the journals, and each journalist takes a different path. Therefore, there is no agenda other than the dearth of indicators. Sometimes these journals are set aside for weeks as the journalists regroup, or study, or tinker with some tweak. Some are abandoned when the journalist realizes he/she has no idea what he/she is doing and that research and study are in order (I've told more than one to stop trading until the plan is in place). What gets the views are not the charts I post or the excerpts I copy and paste but the journals themselves, as there is where the work is being done. I think it's great, because those who are actually doing the work rather than arguing about whether or not TA "works" or smarting over real or imagined slights are far more likely to make a success of all this.
