Posting Guidelines?

[MommyPants]

How does everyone feel about the posting number guidelines?  As it is set now, the board is set up so that guests can see all of the General Category except for the Introductions.  If a new member found our group from Google, or some such, they would have to sign up, be approved and post an introduction to be able to see anything else.  After that, they would be able to see the General Category and the Crafting forum until they had made 50 posts.  After they have made 50 posts they become a full member, and can see all of the board except for the co-op guidelines, events and member contact information.  After 250 posts, they become a senior member and have access to those things.

I have set it up this way to protect the privacy of the members so that we could fully disclose personal information and addresses for events, etc, without worrying about random people being able to see that info.

I have also set up a group called "Wise Trees" for people who we know personally and are comfortable with knowing where we will be, so that those people can see the entire board without having to reach a certain post count.  Right now, I think everyone on the boards is in this category.

So, what does everyone else think?  Does this seem logical?  Does it seem silly to not share our entire board with everyone?  Do we want to protect only the areas with our personal addresses and event addresses?  What post count seems realistic to everyone for those things?  Any other thoughts?

[unschoolbus]

I prefer to not have just anyone be able to see the entire board. I would actually prefer the general public be able to see even less until they join and post an introduction. Kind of freaky to think I could be posting something that EVERYONE can see.

[MommyPants]

Yes, I was very back and forth about it.  That is why I limited it to the general category.  My thought in opening up that category is that Google can't search anything that is private, so it can't direct people to us if the entire board is private.  It also won't pick up any keywords to direct them to us if the entire board is private.  If we have just that much open to the public, then Google can find us - along with new members.

[unschoolbus]

What about having something set up like NFLT. They have a couple of threads that are open to the public and provide visitors with detailed information about the group and gives people a chance to ask more questions before joining.

[MommyPants]

I don't know what NFLT is, but that type of idea does sound good.  It would be a bit static, which might limit the hits we would get.

What does everyone else think?

[unschoolbus]

http://www.nfltkc.org/ It can be updated each semester to give visitors an idea of what the group is doing. Maybe even put up a quarterly open event (such as pick your own produce) so that people can have a way to join the group with out committing to anything.

[kelly s]

I think this would be a much richer board if more people could post on more topics...

[MommyPants]

 

I really want to hear lots of opinions.  Which I realize may be hard since we don't have "lots" of members yet. 

[Lindsay]

I like the idea of the privacy settings in place so that not just anyone can get on here and read all about us and our lives but I agree that there should be areas that nonmembers have access to, that way they can view what kind of community this is and see if they would have an interest in it.  I also agree with Kelly though that more people posting in more topics would be beneficial.   

I think that having an introduction on the site's homepage, if someone were to find it through a search or whatnot, would be beneficial to start off with.  Basically, "Hi, welcome.  Here's who we are, what we do, what we're interested in around here.  Feel free to browse general categories and if you are interested in joining our community, sign up."  I don't know... sorry if that wasn't super helpful. 

[kelly s]

i think we should have a closed area for meet-ups and posting our personal info.  personally, i try to only give out phone and address info thru e-mail or other more disclosed ways via internet...

[unschoolbus]

My concern is my ex. I do NOT want him to be able to see what I am doing and posting. He has not been in our lives and all things considered I would like to keep it that way. Anything I post that is public could be used against me. I also do not like the idea of having to try to remember which forums are open to the public and which are not. If I am doing a class that is not in the co-op I would like to be able to post in that thread without it being public knowledge.

[MommyPants]

I am yet to figure out how to have a home page without hosting the board myself on a website.  That would be the perfect option, though, if we had the site to host it on.

Nessa, would it be helpful if I put "Public" in the description of each board that is?  Any board where it would be appropriate to post your address, phone, etc is not a public board.

[unschoolbus]

Buy the domain name I will host the site.

[MommyPants]

Yeah.  And what does the domain cost?

[unschoolbus]

$10 a year. I let all mine lapse because I wasn't using them otherwise I would offer you one of my spares.