As a fellow friend mentioned he now prefers private groups than open forums, it begs the question: are we better off discussing openly or in private?

As the admin of this forum I am of course biased on the public side, but I do want to know the opinions of the fellows around.

First reason:

- People get introduced to others in the public forums.

Possible new fine contributing members are automatically out of the picture in a private environment. That is detrimental in my view.

Another reason:

- More people is exposed to your ideas, with more personal views available.

Sure in private circles criticism is none. i.e. in numerology groups 31-13 is the bible. Post it in a public forum and you'll get testers giving you factual data of it not being any better than any other combination.

I guess it depends on what you want. A pat on the back or open criticism.

Of course, I'm all-in to ban personal attacks. Providing criticism and testing results of a method has nothing to do with attacking the poster at the personal level 

A public forum without personal attacks is the way to go, and that's where we're heading to

Personally for me Victor, I like the public forum. If we keep everything in private groups then 300 years from now, when we are all long gone nothing much will have changed in the general perception, regarding this game's supposed invincibility against longterm success.

With a public forum, the seeds of inspiration can be planted in jaded and fresh minds alike. To show, and in my case now prove, this game can be beaten in the long run. 

Well you can't really have it both ways I suppose.

I mean could you imagine a private room with JL, Nathan, Sam, gizmo, spike, marigny, bayes, FLAT, 'johno' and myself.... That would make for an interesting video 


We all have our own views on the game and some of us are pretty entrenched in those views.

I reckon you just let it all hit the wall and see what you can make of it all. Some of us have invested a lot of time and I can see why it can get what appears to be personal at times. I respect all the guys I mentioned in the above list because they all have a passion for the game. You can't knock that. It would be a shame to lose anybody because of a bit of squabbling now and then.

I was a member of a private roulette forum for a while but after a year or so the owner closed it down due to lack of interest and contributions. There's the danger that if a forum doesn't have fresh input and a variety of views then it will probably stagnate. On the plus side, some might be more likely to post ideas which they wouldn't like to be made public. Most advantage play forums are private for this reason.

The ideal is a public forum with the camaraderie of a private group.

I was once a member of a private group. Now is closed because it did not not reach anything valuable in several years. Nobody wanted to give money to pay a programmer for systems testing. All you did was talk of a potential system and nothing else.

I put many pdf even with copyright when for a time there was discussion. The group did not have a forum. It was by email so email attachments only.

In the end what remains are comrades. But the real discussion will always be in the community sharing.

I am not interested in joining another private group. I do not know if all but apparently that is the fate of private groups.

Quote from: Bally6354 on December 12, 2012, 04:27:29 PM
It would be a shame to lose anybody because of a bit of squabbling now and then.

that's what happens when you get too heavy handed with
the moderation. People want to be people and express
themselves, that's why so many countries have free speech
laws now. Freedom of expression is essential for growth.
Otherwise you have one persons or a group of persons
viewpoint running everything and that never works for very
long. Its what breeds revolutions.

When there is less freedom people will vote with their feet.....................

I have been a member of a few private groups. They always start out really well meaning but usually just fizzle out.
At least in a forum you get to see a wider array of ideas...even if some don't float your boat.

Quote from: spike on December 12, 2012, 08:02:33 PM
that's what happens when you get too heavy handed with
the moderation. People want to be people and express
themselves, that's why so many countries have free speech
laws now. Freedom of expression is essential for growth.
Otherwise you have one persons or a group of persons
viewpoint running everything and that never works for very
long. Its what breeds revolutions.

I previously wrote in a warning: Espousing free speech does NOT mean being free of responsibility for what you write.

In simple terms: Freedom of speech carries with it certain responsibilities. 

For example, nobody on THIS forum is free to post personal abuse.

We are all free to explore and express our opinions about IDEAS -- but definitely nobody is free to attack the person expressing those ideas.


That is a responsibility of free speech.

It's really that simple. 


And I'm pleased to note that most of the folk on this forum abide by that standard of decency.


For those who want to be outlaws or who refuse to adhere to that standard then the door is over there...

Private groups can definitely be better stuffed, if it has members of same level of knowledge, skill and enthusiasm. Open forums very rarely concentrate on something serious and 90% debates run over old useless stuffs and leg pullings.