Group access vs. display vs. visible? (Page 2 of 2)

Sol, if we make the visibility flag No, does that make the whole group disappear for other site members? We were hoping to avoid the latter, since added traffic through the group can pay off in terms of ongoing valuable contributors and new readers for our works.

Thanks.
Dirk

What evidence do you have that this is true? Or if this is  true, any presence on the internet will lead to comments taken out of context.

If Adverse Possession is your only concern, then it takes 20 years (in NC at least, other states may be different) of open defiance and claim on the property. So not exactly a major concern or the same thing. As soon as your work is posted here, it is copyrighted, not exactly leaving the door open for anyone. All the concern about stealing plots etc.  just doesn't make a lot of sense; it is widely accepted there are only seven plots (yes some make minor adjustments for a few more or less, but it's close enough) so I rather doubt anyone has a new one to hide. It is all in the details and it's rather unlikely someone is going to stick around for let's say a year or so for us to complete our books so they can exploit excerpts of it from the forums and if that unlikely possibility happens, then it is still copyrighted from it's first written exposure, to include the forums.

As stated previously, how is anyone going to find your work in the forums if they don't know what to look for which requires someone like the author or someone who has read it to tell them what to look for? It takes a specific search to find something and that specificity is coming from inside, not outside the site. We're probably all (including me) concerned about protecting our work, but the reality is that the danger is vastly overblown by our self imposed fears. I for one know there is always some miniscule chance it could be pirated, but I'm not going to stew over it any more than I would about getting struck by lightning which is a much greater possibility imo. Take care. Vern

The visibility flag does the job, but at a cost.  The fear/concern is not about people registered on the site, but against peopld not so registered.  We'd like to be visible to people on the site, but not to people off the site.

Given your limited resources, I don't expect a fix tomorrow, but it appears that there are low-effort fixes possible.  If there is a no-index tag that search engines respect, it could be embedded in the forum page headers, perhaps controlled by a per-forum flag.  Making the forum server use the login-check machinery might be harder, especially the part about returning to the desired page after a login.  Those two steps would, I think, completely address the problem.

Brilliant suggestion, it's just a shame I can join 10 groups at most. Why then the 10 group limit?

Sure I can also join, leave and rejoin groups all the time, but this is getting silly.

Just my 2 cents.

This was in reply to a suggestion that every writer or every book just open a private group, so I'd keep up the same way I currently keep up with 10+ threads (currently conveniently in a single forum, albeit open for the whole world to read without a password, because *insert any reason why we shouldn't even try*. I'll hardly break a sweat. I appreciate you heartfelt concern though, Vern.

To clarify: If we now have a group for every book, 10 groups are very quickly going to be insufficient. I can't be the only person who reads/follow more than 10 writers on this site. Now add say groups like Romance, Writing Tips, and the Premium group ... sorry, make that 7 books/writers ...

But basically what I'm trying to say is: for every so-called 'clever' solution/suggestion, there are problems associated with it that makes it harder to do what the purpose of this site is supposed to be about.

Seems like you need a reminder, here it is:

TheNextBigWriter, launched in 2005, combines a dynamic community of thousands of writers with cutting-edge tools, contests, classes, and communication to help members achieve their writing goals. By joining the site, you can:
-  Receive Feedback. Post your writing and receive detailed feedback from other workshop members.
-  Discover and Learn from Others. Discover, read, and critique the in-progress writing of other members. Help them and learn from the process. Leaving feedback isn't hard and we'll help you.
-  Connect with Other Writers.  Meet and connect with other writers to share information, tips, and make friends. Some have even found love amidst reading and reviewing.
-  Get Motivated. Enter contests and challenges like the Apple Drabble Short Story Contest to keep you motivated to write and edit.
-  Keep Control. Posting on the site keeps your writing within our password environment. You can restrict it further or open it up to the entire Internet for more exposure if you choose.

http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/guide/about-us

We're having more open and open-ended discussions now over in the MF&M group.  You can debate the wisdom, but we're finding it helpful.  Then again, I think most of us there are still trying to develop the facility and speed you've got.

Okay, so you don't want a thread for your writing, so everyone else automatically don't either? I understand fully where you are coming from, but this is where the problem comes in. Just because x,y,z work for someone, doesn't mean it's going to work for another person. There are others that find a lot of value from the inputs from multiple people on their writing, i.e. they don't want to work in isolation, and it was my understanding that is what the forums/groups are for. Using the functionality to leave more comments on a specific review for a specific chapter only goes so far. E.g. I had a lot of questions regarding future chapters asking for inputs from certain groups - where do I put those if there isn't a chapter to review? If the forums were not intended for this, I'd be surprised.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, try and think about more than just what works for you and thinking it's okay for you, so it should be okay for everyone else.

Sol has promised that he'll see what can be done within his ability and budget. As I said, if he can do that, it will be really great. If not, then we'll have to adjust. At the moment, we're hiding our groups from everyone, including TNBW members, which doesn't make sense, but if nothing else, then we'll have to. And clearly this will be a bigger 'issue' to those that use the forums for feedback on their writing than those that do not. But that doesn't invalidate anyone's concerns. I'm glad that Sol is willing to take our point of view into consideration.

I'm going to bow out of this one, it feels like I'm about to start the next lap around the same circle I've already lapped twice.

Hey. soul sister! I understand your concern. And the more I read, the more I see its validity. We shouldn't have to worry about unscrupulous folks. It makes everyone nervous. Sounds like private groups that only can be accessed by permission from the moderator might be the way to go until Sol figures something out. I don't have a solution, but those very public threads seem to be the big issue right now.

Thanks, Sol.

Can you please expand on how the three parameters - access, display, and visible - work.

Dirk

You might want to rethink the labeling of these functions in the group creation section. I was testing this yesterday and the descriptions are pretty vague and unclear.  It's no wonder everyone keeps asking for clarification.