[Debate] Password Protected Boards: Good or Bad?

As an admin I think it is very important to have one board where only staff can go in and read it. I have several boards that are password protected some of them are very will hidden and no one has been able to find them. So it isn't an issue of my members not feeling welcome in them. But I can see how members could feel that way if you have them all there for them to see and not access. That is like saing you have hidden boards but everyone can see the board and just not get into it. You may as well say go away on it instead of hidden.

This is why I've always encouraged there to be more groups. If not, the admins should try and make the boards invisable. I have my staff board invisable. Not hidden, but I made a category where other members can't see the boards for the staff. This way it's not password protected and members won't be wondering what goes on in the board.

The thing is, there always seems to be a bad or downside to a lot of decisions you make on the Internet whether it has to do with your board or not. Sometimes you have to ignore the down side at times.

I think it's important to really know your community. I know a message board that has password protected boards, but no one gives the passwords out. You have to ask the admin. It's possible for communities to be really good at it, but it doesn't mean members can't lie about it.

I don't see anything wrong with having a password protected board. Take a subject that others might find offensive. Gay marriage might be one for examle, but the admin doesn't want the members to argue or anything. Your intentions for having a password protected board is good. If you have a password protected board to just talk behind members backs, than that can be a problem. I have seen this occur before. It leads to no good.

There isn't anything wrong with having password protected boards. Again, I recommend making the boards hidden into a hidden category if you can. If you are going to have password protected boards, you really want to think out thoroughly how it'd work among your members. Again, it really depends on the kind of members you have and how they act toward one another.

Password protected boards are good for offensive topics, members that have been there for a long time, etc. Be careful the topics you choose. I've just always felt it to be more comfortable when they're kind of invisible to the members and they can sign up to it or something. I've seen this done on other message boards, but not proboards obviously.

POSITIVES

NEGATIVES

Stops unauthorised members from getting into the password-protected board. Easier to stop hijackers (i.e. in Competitions/Contests and RP boards). If you're using it to allow individual members to post their galleries, images can't be hotlinked by those that cannot get access to it Provides a great mix of having boards whereby members and staff can post, compared to having boards whereby a select group of members and staff can post.

Staff could easily wipe off the password without the admin knowing if the admin chooses staff unwisely. It could open a door of complaints to the admin or other staff (i.e. "Why can't I get in this board? What's the deal!!!" etc). Generally, those who get access to the board, may tell unauthorised members the password, thereby causing a large wave of hijacking to go foward. If enough of these are created, the forum could start LOSING members if they do not have the right to post within any board at all if they register. Furthermore, noone would bother registering were it the case. If a password-protected board is created for the purposes of being offencive and obessively breaking the ToS, then that may put the forum in jeopardy.

Above you see, is what I found out about password-protected boards (also known as the acronym: P.T.B). I use P.T.B feature to control my contests and competitions etc. I know you think that by looking at the table, you think that I'm hating the password-protected feature lol, I can assure you that you are sorely mistaken in that assumption

There is one thing though, and I know this should be directed to the support board, but on the subject of P.T.Bs, would it be possible if the ToS staff can shut a forum down due to a particular (single) P.T.Bs that might have inappropriate content (i.e. offencive language/spam etc) in them. If so, then the last negative of my table stands (they shouldn't be put up for that purpose).

I hope that the P.T.B feature (or a more advanced version) is still available in V5

Well my site as everyone proudly knows is Harry Potter and there are ways around the whole password protected issue. As any true Harry Potter fan will tell you their are potions you can buy or make or invisible cloaks you can use. As a matter of fact they are encouraged to get into other houses or boards that are password protected. It is a challenge to them. If you tell your members that up front then that is how they will see it, a challenge not as a go away you can't come in thing. And use passwords that relate to the topic of the site.

I don't think that a password protected board would be the best choice, as it will certainly make members that don't have accesss to it to feel that they're not welcome. The issue of staff only boards has been brought into discussion. It's enough to create a category that is visible only to Admin, G-mods and mods, and make the boards in it with Only Staff posting access in order to keep it hidden from the eyes of the members. I have a staff room on both my boards and no regular member has any idea about them, as they don't show.
As for forums where different clubs or clans would need privacy, I think the best way would be first creating a new member category, and then creating boards visible only to that category.
It's as effective as a pasword protection, and it's not as risky!

But you dont need to password protect a staff board do you? As far as i know, you can just make a board, and when creating, allow only certain member groups to view it, so that way only your staff can access it? So if you can do that, why password protect?

I don't use passwords unless it is necessary.With my Durmstrang RPG i leave the common rooms open although only people in the house can post in the common room.I feel that i want the other members in different houses to be able to read the rp's even though they are not in houses.I also think it is hard if you have to keep giving out passwords if someone is sorted in the house.

I have a admin board but i hide the category so only admin can see it,so that no members feel left out if they don't know what is going on.Also so that the members do not feel they want to be an admin just to get into the admin board.

But i think there are good sides to password protect boards as it does keep members out of the boards and it might be better than having a category since you could put a password protected board as a sub-board so i does not take up as much space as a category.