Pros and Cons of Hidden Boards

[Megamind2012]

I made my board available for people to view, but they must get approval by me when becoming a member.

When I had it set up for anyone to join, all the trolls came in and ruined my first board.

This way they can view the board, but I am more careful about those I let on my new board.

[Des]

The only board I have hidden at the moment is a certain OOC board where we put stuff like pictures of us, MSN addresses, etc. I don't feel comfortable having those things 'out there'.
Personally, most hidden boards irritate me. If I can't see what you're doing on the board, I'm LESS inclined to join, not more. I need to know if I'll fit in. Special bonus points if you're going to hide stuff like your rules.

[Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti]

I used to have my forums open to guests to be able to read things. Of course they couldn't post, well only in the guest sections I would allow guests to post. Like if they have questions about the board, or wanted to advertise or link back.

Time, and time again, I noticed that each person that ended up joining my forums, were never really reading what I had out in the open.

I would have role-play sections open, so guests could see that we were intermediate to advanced role-players. Yet, I would end up getting people that were beginners. And I would usually have what level role-players we were on the boards, posted in the side tables too. And still got people that were begginers.

Same with other things too, such as the rules, things I would allow on my boards, and what not.

It always seemed like people just wanted to join and ruin my board, and then leave.

So now I have a process that guests have to go through, if they want to join my boards.

Tired of people joining my boards, scaring off the members I do have, and then up and leave after they caused the destruction.

[lil miss kay]

The only boards that I hide are my member group specific or Accepted Applications!
I want the guests to see all that I have to offer! Not just pieces!

[Skybird14]

I run a fan board for a singer and the only boards I have set up that are inaccessible to guests is the off topic board and the staff board. They can get a pretty good idea of what the forum is about by reading the on-topic posts and since that should be the reason they join, I'm not worried about them not being able to see the off topic stuff.

I don't ever join boards where the majority of categories are hidden, even though in the past I've joined coding boards just to get a code. I have no intention of ever posting on these boards, I've just joined because I had to.

[MOLLY HAS SWAGG ♣]

Having hidden boards is a tricky business. Most role-play boards I've seen have hidden their accepted applications board, and some of their OC boards, which is fine. But why only hide the accepted board and leave the pending boards open for guests to potentially steal character ideas for another site? Granted I leave my pending board open too, but it's because I frequent my board on my iPod (and I'm an admin and need to see when people finish their apps.)

But they're moved into a non-guest-friendly board anyways, right?

The thing that really gets me, are boards that hide all of their role-play boards. That's just silly in my opinion; how are guests/interested potential members see what they're getting into if they can't see what other members post? How can they tell if it's a literate site if they can't see how other members (even staff) post?

I guess it's just how you personally look at the thing. I like to keep some boards hidden when it's for character protection, but for the most part, 95% of my board is guess accessible.

[♥Melissa♥]

i keep mine hidden and all guests need approval by me to join, my reasoning for this is that the topic of the board is very private and i don't want people snooping. our members feel safe and they don't need to feel as if they are being watched.

[Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti]

Mar 20, 2012 11:41:08 GMT -8 MOLLY HAS SWAGG ♣ said:

Having hidden boards is a tricky business. Most role-play boards I've seen have hidden their accepted applications board, and some of their OC boards, which is fine. But why only hide the accepted board and leave the pending boards open for guests to potentially steal character ideas for another site? Granted I leave my pending board open too, but it's because I frequent my board on my iPod (and I'm an admin and need to see when people finish their apps.)

But they're moved into a non-guest-friendly board anyways, right?

The thing that really gets me, are boards that hide all of their role-play boards. That's just silly in my opinion; how are guests/interested potential members see what they're getting into if they can't see what other members post? How can they tell if it's a literate site if they can't see how other members (even staff) post?

I guess it's just how you personally look at the thing. I like to keep some boards hidden when it's for character protection, but for the most part, 95% of my board is guess accessible.

I used to have my boards open for guests to see everything. But through the years, I have learned that many of those said guests that ended up joining my forums, never actually took the time to read the role-play posts that were out for all to see. Nor did they take the time to even read what level role-play my boards were.

So after many years of getting people that didn't bother to take the time to read stuff, I decided to keep everything closed to guests, except for the guest sections of the board.

Besides that, I also had people steal stuff from a few of my older sites, such as characters and my plots too.

[MOLLY HAS SWAGG ♣]

Mar 20, 2012 15:48:14 GMT -8 Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti said:

Mar 20, 2012 11:41:08 GMT -8 MOLLY HAS SWAGG ♣ said:

Having hidden boards is a tricky business. Most role-play boards I've seen have hidden their accepted applications board, and some of their OC boards, which is fine. But why only hide the accepted board and leave the pending boards open for guests to potentially steal character ideas for another site? Granted I leave my pending board open too, but it's because I frequent my board on my iPod (and I'm an admin and need to see when people finish their apps.)

But they're moved into a non-guest-friendly board anyways, right?

The thing that really gets me, are boards that hide all of their role-play boards. That's just silly in my opinion; how are guests/interested potential members see what they're getting into if they can't see what other members post? How can they tell if it's a literate site if they can't see how other members (even staff) post?

I guess it's just how you personally look at the thing. I like to keep some boards hidden when it's for character protection, but for the most part, 95% of my board is guess accessible.

I used to have my boards open for guests to see everything. But through the years, I have learned that many of those said guests that ended up joining my forums, never actually took the time to read the role-play posts that were out for all to see. Nor did they take the time to even read what level role-play my boards were.

So after many years of getting people that didn't bother to take the time to read stuff, I decided to keep everything closed to guests, except for the guest sections of the board.

Besides that, I also had people steal stuff from a few of my older sites, such as characters and my plots too.

See, theft is huge in the roleplay world, but some ideas have been used/stolen/borrowed and added to or had pieces taken out of that sometimes it's not a big deal to worry about.

But as I said before, to each their own :)

[The Maniac On Wheels (The MOW)]

Maybe I should hide the boards on my general, non-RPG (those RPGs forums are popular on ProBoards, huh?) that don't have posts. lol

[iirebecca]

Back when I wanted to try out forum RPG's, I was interested in RPG's that had all their forums public, but obviously guests could not post. If I saw an RPG that required a sign up in order to view the RPG's information, I didn't even bother with it. I can understand why RPG's would have content hidden, but at the same time, it benefits them more to have less hidden so that guests will want to join in it regardless if that RPG is having issues with people stealing from them.

I personally think that hiding or not hiding forums/boards can be good and can be harmful to the forum depending on the what the forum is about.

For instance, lets take a TV show shipper forum for example. If the TV show in which they watch has multiple relationships that people either like or don't like, it creates conflict amongst the fandom, so they create a forum for their favored relationship so that all that is discussed on that forum is in relation to the couple. It's actually pretty smart for that shipper forum to make their forums viewable if you are logged in. Otherwise, you can't see any information related to the forum except the header. The reason I believe it's smart, is because I have had experience where I shipped a TV show relationship that others did not approve of so they would find our shipper forum to lurk, create accounts to argue uncivilly with members, take our posts from our board and put it on theirs so they could 'comment' on it and rip on members for their opinions (i.e., name calling and degrading our members) just for shipping who we ship. Although it doesn't eliminate the problem completely, it does help it a bit.

In my opinion, it wouldn't really hurt their forum. The forum is based upon one absolute subject. A tv show's relationship of two people. If an individual is looking for a forum where they get to gush about their favorite TV couple, they are going to join any forum (normally there is only ever one out there) and not care if they have to register to see the forum because they already had the intent on joining.

The only time I think a forum shouldn't have more than a few hidden boards is when the forum is a general discussion board or is a diverse type board that has different topics discussed. No one will know if they want to be a member if they feel that there is only 2-5 boards available for them to view.

Also, I think members art work (i.e., fan art, avatars, writing etc.,) type boards should be hidden unless you've made a few posts to even view it. As someone who dabs in all of that, I wouldn't want anyone to steal my stuff and then claim it as theirs just because the forum admin let strangers view the content. If I post those things on the board, it's for the forums use only, not for anyone outside the forum. At least that is how I see it.

[agatha]

I hide certain boards, like Admin and Mod stuff and Member interaction. But I do open (but not let post) all the RP boards. I agree, I hate forums where you can not see anything until you join. I mean why would you join if you can not see what it is about.

Letting guests see but not post (and they can post in certain areas) allows them to see not only the quality of the roleplay but also if the forum is active and if the roleplay suits them.

[kathy025]

The OP makes very good points. For starting forums, I'd refrain from hiding boards, it will turn potential members away, seeing there's still not much activity going on yet. For established forums, the hidden boards become very tempting lures. Lurking guests will see how active the community is and would definitely want a piece of the goodies.

[Kay]

I think it depends on what the hidden boards are used for. I hate it when they are for certain people, like a 'clique'. It makes me feel unwelcome on a forum and I am less likely to join.

[inthewash]

I only hide boards where my members copyrights for pictures could be compromised, otherwise they are all open to registered members.