Posted by Tamar on July 12, 2005, at 18:53:56
In reply to Re: small boards and privacy, posted by Dr. Bob on July 12, 2005, at 2:25:02
> > Boards are not like washing machines either.
>
> Are boards like shoes?
>
> If you go to a place and the one you like is sold out, will you try another?NO! I’m a total girl from the ankles down. If I go to a place and the pink one I like is sold out, they try to offer me the black one. But I don’t like black shoes and besides, the pink shoes go with my favourite jeans.
So I leave the store politely and go sulk alone with ice cream.
Climbing out of the metaphor before it buries me…
Is this still about the privacy of small boards? I tend to think that if the small boards are supplementary to the main boards it’s a good idea for them to be hidden from the outside world. I suppose I don’t worry so much about them being visible to other registered babblers (like the 2000 board) because if a discussion comes up on Small Board X and I’m not a member of that small board I can request further discussion on Relationships or Social of whatever. And I think the main boards are sufficient to draw new people in.
To come back to the small town analogy, people in Community Y can hear news of Community Z with interest even if they aren’t living in Community Z. But sometimes people in Community Z don’t want their local news broadcast all over the nation, even if they don’t mind their neighbours in Community Y hearing about it. If you’re a journalist you’ll write the story on Community Z anyway, but it’s a human interest story and the gritty stories are happening in the big cities.
I’ve sometimes felt that a difficulty with being part of a small community is that people from outside don’t always understand (or in some cases even respect) the culture. And it can be very, very difficult for incomers to be accepted in an established small community. All sorts of cultural issues might arise if the membership of small boards has a purely numerical basis. But what other basis is fair?
> I'm not sure how to balance the different issues.
I can imagine. There’s ethics, sociology, philosophy… How is it possible to prioritize?
> But nobody would post if they couldn't read first...
>
> BobYeah, but can they post where they’ve been reading?
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:523081
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050628/msgs/526862.html