Kudos to Morruss on the new privacy option

While, in general, I agree with Morruss's sentiment that most forums here will, ideally, be public and available for the edification of all, I am prepared to recognize that there may be some circumstances that call for a greater degree of privacy. I hope that this feature will be used sparingly and only for those situations that truly require it.

I am highly skeptical. If there is problematic behaviour that actually warrants this, wouldn't that also violate the forum rules?

And is the rest not just a great way to set up more echo chambers, instead of actually having discussion with diverse view points?

Or is it all irrelevant since the feature will be barely used anyway.

Mustrum_Ridcully said:

I am highly skeptical. If there is problematic behaviour that actually warrants this, wouldn't that also violate the forum rules?

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Not necessarily. We know there can be a significant gap between, "Annoys the crap out of me, personally," and, "is clearly actionable under board rules," especially since we do not otherwise recognize thread ownership.

And is the rest not just a great way to set up more echo chambers, instead of actually having discussion with diverse view points?

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Not every thread needs to be a discussion with diverse viewpoints. Maybe you want to have a thread with your friends to discuss creation of some new feats or classes, and you don't want to have to deal with naysayers who are otherwise within the bounds of behavior for the boards? Well, now you can!

Or is it all irrelevant since the feature will be barely used anyway.

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I think its use is self-limiting. Unless you have an enormous friends list, this feature won't create interesting discussions. It will be useful perhaps for focused discussion or work on a topic that you want some people part of, but for which you don't want a lot of comments from the broad peanut gallery.