Showing certain forums to registered members only

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rpm

rpm

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MyBroadband is planning to hide certain forums from public view by making them accessible to registered members only.

This will not affect registered members who are logged in, but it will mean people who are not registered will not be able to view these discussions. It will also be hidden from search engines.

The reason for this decision is the increase in complaints from companies and people because of posts in some forums – mostly Off-Topic and its sub-forums.

We will implement this next week as part of a trial. As I mentioned you will not notice a change if you are logged in.

Your feedback regarding this decision is most welcome.
 
So you won’t be able to view off-topic posts unless you’re a member?

There are a lot of sub-forums in off-topic that could be helpful for non-members and usually come up first in google searches.

I think that a lot of discussions in off-topic (found through google search) drive new members to join. I could be wrong.
 
What exactly has changed lately to warrant this increase in complaints?

'I find that offensive. ' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that. ' Well, so ****ing what."
Click to expand...

Stephen Fry
 
Johnatan56 said:
And why are the companies complaining?
Click to expand...
I'm gonna guess it's some weak-sauce complaint along the lines of a company not wanting their ad running above a thread bashing religion or something. Which if true, doesn't make much sense - it's not like anyone associates the ad above a page with the content on a page. Dunno - I'd be curious to know what the complaint is too...but I suspect there's a lot of old-school (dstv, ster-kinekor) type companies run by dinosaurs who have no idea how the internet works.

Eh - doesn't really bother me either way. I'm fine with making certain parts for registered members only. Just be careful of giving them too much power to leverage changes in the platform they advertise on.
 
i have no objection at all on the Off Topic being like that rpm
the Wilddogs forum is similar, they have a Jou Ma section and all the cool stuff is in there for forumites only,
 
saor said:
I'm gonna guess it's some weak-sauce complaint along the lines of a company not wanting their ad running above a thread bashing religion or something. Which if true, doesn't make much sense - it's not like anyone associates the ad above a page with the content on a page.
Click to expand...
This has nothing to do with advertising or advertisers. We have not received any complaints from commercial clients.

The complaints are typically legal demands for content to be removed for various reasons, like companies being criticized, religious issues, cultural issues and the like.

The problem with these legal demands, and potential legal action, is that it makes very little difference whether it holds legal merit or not. Most people think being on the right side of the law protects you – this is not the case.

If someone sues you for defamation, it is going to cost you a lot of money. The legal costs will always dwarf the settlement, if there is one.

Something to keep in mind – MyBroadband is largely protected from these threats, but the person who posted the comment is not. The threat to forum members is therefore much larger than for the publication.
 
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