I understand that this was discussed recently in a short thread, but if the Administrators would allow, i would like to try and get some serious opinions on this. Reading about various scams and frauds recently, as well as the recent activity on here, it made me think a bit.
All forums and social media are open to abuse, however, one of the problems here is simply, everyone registers with their real names, this leaves leaves every member, in my opinion, wide open, to the whole world reading this forum, (i know its a bit late having been a member for XXXX amount of years) but reading recent threads makes you realise, not being private members only does leaves you wide open.
With the familiar social networks facing a barrage of privacy-related controversies, it’s simply impossible for administrator's to guarantee the privacy and security of its members. For example, although Facebook doesn’t own the content its users post, users grant it the right to use, share, and distribute it however they want in accordance with your privacy settings.
Having a private forum (community) gives you ownership and control, which is becoming more and more important to today’s users.
Some say public allows more people to see it, but i think if anyone is in the least bit interested, they would join a private forum anyway, it would be free to join, and only member will see it and you sign certain clauses and responsibilities of use.
If a forum is public as this is, then im guessing that the forum owners/administrators have a huge responsibility. Should people get scammed they could be open to liability.
I think when items are for sale, many of us will pop on and say things like, "payment sent", or " i will pay tomorrow" or simply "PM sent". This will almost certainly alert the scammers who in many cases will have their system set up to pick up on these words or frazes, we all know where this can end.
So for me, (only my opinion so stay calm) i would be very much in favour of a private forum. Having read into this recently on here, and on-line as well as talking to the IT company my work uses, private is very much, a safer place to be. It would have no reason to discourage new users or new people to the hobby which, after, is never going to return to the numbers of the 80s.
Just to add to this, perhaps when items are reserved or paid for, just send a PM, dont announce it to everyone else, I myself have been guilty of this, but not from here on i wont. I've learned a lot about this over the past week, it's actually quite scary.
All forums and social media are open to abuse, however, one of the problems here is simply, everyone registers with their real names, this leaves leaves every member, in my opinion, wide open, to the whole world reading this forum, (i know its a bit late having been a member for XXXX amount of years) but reading recent threads makes you realise, not being private members only does leaves you wide open.
With the familiar social networks facing a barrage of privacy-related controversies, it’s simply impossible for administrator's to guarantee the privacy and security of its members. For example, although Facebook doesn’t own the content its users post, users grant it the right to use, share, and distribute it however they want in accordance with your privacy settings.
Having a private forum (community) gives you ownership and control, which is becoming more and more important to today’s users.
Some say public allows more people to see it, but i think if anyone is in the least bit interested, they would join a private forum anyway, it would be free to join, and only member will see it and you sign certain clauses and responsibilities of use.
If a forum is public as this is, then im guessing that the forum owners/administrators have a huge responsibility. Should people get scammed they could be open to liability.
I think when items are for sale, many of us will pop on and say things like, "payment sent", or " i will pay tomorrow" or simply "PM sent". This will almost certainly alert the scammers who in many cases will have their system set up to pick up on these words or frazes, we all know where this can end.
So for me, (only my opinion so stay calm) i would be very much in favour of a private forum. Having read into this recently on here, and on-line as well as talking to the IT company my work uses, private is very much, a safer place to be. It would have no reason to discourage new users or new people to the hobby which, after, is never going to return to the numbers of the 80s.
Just to add to this, perhaps when items are reserved or paid for, just send a PM, dont announce it to everyone else, I myself have been guilty of this, but not from here on i wont. I've learned a lot about this over the past week, it's actually quite scary.
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