I doubt this hasn't been brought up before, so if there's a previous topic, link me. Now, let me preface this suggestion/question with this statement: But! :icon_wink As Full members, we have the added privilege of being able to private message and share contact details with other full members (as well as a handful of other small privileges). But to do so, we have to do it on an individual-to-individual basis. There's no area for full members to all talk together. What if we want to see who the new full members are and welcome them, or if we want a thread to share social media info as a group. Well, we can't. But what if we had a full member section of the forums? This area wouldn't function like the public forums. It wouldn't be for everyday threads, support, or questions. It would just be a place for full members to socialize as a group, and to get to know people more personally. After all, it seems to me that's what the full member group is about - giving trusted members the ability to become closer/build a tighter community with other full members. Some may say, "Use the chat room" The chat room is largely underused by the full member community, and messages are impermanent, which really cuts down on the community and communication between full members. Having a forum that logs posts would much better allow us to talk. Anyway, that's my suggestion/question. Is it possible that we can ever have a full member area? TJ
We really try to have the difference between Full Members and Regular Members be as minimal as possible to reduce any feelings of ranking, class, or separation among our userbase. We like everybody to equally have as many features as possible and the current Full/Regular Member system allows that to happen as near as we can get with the obvious exception of more private communications.
What if it wasnt called a "Full Members Area" but instead was called something like "Get To Know Each Other"? And the forum could be hidden from Regular Members and only visible to Full Members.
But by that thinking, we shouldn't even have the chat room, where people can share everything already. I'd rather have a forum area than a chat room, because more people would actually use it. Like I said, I too am against stratification/immense differences in the ranks, but this addition wouldn't be changing anything. It'd just provide a better platform for full members to exercise their current permissions.
Actually, it would be changing quite a lot. By posting your personal information in a forum like that, you would essentially be giving it to *every* full member and not just the ones you specifically know and trust (like would be accomplished through a PM). Here's a thread about this topic from last December. I think Martin does a good job explaining the rationale behind staff opposition to a "Full Member Forum."
I can basically say (as I did in another thread about a similar issue)... it isn't going to happen. It's been discussed many times, and goes against the basic concepts that make EC what it is, on several different levels. Along with all the other excellent reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea, it would pretty quickly deteriorate into a hookup/flirtfest area, and that goes against what EC's focus is on.
Well I understand, based on Chip and Martin's reasons presented in the other thread. Oh well. I guess I was looking more at the social aspect than the fact that these are first and foremost a support forums.
