Privacy

[Cake]

May 6, 2011 11:12:01 GMT -5 dolly said:

it also seems that these conversations or the times when the sanctity of the devs only section (such as it is!) get compromised tend to occur just when i feel like i want to share some personal experiences here or ask for support. it's just bad timing i guess. but it makes me feel less safe to open up and share with you guys... in the only place i have to do so. i find that sad and disappointing. and i think it defeats the purpose of the board. but that's my personal issue.

I feel you, Dolly and I understand your frustration. Even though I personally don't need that safe place so much at the moment, I find it sad, too, that some things will never be said on this board, out of fear to hurt those who are basically guests.
That's why I'm extremely glad we have the live chats now, where we are truly among ourselves and everyone can really, really open up.

[Neffie]

I will say anything as long as it doesn't hurt someone's feelings

[devogirl]

May 5, 2011 0:40:23 GMT -5 @merry said:

Hmm. I think maybe there are things I might not say here, but at the same time I think it's so important that a lot of the things we DO say are said in a public space. To link to another thread that's been running at the moment (to do with whether we have the responsibility to go public) there is definitely a need for the "real" stuff to be out there and available, if for no other reason than to dispel some of the stereotypes surrounding devoteeism out there. Many of us, too, I think would still be out in the cold feeling like lonely freaks if we hadn't been able to lurk in the devs-only section for a while...I think a bit of openness is not a bad thing

I agree, this is the reason this entire site is open and searchable on google. I want to make it easy for other female devs to find us.

However, as others have said, this section of the board exists because members asked for it, and as you can see we feel very protective of it. It is a problem with proboards that we can't restrict access to one section of the board, so we have to rely on the goodwill of members, both wheelers and devs, to keep this section separate. Unfortunately proboards has very limited capacities but hey, it is FREE for us to join, so that's the trade-off.

Some history on the devs-only section, for new members: in the early days of the message board, there was a very small membership, a few wheelers but mostly devs, and there was a LOT of very personal sharing, IMHO maybe more than was prudent on a public board, but there was a sense of being in a safe community. Then as the membership got bigger, there was a sudden influx of wheeler guys, and the board started to seem like less of a private space. There was some talk about getting rid of all the guys and making the entire board a dev-only membership (and not just among the women, E has always been the biggest proponent of this). However, I think it's important for us as devs to interact with the guys as people, not just objects of desire, and allowing them to join is ultimately good for the group. So the devs-only board was created as a compromise, although an imperfect one because of the limitations of the software we're using.

As other people have described, we ask that people not paste, quote or directly reference the discussions here in the other sections. Please don't ask the guys what they think of our posts in this section. However, if you want to open up an "ask me anything" thread, that's fine, of course, or if you want to ask how joining PD and reading the other sections has changed how they view devs, that's also fine.

[merry]

However, as others have said, this section of the board exists because members asked for it, and as you can see we feel very protective of it. It is a problem with proboards that we can't restrict access to one section of the board, so we have to rely on the goodwill of members, both wheelers and devs, to keep this section separate. Unfortunately proboards has very limited capacities but hey, it is FREE for us to join, so that's the trade-off.


A possible solution to this and in specific the problem that Lindz mentioned (that when you look at "new topics there is no way to know which section they are in):
Might it not be useful if anyone starting a new thread in Dev's only marked it by using a specific emoticon (maybe a " " )that would then show up in the list of new topics and mark that topic as a devs-only topic? It would maybe help prevent some accidental reading and posting...

Just an idea

[dolly]

the thing is though... it's not really a problem.

98-99% of the membership seem to grasp the concept and have no problem respecting the guidelines.

every once in a long while there is an accidental post. it's easy to tell when it's an accident. the post is quickly deleted by the moderators, and the error explained.

it may be basic and seem not very clear upon first glance, but the devs only section *works*. give it some time. you will see!