Security Issues and Forum Changes

Forums Split into Public and Private Zones
I spent hours today on site security and, as a result, made some major revisions to the Forums. After quite a bit of reflection, I decided that there were a number of potential discussions that did not need to be held in the public arena, that debate would be freer on collaborative projects if the mechanics of those were in the members only area. The results of the projects will all be publicly available; the process of putting those together does need not to be.

I also moved the support discussions, announcements, and new member topics into the private forum. This was based on a decision that, again, site mechanics doesn't need to be public. Only members will be doing things that require admin support (things like building artist pages, blogging, posting events, and so on).

Why Isn't Everything Public Access?
It's about site security and protecting personal information. Non-members will have complete access to all public features of the site - public forums, public calendar, articles, news, artist pages. Anything that affects non-members will be prominently posted on the front page; non-members can make contact with a site administrator through the site-wide contact form or join Flamencophile to have full access to all of the site's features. What's the down side? I don't see one. The whole site is free, member privacy is protected, and I've made the registration process as easy to use as possible and still filter out the non-human applicants...

That's the biggest reason that the whole site isn't completely open. It's only a small percentage of Internet users who misuse the Web, but they have a disproportionately large impact. Requiring membership was the only viable way to protect email addresses, personal information, and individual sensibilities. I've deliberately structured the site to minimize problems with spambots and all the other nasties that roam the web. I didn't want to see hundreds of drug and porn ads appearing on the forums in an hour because some robot spammed the posting link.

It boils down to this: To post content or be able to contact individual members, you must be a member yourself. Even then, you won't see the other member's email address, unless they choose to reveal it. I want to be sure members have the option to shield or share their personal information as they see fit. [Note: Artists with profiles do have the option of posting weblinks, emails, and additional contact information publicly. If you are an artist, talk to me first, though. I can help you with ways to cut down on the resultingspam.]

Why Some Upcoming Site Features Require Membership
There are a number of features I'm working on behind the scenes that will strongly encourage community building. That, by definition, requires a certain climate of openness. The site will soon enable Flamencophiles to create their own profiles, invite friends, create interest groups, have private and shared bookmarks and calendars...lots of goodies. These could only be safely done behind a virtual wall.

Splitting the site features in this way is also what will keep this site admin's focus on building new and better features for all of us to enjoy, instead of constantly having to ride into battle against the trolls, scrapers and spammers. I'll still have plenty of site security and maintenance to do without all that, thank you. I want to have a little fun, too!