A quote from the AC thread that I responded to: "There are way too many circles. Common ground is defeated by fences."
Now this is so freakin' true that I thought it was just understood by everyone. But perhaps not. I think that a private circle for the NY Audio Rave may be enhancing a type of exclusivity that is not in harmony with the rest of the AN site and not in the best interest of the overall goal of sharing information.
Maybe down the road if we have a real need for some privacy, but I don't think that our newly formed forum and newly joined members need to ostracize themselves from the general population this early in the process.
Now perhaps the creation of a private forum group that is only available and open to members who explicitely sign up and want to participate in it as part of their profile. Where posting lurid jokes and questionable pictures and discussing things like politics and such may be tolerated, because it is outside of the normal list of forums and only visited and seen by people who want to participate and post.
Personally I'm not sure I would participate much, if at all in such a circle (I avoid it at Audio Asylum), but others may feel differently, and the owners and decisioin makers here may not want to open that can of worms, because problems will inevitably ensue. Just a thought to be discussed though.
