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The new clubs feature will allow members to create a club. What is a club you ask? A club is basically a public OR private section of the forums that you can discuss whatever with whomever. Four types of club are available: Public clubs - Clubs that anyone can see and participate in without joining. Open club - Clubs that anyone can see and join. Closed club - Clubs that anyone can see in the directory, but joining must be approved by a Club Leader or Club Moderator. Non-club-members who view the club will only see the member list - not the recent activity or content areas. Private club - Clubs that do not show in public, and users must be invited by a Club Leader or Club Moderator I am going to restrict the creation of the actual clubs to only members, new members (those under 1 total postings) will have to post a couple of times before they can create a club. Club users will be broken down into three groups: Leader - A leader has all of the permissions of a moderator, and can add other moderators. The club owner is automatically a leader. Moderators - Moderators, as the name implies, have the ability to moderate content posted within the club. The moderator can remove content, etc form their respective clubs. Moderators can also remove members from a club. Users - Anyone else that joins the club. Clubs FAQ ------------------------- Why are you implanting this new feature? Because I think there are times that certain members what to discuss specific things amongst themselves (without any outside interruption). Won’t this create a whole bunch of echo chambers that encourage people to only speak to those who agree with themselves? Perhaps, but I doubt it. We will still have the normal forums open and available for everyone, and I’m willing to bet that members will engage in both the general forums and the clubs. What is the moderation going to be like in the clubs? Moderation will fall almost exclusively to the Leaders and Moderators of the individual clubs. The Forum Admin (Greg) and Forum Moderator (Charles A) will ONLY step in if something illegal occurs. So anything goes in the clubs? No, porn (while technically legal) isn’t permitted in the clubs. However, something unforeseen might crop up that we will have to deal with, but I’m not interested in being heavy handed with the clubs. For the clubs to be successful, everyone has to take ownership of them. How does someone join a closed or private club? They have to either ask to join or be invited by a Club Leader or a Club Moderator. What if a member is booted from a club, can the Forum Admin or Forum Moderator allow them back in. No, the Club Leader and or Club Moderator have exclusive justification over their club. If you tick them off, or break their rules, it’s their decision whether you remain in their club. Can someone rejoin a club that they have left (or been removed from)? Yes, but only at the discretion of the Club Leader or Club Moderator. Does a club need to be about politics? NO, a club can be about any topic that interests you (and your club members). Is this going to be a permanent feature of the forums? If people use this feature, we will keep it around. Can a club start as a public club and move to closed/private (or vis-versa). Yes, however you will need to request this change by asking Greg (Forum Admin) to change the permissions of your club. Can anyone create a club? Yes, but for now (while we’re testing everything out), I will approval all the clubs manually. Once we get everything figured out, I’ll open it up so that anyone can create a club. What if I have a question that isn’t answered in the above FAQ? Then ask the question in the support section of the forums. This is a new feature, so we can accept a few issues to arise and we will all have to adapt to make it work. ------------------------- So what does everyone think? I’d like to hear your feedback. If you have a technical question, please post your question in the support forums, but if you have a general comment and or feedback, then please post it below. Thanks!