Agreed. However, if we accept that a mixture of semi-public and semi-private spaces is in the DNA of most online communities, maybe it would make sense to have the tool manage part of that « communication » — like it does by displaying a lock next to private categories.
Definitely, and something I’ve been striving to make people aware of for a long time! Knowing how the audience is determined today, however, is precious context to gage how I’m going to express myself and what I’ll say.
For example, I don’t know who the future TL3 members will be, and so I need to keep in mind that other people with that kind of « profile » will read me in the future in a space where that is the criteria for participation. But knowing that will also tell me that I will likely not be read by people who have very little experience with the community.
Also, just knowing it’s TL3 members doesn’t tell me who these people are (is « Judy » also going to be able to read what I write here? Or not?), or even a rough idea of how many people that means. Is it 15-20 people? 300? Half the community population?
Coming back to Facebook, when you’re in a private group on that platform you know how many members are in it and you can see a list of who they are. I think that is the right direction in closed spaces, in terms of allowing people to make an informed determination about how they want to manage their privacy and interactions in said spaces.