Bumping this because I feel it needs discussing and so looking for support (as the Discourse team need to know it affects more than me).
If you are setting up a new community there are many reasons why the forum will be set to “private” (no anonymous browsing), but the main ones are probably either for testing purposes before making public, or because the content itself is private.
In order to attract new users in these circumstances you need to offer them information on the community, and give them confidence in its operation. That is why you need at least three separate documents:
- a privacy statement (legal requirement, but also proof that data is safe)
- terms of service (to explore the legal issues surrounding the relationship with the site)
- guidelines (as to what the community is about, what is expected of members and rules you will be expected to abide by)
Until we were moved to 1.8.0 this all worked fine, but now Guidelines is set to private along with all other content
This is a problem.
Even if the content is meant to be private, you need SOMEWHERE to say “The first rule of fight club is: You do not talk about fight club”. If you hide that behind the privacy wall, then everyone has to be admitted before they learn the rule.
I can understand that FAQ content can be more specific, and therefore should be as private as the rest of the site, but not the general guidelines.
I see just as many voices asking for the Guideline pages to be open as there were calls for them to be made private, so I feel that this change was made without enough consultation and ask for it to be reverted, and for alternative arrangements to be made for FAQ content instead.
Can others back me, or point out where I am wrong?