The Hidden City [All please]

[Silky Gooseness]

Dear members,

For your privacy and safety we have decided to create an area within OOME which will be viewable only by plaza members. It is not accessible to anyone who isn’t a registered member, including bots. This forum has been named Gondolin and is Here for your use.

It’s intended primarily as an OOME space and is thus points-free, but feel free to use it for anything you’d rather keep to plaza members only. Even though it’s OOME, just as in an RP thread, you’re welcome to request in your Opening Post that people respect the rules of your thread, including posting by invitation only, as long as you remain within plaza rules and our DEI policy.

We will shortly also be opening a poll to see if you, the members, would further like it to be password protected. The password will be available to all plaza members, but will simply stop the forum topics from appearing on “Active posts” and will mean it is a quieter place. I’ve fiddled with the settings so it won’t appear on Active Topics: but everything will still be there for those members who choose to go and look.

Please request in here if you have a thread you’d like moved to the Hidden City.

(Also: yes. Everyone in there is an Eagle. for now)

We hope you enjoy this new space - much love to you all

Sil, Windy, Romeran

[Aikári Salmarinian]

A while back I did ask for a place like this, just only accessible for online members. I am glad to see this idea finally realised. I was missing this. Thanks very much!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Nice. Thank you!

I recall your asking, Aiks - and you then got your head bitten off. This is really what i was also asking for on the Admin thread when i brought up the scholars forum (don't ask! somehow i felt uncomfortable saying what i really wanted).

Thank you Admins!

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Not online = No appearance of the Gondolin forum and neither appearance of any Gondolin thread in the Active Topics. So in short, you have no idea if there are any updates while you are not online. The forum settings seem alright to a member as me.

Can My Little Corner also be moved to the Gondolin forum from OOME? I would like that very much.

Chrys: Understood.

[Silky Gooseness]

@Aikári Salmarinian: done

Also: I have messed around with the settings a bit and this forum should now no longer show up in active topics, so no need for password protections.

[Eldy Dunami]

Thank you for setting this up, @Silky Gooseness! I wanted to mention, though, that I noticed Gondolin threads still appear on the "New posts" and "Unread posts" pages, which I use regularly. (I'm not sure if they would show up on "Unanswered topics" since there are not presently any zero-reply threads in that subforum.) I'm not sure how much that matters; "New posts" isn't visible unless you're logged in, but if the goal is (I think?) to make it so logged in users won't stumble across threads in Gondolin unless they go looking for them, they should probably be removed from those pages if possible.

[Arnyn]

Lovely! Thank you, Sil and admins

[Silky Gooseness]

Thanks for raising that @Eldy Dunami! Unfortunately, there’s not an easy fix for that. I *think* the only way to get around that would be to enable password protection, but then it’s a question of balancing accessibility with privacy. Given that we would publicise the password anyway, I’m not sure how important this is to people. Happy to throw it open to discussion and if people feel strongly one way or the other we can open it to poll.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

It is always handy for me if there is some list of updated threads in an oversight. But logged out nothing of the Gondolin forum is to see or view. Would we have to worry for online members they can see the updating? Most of us just choose the threads and forums to visit of interest. I am not checking everything. I just hit the button "Mark forums read". I don't see the necessity of a password as it is already hidden from guests. A password protected forum is usually for a certain group of people. But the Gondolin is forum for all online Plaza members. But if the majority feel a password is still needed, I'll memorise it and access it anyway. I have done it for ten years on HP forum, to access the House I was affiliated to. And almost all forums, schools, hospitals, towns and cities were hidden from guests. Online was a necessity to know if there was updating, reading and posting.

[Eldy Dunami]

Given how much I use the New posts page, I'm happy to see Gondolin threads remain there. Like @Aikári Salmarinian, hiding the forum from guests (and search engine crawlers) is my main concern. But if the people who initially asked for this subforum want more privacy, I wouldn't object.

[Fuin Elda]

I'm always impressed at what Sil can manage on that phone of hers. Good stuff.

[Silky Gooseness]

I'm always impressed at what Sil can manage on that phone of hers. Good stuff.

I only recently found out there is a SIDEBAR with like, links to the ARCHIVES

[Lail]

ooh this is very nifty!! I really like this. (and the eagles) thank you admins and Narv!

[Fuin Elda]

I'm always impressed at what Sil can manage on that phone of hers. Good stuff.

I only recently found out there is a SIDEBAR with like, links to the ARCHIVES

Yeah it's only visible on laptops even on my giant phone it's not big enough I can see the forums in their proper layout on side profile but no navigation side bar for me on my phone. You're absolutely amazing with that phone of yours.

[Silky Gooseness]

Hahaha @Fuin Elda I thank you but I also regret my decisions to do everything via phone like, daily

does it ever stop me? no