dubmeup wrote:
The private area has been discussed for quite a while. In the early days of the SZ2 it was an essential and valuable part of the forum. At the time there were only very few members and people were getting banned from the DIF for literally anything if they were seen here.
As SZ2 has grown it's become less and less used, less and less justified and more of a problem than a benefit. There was a lengthy discussion about what to do about it and It'd be fair to say that the general view was to ditch it. The only really active thread in it for some while has been the pictures thread which is now in the members stuff section.
It would seem that today the plug has finally been pulled. I for one say thank you to whoever did it....

Well said dubs, couldnt have said it better myself.
Yes I decided to bite the bullet and pull the plug on it for the reasons you said above.
Threads from the 'Private Lounge' were moved into 'Forum Projects /Meetings /Members stuff' ...so anyone who has registered and is logged in can access them.
If anyone has any further questions about it, then this is the thread for it.
Gilly wrote:
Why are people glad to see it go, and why has it gone?

I think dubs said it well Gilly...we had talked about it a lot before you joined here...it was barely being used...and on a growing forum it is difficult to manage and decide who gets to see it and who doesnt...we dont want to be excluding people, and the flip side of that is, a private category is kind of pointless when we give every new member access anyway...its not like we can interview
everyone and really know who they are or what their intentions are.
Now we didnt ultimately put what to do with the Private Forum to a vote, but the decision was made based on looking at what the majority who had input into the thread specifically started to address this, wanted to do with it...many of us felt that it is unfair to exclude any member from threads and posts.