Online forums susceptible to spontaneous closure?
One of the risks faced by the nudist/naturist community is something not usually considered until it’s too late (particularly by new forum administrators) – the use of free online community forums such as Yahoo and Google groups can actually be spontaneously closed down with no warning!!
This has happened a number of times in the past and has happened just recently to the “SE Qld Nudists”, a popular online community forum running for over 6 years!! In this case, Yahoo did not give a reason (and they rarely do), but the group was immediately recreated successfully with the word “naturist” instead of nudist in the title, so it would appear terminology might be the cause.
The greater issue facing our community on a national basis is that the use of free online service providers like Yahoo and Google means we relinquish some of the control of our online presences to corporate entities who have little concern about communications histories, topic threads, and the wealth of detailed information contained in a long running community discussion forum (6 years in the case of SE Qld Nudists).
Perhaps it is time for a centralised internet presence (including forums) for Australian nudist and naturist community groups? The nudist community definitely has the skills in house (being webmaster of this site is not overly difficult!), and the costs are very low – we might suggest it to the nation forum via ANF http://www.aus-nude.org.au/ and see what transpires.
Comments welcome on this topic – should the multitude of nudist/naturist internet presences (including forums, club and resort websites) be consolidated wherever possible to ensure that a consistent, professional community presence is visible not only to the local communities but also to international communities and holidaying “nudistourists”?
