Hi,
@CyclePath - welcome, and it's nice to meet you. I'm Joeylittle (JL), and the admin on this site.
@anthony is, of course, still the founder, developer, and ultimate guy-in-charge over here.
I think the idea of a private military forum is smart, and I can understand the reasons for it (in a way that I don't ultimately see the need for private forums for other types of trauma). The members diary section here provides a certain amount of privacy, as it's not accessible by guests or search engines. That has proven to be a workable level of privacy for our membership-at-large, and anyone who wants to have a completely private diary can opt to upgrade to Premium membership.
The argument for not creating a closed forum would be just that. There is a place that isn't searched on the great wide web, and (as you pointed out earlier), the internet is not exactly private, anyway. We often have members wanting to call this a "safe space", and we are pretty strict in reminding them that no, that's not a thing we claim in any way. We are a space for sufferers and supporters to connect around PTSD. We believe in peer support, and we believe in the value of getting the experiences out instead of closing them in. We believe in recovery, whatever that looks like for each individual. Functionality.
On the other hand, "military" and "combat" aren't just types of trauma. They are whole worlds unto themselves.
I am certain that there are things about military culture that I, as a civilian, will never fully understand. No way, no-how. And I believe there is a lot of value in having a space where you (general 'you') don't have to explain repeatedly how things work in your culture to the well-meaning but uninformed general population.
I also believe there are symptoms that we can all connect around, regardless of our trauma origins. My hope would be that ultimately, the MyCombat members will start to feel comfortable here, and get use out of the whole board, not just a portion of it. Then again, we have members who almost exclusively post in their member trauma diary only. In other words, everyone can use the board how it suits them best.
Normally, we move all forum-related discussions immediately into the help-ticket area, as threads can get heavily derailed by members of the community all weighing in on forum issues that are ultimately not really up for discussion. But since there are a number of posts in the thread asking this question (re: a private combat board on the forum), I wanted to leave things in place for now, and tag Anthony for his thoughts.
I'll ask that the topic of the thread go back to where it began - check in for the imported members - and ask that all other discussion of a private board, how the import worked, etc, be raised via help-ticket instead of here.
And once again, welcome.
