this is an idea i've been toying with lately, what with some of the eula concerns and so on. i was thinking that we've got a fairly core group that frequent the forums and more are coming along. i've begun to be a little, i hate to say paranoid, but certainly concerned, with posting some of my pre-published ideas in the general forums and pre-published images. this isnt a big concern at the moment nor is this a high priority item/request, but nonetheless it has been on my mind lately.
i'd like to see a more private, secure, by invitation only, forum for authors. this would be one where google and yahoo spiders and such were blocked and only authors invited by other authors or by FF, were invited. in other words, a private authors forum.
the point of this would be to allow authors to discuss filter making and filter ideas and all that is inherent to that process in a more or less secure, unseen environment. it would also be a place where FF, if it desired, could work more closely with authors. it might even double as a beta test environment, when that was needed.
most of the folks currently frequenting the forums, i feel perfectly secure with, knowing that if i post an idea or picture of something i'm working on, that they wont violate the trust i'm putting in them to not copy that idea, at least in the near future. with more and more authors coming on and a couple copy-cat 'artists' in the past, this idea has become more of a concern to me of late. not a big one, but nonetheless there.
as part of this idea, if adopted, i'd also suggest opening up authors as administrators on said forum, or at least sub-admins with some forum editing powers. and if FF were of such a trust with this group of authors, i'm guessing and FF personnel have hinted at, that there might be more things we could do to further FF's growth.
in part, i know this has some bad drawbacks, the biggest i can see being that authors on such a private forum might not frequent the regular public forum as much and i do know that that frequency helps in FF's promotion.
on the other hand, FF might be able to use us privy to such a forum for some tests of things that they might otherwise be reluctant to test in public. and i'd feel better if i could publish parts or whole filters or renders within a more private context at times. sadly, as FF grows 'idea piracy' is likely to grow and it might be a good thing to set something up for the tried and true authors where that whole free to exchange ideas and such remains intact and trusted.
If wishes were horses... there'd be a whole lot of horse crap to clean up!
Craig
LOL....
