Should Spot be an open or closed community?
Hi everyone!
In 2015 we started the Spot Schiphol Community as an open community. The idea was that all Schiphol workers should be able to read about what's happening in the Schiphol area, without going through the hassle of creating an account. Only if you want to be kept up to date via our newsletter, participate in an online discussion, contact a fellow community member or sign up for one of our free events, do you have to create an account.
Because our platform is open, our content is currently shown in the Google search results. While a lot of new members still find out about us via Google, these past few months I've also been getting some emails from existing community members who do NOT like to be found on Google.
I've been thinking more and more about the option of "hiding" the community part of our platform (discussions, profiles, etc.), making Spot a "closed community". I've listed a "pre" and a "con" below, but would love to hear your personal thoughts on this topic as this could mean a lot for the future of Spot.
An advantage of a "closed community":
- Members know only registered members can see what they're posting and might feel more free to say what they want in a closed community.
A disadvantages of a "closed community":
- How will new members know what they sign up for if they can't see any of the activity before signing up? Will new members sign up at all?
Please know that whatever the response will be, I cannot promise this is going to be implemented within a day/week/month (or at all). But I'll promise to take everyone's feedback into account! :-)
And..... GO!!!