For the record, and since there seemed to be some confusion on the matter in another thread, I simply copied and pasted the motion as it was made.

And speaking only for myself, I did vote against the specific wording of the resolution -- that it was suggesting a pretty cumbersome thing that was either technically impossible or that would require the creation of separate TalkBoard Archive (closed) forums and TalkBoard (open) forums and splitting threads out into each.

But I couldn't support making the TalkBoard forum public or read-only to non-elected members, either. I'm happy to have discussions in public, and I try to do so here in the TalkBoard Issues forum. I believe I have also replied to every PM I've gotten asking my take on something as a TalkBoard member or as TalkBoard President. (If I haven't, I apologize - I'm sure I meant to, got busy, and assumed I did.)

I'm not a proponent of any kind of Star Chamber and there really isn't much skull & bones stuff going on. I wouldn't be in favor of that, either. But:

* There are some matters which are private, they don't come up often but occasionally they do. Sometimes Randy asks for specific feedback on something, or he might look for input on a feature or initiative that's just not ready for prime time.

* I give 100%, and I give my candid opinions. I like being able to do that without being 'on stage'. It takes far less time than when I have to worry about how I'm phrasing something or whether one of 80,000+ members will misinterpret.

* It's also distracting. I'm not a big fan of additional forums dealing with meta-issues. More time spent reading those threads is less time spent on Flyertalk's core mission of miles and points.

All of these I can come up with counter arguments to. And reasonable people can certainly find them unpersuasive. But I'm not inclined to support opening TalkBoard deliberations to the public to view post-by-post in real-time.

That said, I think we're doing a better job at (1) communicating all decisions and (2) individually communicating our reasons for those decisions. I was a strong proponent of getting to the greater level of openness that we have now (along with missydarlin at the time). There used to be a pretty strong gag order that forbid us from talking about current issues under discussion. Fortunately we got rid of that.

And we can all do better here too.

But I'm not comfortable opening up the the forum. FWIW.