What is the purpose of this forum?

[Jonathan Forester]

Having been part of this forum since very near its inception, I have watched it grow from a struggling idea to a forum for discussion of many topics relevant to the growth and development of the nascent industry of modern artisanal / micro-distilling.

I think it is time for a discussion about the purpose of this forum. The signal to noise ratio is increasing dramatically, making me less interested in being an active member, making it more difficult to discuss important and relevant topics, and less welcoming to me as a professional in this and ancillary fields.

For myself, I see the forum as a place for education on the field of artisanal / micro-distilling. For networking among distillers, DSP owners, and those interested in entering the field or opening a DSP. For discussion of development of the field including political and economic decisions and tactics. Sharing advanced information and techniques among commercial distillers and those in the process of becoming so. As well as other areas focused on professional and commercial aspects of artisanal / micro-distilling.

At present, members of the forum range from highly experienced distillers & DSP owners, to moderately experienced or novice distillers & DSP owners, to those in the process of becoming distillers / DSP owners, to those researching the field, to writers and experts in the field, to the general public- both informed and not.

So my question is, is this forum for the use of professional distillers and DSP's, those who are in the process of becoming a distiller or opening a DSP, or pursuing information on entering the field of professional distilling?

Or is this forum for just anyone who has questions about home distilling (which is illegal in the US, whether I agree with the law or not) and home brewing?

Lately I have been seeing a bit more of what I consider negatives:

People trolling to incite arguments who aren't distillers or actively in the process of becoming a DSP, or are possibly starting a DSP but in-experienced.

Home distillers and brewers, or those interested in home brewing or distilling, asking questions that are so basic, they are in-appropriate for what I consider this forums purpose to be.

Those interested in the field of distilling, asking questions without doing any homework or research, expecting to be handed everything on a silver platter. Then becoming angry when they don't get all the answers handed to them.

What about writers and experts on certain aspects of the distilling field? What is their appropriate contribution and participation in this forum?

(Personally, I break myself down into two different groups, and look at the issue from two different perspectives. As a food & beverage writer focused on artisanal distilling and spirits, libations, and cocktails; and as a distiller / business owner in the process of opening a DSP in addition to our winery and brewery.)

Back in January, Guy Rehorst, asked the question, "Do the forums have enough privacy?" http://adiforums.com/index.php?showtopic=44

I think we need to address this question as well.

Do we need a multi-level access to the forum? General public, new business researchers, distillers, DSP's, those in process of building or applying for a DSP, etc.

Should we require members to fill out verifiable background info and a legitimate profile with a real name and location?

Should there be a small fee for use of the forum, to insure that members are who they say they are (a small fee paid by credit card would verify legitimacy of name and location); and either work in the field of artisanal / micro-distilling or its ancillary fields, are pursuing a profession in the field, opening a DSP, or researching the possibility of starting a DSP or information on the field of artisanal / micro-distilling?

So, what are your thoughts? Please include your background, real name, and association to the field of artisanal / micro-distilling and ancillary fields. I think it's relevant and important that we know who we are, as well as what we think on this subject.

Jonathan M. Forester

Food & Beverage Writer & Consultant

Winterport Winery

Penobscot Bay Brewery

Penobscot Bay Distillery (in process)

Pairings Food and Wine Education Center, Restaurant, and Event Center.

[Jester]

Jonathan M. Forester

Food & Beverage Writer & Consultant

Winterport Winery

Penobscot Bay Brewery

Penobscot Bay Distillery (in process)

Pairings Food and Wine Education Center, Restaurant, and Event Center.

Excellent topic starter,

I will jump in, My name is Jesse Lupo. I grew up in Maine and became a welder. I moved to Massachusets for the better job opportunities. I have built equipment and was advised by a friend who is a member, to join the forum and communicate with other distillers and distillers to be. I have enjoyed the conversations i have had and hope to see more opportunities to help others whole i build my own distillery. I hope to open a DSP in N. central Mass. by mid-09. Time will tell. In the mean time I will build things for people and exchange information with everyone I can. I hope to see everyone here helping and being helped, rather than the negative tear downs that have been developing. I don't see a lot of the latter, I am here to help, I hope we all are.

In Great Spirits,

Jesse (jester) Lupo

7 river st leominster Ma,01453

617-849-2849

I like to take things head on, call me for anything.

[Ralph at Tuthilltown]

This is dicey territory. Who is "in" and who is "out"? Who "deserves" to be allowed into the ongoing discussions? Should they be excluded or merely ignored? Personally I am curious what others think and ask, even the novice or interested non distillers. But the point is well made. Those who are Members of ADI should perhaps have access to the more technical information and discussions than Joe the Would-Be Distiller, or the curmudgeon who simply tosses in his two cents without qualification. I agree there are many questions posed by amateurs or people who simply are not taking the initiative and actually doing some homework before posting the question. It's like the cell phone, if you don't want to be accessible turn the thing off. Same with the questions you don't like, don't respond; their presence on a forum is no burden to anyone, just ignore it.

That said, perhaps the Forum should be in two sections, one for the general public and spirits geeks, and the other for Members Only. This is not without precedent, most Organization sites require membership and sign in for access to important information.

The danger is the vetting process. An open site, without any restrictions will always draw the unqualified and the critical who offer only annoyance and no solutions or reasonable alternatives. I would not oppose a change to limited access, a "For Members Only" area of the site which would include contributing to the Forum. It is not unreasonable to have this sort of thing for the serious among us who have joined and continue to participate in a productive manner. If a non-pro decides to join and pay the fee they should be in. I don't agree that only Producers or those applying for permits or who have stills should be admitted. The only realistic qualification can be Membership in ADI. Perhaps there should be an additional Membership category for non-pros, with limited access attached. But it is worth further discussion.

[Sherman]

Jonathan, I hear what you are saying. I started a forum back in 2006 for advanced, artisan distillers. I found one thing to be true. The advanced distillers have nothing more to say on the subject and the forum quickly died from lack of anything new to say.

The new people, educated and otherwise, contribute by asking questions to which we think we know the answer but have to really dig to come up with a good explanation that will translate to a person who does not have the foundation of knowledge or common terminology. Most times the answers are straight forward. Other times these questions can cause us to question ourselves as to why a process is followed. Sometimes, a beginner, having no preconceived notion of the history, suggests a solution that is so obvious that we ask ourselves "Why didn't I think of that?"

Such has happened to me many times recently.

Having some 30 years of small scale distilling and aging experience, I have often thought there is nothing more to learn. I get schooled regularly by novices.

Just some observations from an avid forum watcher, reader, and administrator as food for thought to you.

[Guest Liberty Bar - Seattle]

Hmm.

I do suppose that serious, professional and experienced distillers would find all of the newbies rather boring and troublesome.

The problem about that view is that distilling is going through a renaissance right now with more and more people every day learning about distilling and spirits, and thus finding their way to this forum, which is the best open and free resource available...well, in the world right now.

The problem with splitting the forums into paid ADI members and everyone else is that this is a free service for ADI, and I do not know if there are administration abilities for this webware that would allow for such access - and even if that did work, someone would have to assign access to every current member and every new applicant. That would take a lot of someone's time. What would probably have to happen would be that the ADI would have to pay for a service that would automatically assign such privileges depending on the allowances given by paying for membership.

I am President of the Washington State Bartender's Guild, and we have a forum (almost finished) that will do just what Ralph suggested. We will have an outstanding resource for discussion for people interested in cocktails, spirits, wine and beer, but some of the discussions will be for members only - the rest of the forum will be wide open. But, we were lucky enough that we had a friend who was also a programmer that took the time to build such a powerful, scratch forum for a very reasonable amount of money. Perhaps I could see what he would charge the ADI to just port it over since it was built to be very scalable?

To the main point, though: Distilling is growing at a rate that has never ever before been seen. More states are enacting or thinking about enacting new distilling licenses, and with that growth, more and more beginners (of which I am one) will be coming here to ask questions. Everyone starts at the beginning, and today's beginner is tomorrow's gold medal winner.

Hell, maybe ADI SHOULD charge a reasonable amount for access to the forums? A small, reasonable monthly fee would do a lot to not just fund the efforts of the ADI, but would also cause those involved to be only those that care enough to pay this reasonable amount? I know that I'd pay, and I am willing to bet that many here similarly would pay - especially if there was a tiered system - one for paid members and one for open membership. It's at least worth a discussion.

That said - thank you all very much for all of the assistance. What I have learned here over the last year has been invaluable.

Andrew

[Rum]

The issues raised in this thread are faced by any growing internet forum. I have been through this personally from the admin side as well as the user side. There isn't going to be any clear easy answer that addresses all of the issues in a positive way. Tradeoffs are everywhere.

On the one extreme is a fully closed forum that only allows posting by members of the organization. This has the benefit of keeping out trolls, spammers and other undesirables. The downside is that the forum is not likely to be vital, especially in a small field such as this.

By way of example, I started a community site for automotive enthusiasts back in 1999. Early on I had two competitors; another open forum and a closed forum. The closed forum was in support of an established organization that had many thousands of members. My forum was completely open. To make a long story short, the members of the closed forum's organization ended up actively posting at my forum and the closed forum died on the vine. The other open forum started charging a membership fee to try to fight off trolls and others causing troubles. They died on the vine as well. My site grew to hundreds of thousands of members, close to 2 million threads and over 27 million posts. It is an incredible resource for anyone interested in the topic. It requires a lot of moderators to combat the constant issues that arise from such a large open forum but it is an unmatched resource due to the incredible depth of knowledge and activity of the members.

At the other extreme is a completely closed forum. The competitive site mentioned in the last paragraph fits into this category. The difficulty is having enough members to keep the forum active. One of the benefits is that you cut out the clutter.

There are several ways to have a successful middle ground. One example that I participated in as a user is one that is for professional webmasters. It has several discussion areas that are open to the general public. It also has an area that is only for supporters of the site (at about $130 per year if I recall correctly). In their case it is a big enough field that the member area is very active and, in fact, contains the best information. Those who are not members can see the topic titles in the member's area and are tempted to sign up if they are serious about the topic.

Another option is to keep the forums open to all and to design the categories in such a way that topics fit into well defined areas and then aggressively moderate them into the right areas. On my sites I even ended up even separating out religion, politics and other controversial topics to a special area from other Off Topic discussions to keep the peace. This may or may not work here as a complete solution since I'm not sure that a home distilling category (as an example) would be desired by the professionals on the forum.

It can also help to have member tags identifying facts about the poster. For example, members of ADI could have a tag under their name identifying them as such. You could also have other levels of support at different cost levels. This is all available with off the shelf software such as vbulletin and others.

The bottom line is you need to strike a balance between vitality of a forum for professionals with the need to cut the clutter. I would hesitate to close off the forum given the current size of the membership and the industry. It might work to have some areas be read only to non-ADI members though. Combine that with aggressively moving threads into the appropriate categories and you might have a solution for now.

[rlichner]

As a total novice, I think this forum has to be available to anybody interested in the topic if the industry as a whole is going to grow. So what if some people want to homebrew. A lot of those people wind up going into distilling once they are comfortable with the processes. The point is that as the industry does grow, there will always be newbies like me that are looking for tips and tricks. If you're not interested in running down the drill with newbies, ignore their posts. Besides, having just joined a couple of months ago, I don't see a whole lot of technical information on distilling processes being passed on by the 'masters.' If the forum were limited to only the 'professionals' then it might as well be shut down now.

[delaware_phoenix]

I don't think anyone here has a problem with people wanting to homebrew. But there are already many active homebrew forums I'm sure, so there seems no reason to start one here.

As to home distilling, it's still illegal in the US. Doesn't mean there aren't people doing that, but I know I don't want to risk my livelihood (or chance at one) as a small distiller by helping them.

[Paul G]

Not to mention, there are forums for the home distiller (legal or not) out there, too. They're not of much use to the commercial micro DSP, just as this forum really isn't of much use to them. There's some overlap where some things discussed here could be applied at home, and what can be found on the "at-home" forums might apply to commercial operations. However, I think that this one serves a useful purpose to those who are or aspire to be running on a business level. The one thing we'll just have to weather is the inevitable ripples in the forum signal-to-noise ratio that exist on the interwebs.

Perhaps a little more active administrator involvement might be on the horizon for this forum. It might require a couple more sets of hands at the controls to vet applications to filter the incoming rush of kitchen stillers and home brewers who don't care about the intent of the forum and are asking how to make vodka out of leftover sprite or 24% pruno in their college dorm.

In short, the forum may have to tough out some growing pains in the near future.

In my humblest of opinions, we, as a group thus far have a lot to share with each other and our industry is undeniably on the rise. If the forum is to survive gainfully, it might have to tighten up. Presently, it's a very low traffic board (relatively speaking) and so in perspective, there's not much to slog through. That could easily change as the micro spirits producer field balloons like we're anticipating.

Ok, I"ll stop rambling now.

Cheers,

Paul

[grehorst]

Hi all,

As the sole administrator of this board (at least for now) I'll throw in my two cents.

When I started this forum, I did so because the home distiller forums were not filling a need I had to be able to communicate with fellow distillers in a more effective and timely manner. I've been happy that the forums have become as active as they are and hope to encourage more members and more participation.

It is not possible to please everyone, whether you'd like to exclude or include various levels of experience and membership. When this forum was established under the auspices of the ADI, I discussed with Bill Owens his thoughts on access. I, early on thought this should be a benefit of ADI membership, but Bill felt it should be open and available to all. I have since come around to agreeing that access to the info shared here will benefit all and encourage the growth of our little industry, It is also why we have the number of members we do- if it were not open, we would be a much smaller and likely a much less vocal group. That is not to say I wouldn't be willing to establish some member only categories. I'd love to hear your suggestions if you have any ideas this way.

I have never been one to at-will eliminate threads that I felt were unproductive or merely trolling, in fact by allowing some of those threads to continue I have noticed that good information and discussion sometimes results even though the original posters intention was to stir up trouble. In essence a certain amount of self policing happens and that has a good effect, hopefully the original poster recognizes they were being inappropriate and corrects their own behavior as a result. If off color or insulting comments do come up do not hesitate to contact me. After reviewing the comment I may choose to delete it, the whole thread, delete the user, or leave the thread for further discussion. As new home distilling questions pop up, please direct the poster to the forum rules and warnings.

The range of user ability on these forums is drastic- there are many who are familiar with using a board like this, and there are those less technically inclined who cannot seem to "get it", this sometimes results in a lot of my time trying to troubleshoot member problems.

This is a volunteer position, and recently I've been heavily involved in relocating my own distillery. Because this move has taken so much time and effort, I have not been able to spend the time maintaining this forum the way I would like to. For that I apologize and hope to rectify this situation soon.

In the meantime, I ask for your patience and your involvement in continuing to make this board a success.

[Gwydion Stone]

My name is Gwydion Stone, I'm sole-prop of Gnostalgic Spirits, Ltd., a spirits designing business, and I distill Marteau absinthe in collaboration with House Spirits Distillery in Portland, OR.

I also administer the 1400-member Wormwood Society forums, so I feel your pain, Guy.

My two cents:

Any open forum on distilling is going to attract hobbyists of all levels of experience, understanding and sincerity. It's up to the forum/admin to determine how accommodating it wants to be to these folks and to what end. My understanding at the beginning was that this forum was intended as a resource for folks who either were, or who very seriously intended to become, professional, licensed distillers.

I think it's apparent that a few of the members here are hobbyists with no intent or likelihood of going pro and who merely want tips (or in some cases, complete instruction) on home-distilling. I know I risk pushing the "elitist" button when I say I don't feel this is the appropriate place for them, but there are already many other online venues for hobbyist discussions.

I'm not opposed to the idea of distilling as a hobby and I'm in full support of reform to make it legal here. But if the forum remains open to anyone, it will become the new homedistillers.org, for precisely the reasons shown by Rum in his post. This is the better venue. Hobbyists will flock here in droves to get advice from the pros, and that's all we'll have. It's already begun and it will pick up steam.

Some may find this hypocritical, since clearly many pros started out as hobbyists, but it's not a matter of elitism or classism or any other ism, it's a matter of specialized interest. I just think we have different interests and work on a different scale.

I very strongly feel that it should be a registration requirement to provide a real name, street address and phone number in order to join. It would go a long way toward discouraging dilettantes and trolls.

To address Liberty's points about the forum architecture and subscriptions, IPB is a paid-license, professional product, not a freeware package; it's what I use at WS. It has subscription capability out of the box, it's just a matter of turning it on and creating packages. You can assign membership, access levels, etc. based on what package one chooses or what user group one is in, etc. It's very flexible and robust and could do what you describe very easily. If you go here, you'll find yourself in your own subscription panel in "My Controls." If ADI had set up a package, it would be there for you to choose.

I'd gladly pay a few bucks a month or more per year to have a private place to discuss professional level distilling. I'd be much more active, too. I've always felt that it wasn't particularly wise to discuss business, resource and process details in public. I enjoy helping and being helped by my peers in microdistilling, but I'm not particularly enthusiastic about sharing resources while the whole world watches on.

I'd suggest breaking the membership into groups, and base section access on those groups incrementally, for example:

• Guest/Member - general public viewing, writers, bartenders, non-distillers.

• Apprentice - distilling experience, serious pro plans, (possibly including bartenders and chefs who distill?)

• Distiller - works in distilling professionally.

Access would look like this:

Welcome, ADI News & General - Guest/Member

Government - Guest/Member

Marketplace - Guest/Member

Career - Guest/Member

Level 1 (basic) - Apprentice

General

Technique

Materials

Apparatus

Level 2 (advanced) - Distiller

General

Technique

Resources

Apparatus

Packaging

Sales & Marketing

Distribution

[Gwydion Stone]

Geez that a lot of words. I apologize.

[Paul G]

What he said...and more of it!

[Jonathan Forester]

Gwydion- no need to apologize. That's a great outline and I agree with you 100%.

Geez that a lot of words. I apologize.

[Charles@AEppelTreow]

Gwydion, I wonder if three levels is too many. As I look at your suggestion (and it resembles something I created, briefly, for the [hard] cider community), I think it undervalues people in what I call 'Affiliated Trades'.

We're (largely) producers here, and tend to be producer-centric. But it's slowly dawning on me that it takes a lot more than producers and product to create a market, no matter how nifty the product.

I think the contribution of interested journalists, academics, retailers (chefs, bartenders, shop proprietors) and distributors can be very enlightening. Especially when it comes to thinking about building a segment, rather than a single brand. How we build credibility and awareness both with consumers and in the chain of businesses from our DSPs to the consumers glass.

[Scott @ Twenty2Vodka]

Hopefully my reply is not too late to keep the discussion ongoing. I have to admit that I've been holding off on joining any online forums for a long time, for a number of reasons. I had reservations, but after some prodding from Jonathan and Bill Owens, I decided to get on board. With that said, perhaps my expectations were inflated since this was my first real forum.

Not more than 5 minutes after posting my first thread entitled " Plastic and Other Alternatives to Copper and Stainless", I received a personal message asking "Do you know what you are getting into?". I have to say i was disappointed in this response and it set a tone for my future participation that remains with me. Since that first post, I've received 5 additional PM's in response to the plastics topic, but only one person actually posted their response for public display. What is the point of a forum and public discussion if responses are mostly private? How do we add to the knowledge of this field if we keep it all behind doors? If replies are going to be private, than this site is not a forum, but a social networking site among many others with better features (ie Facebook). But this is better than Facebook, and i feel we should keep replies as public as possible to keep the site growing and to make this a true deposit of knowledge on distilling.

I agree with Jonathan's original post where he says

"I see the forum as a place for education on the field of artisanal / micro-distilling. For networking among distillers, DSP owners, and those interested in entering the field or opening a DSP. For discussion of development of the field including political and economic decisions and tactics. Sharing advanced information and techniques among commercial distillers and those in the process of becoming so. As well as other areas focused on professional and commercial aspects of artisanal / micro-distilling."

However, there are definitely "appropriate" and "inappropriate" questions and topics for this forum. Specifically this is not a place for posts that start with "I am writing a feasibility study to get into distilling and would like to know...". This is not anti-"those interested in entering the field or opening a DSP". While the very nature of posting a new thread is asking for help on a topic, questions of this nature are different because they do not contribute to the general knowledge base of the forum, and i feel they should be ignored and discouraged. Furthermore, and maybe I'm preaching to the choir here, but someone asking for assistance on calculating something like a utility expense, or list of the chapters their business plan should contain, is not going to get an answer here that can in anyway be accurate to them. Specifically because, like with many things, the answer to those questions DEPEND on many many variables of which THEY will need to figure out and manage. All part of starting a business, and if you can't get past that stage, then you don't belong in the first place.

Finally, do not charge a fee for use of this site. I will say it first if need be, but I will just live without the forum if the alternative is to pay a fee to use it. Furthermore, if a fee is imposed to fully use the site, I feel requests asking to be handed all details without prior homework will increase dramatically. Charging a fee means there must be some inherent value that can be expected. If we are then banking on non-paid contributors to answer some basic questions which they themselves had to sweat through and figure out on their own...desire to use this site by actual practicing professionals will just plain dry up.

All in all, great site so far, i can't wait to see it and the industry grow.

-Scott

[Jonathan Forester]

I am working with the other administrators on developments for the site. We can use all the feedback possible. We want to make this forum a powerful tool for distillers, possible future distillers, ancillary fields, and for educating the public.

So let's brainstorm, let us hear your thoughts. This is the time to let us know. As of the New Year we will slowly be rolling out the changes and improvements to the site.

Remember, the Primary Goal of this site is as a resource for discussion and networking for professionals in the micro-distilling and micro-spirit producing field. Especially those who are Members of ADI.

The Secondary goal is as a resource for those wishing to enter the field, either as a distiller / spirits producer, or to start a distillery or spirits production business.

Third for those in ancillary fields like spirits writers, equipment makers, bottle producers, label and graphics companies, etc.

Fourth as a way to educate the general public about artisanal micro-distilling and micro-spirits production.

We will be creating several levels of involvement and membership in the site, and require validation of identity and member profile.

Also we will be creating panels of experts to focus on providing accurate information, we will develop a list of FAQ's, and eventually a distillers wiki.

[Guest sensei]

The Secondary goal is as a resource for those wishing to enter the field, either as a distiller / spirits producer, or to start a distillery or spirits production business.

That's why I'm here right now. I think the forums should remain open with special areas for ADI memebers. After all, what benefit would there to be an ADI member here when anyone gets the same access and information?

[Kentucky]

Please ; This forum was I believe, started for all those interested in distilled spirits. I am new to this industry & in the planning & finance aquisition phases of a DSP as defined by the TTB & the ABC. Whats the need for all the bickering? Cant we all cooperate for the betterment of our industry? We all have opinions & or something to say or learn, if not Why are You reading this.? P.S. If I ,or You know it all, Why are We here? This is my first comment after months of review & I d like to thank you all for the betterment of the industry. Cheers All.

[Jonathan Forester]

Kentucky- this isn't bickering, it's a discussion that was asked for by the administrators. We need and welcome the feedback, because we ARE going to eventually change the site to make it MORE friendly for those in the field and related fields as posted above. But we are going to make the site much more professional. Right now the forum is a free for all, and we wish to bring some structure and cohesion to it. My goal is to have it re-structured by the time of the 2009 ADI Conference.

Please ; This forum was I believe, started for all those interested in distilled spirits. I am new to this industry & in the planning & finance aquisition phases of a DSP as defined by the TTB & the ABC. Whats the need for all the bickering? Cant we all cooperate for the betterment of our industry? We all have opinions & or something to say or learn, if not Why are You reading this.? P.S. If I ,or You know it all, Why are We here? This is my first comment after months of review & I d like to thank you all for the betterment of the industry. Cheers All.

[Ralph at Tuthilltown]

Jonathon is right. Healthy discussion, even disagreement and debate are what this is about.

If someone is dissatisfied with the content the choices are: respond or ignore. But better to hear the question, whatever it is, than not.

We often get inquiries that are from uninformed or newcomers looking not for guidance but for someone else to do the preliminary work and provide hard info and advice for their startup. We provide what general guidance we can. Anyone who is searching for help to develop their Plan should be reminded, all those here who are operating their facilities and putting out product did so, in the main, from the ground up. For our part, we are not eager to simply hand someone our business plan or estimates for equipment and such out of the goodness of our hearts. This may be the reason why some here respond negatively to what appear to be stupid questions. We like to think "there are no stupid questions", but the fact is, it is not the question itself that is dumb; it is naivete that prompts someone to ask, blind to the fact we have all spent years putting these things together with great effort and expense.

So when a newcomer asks a question here, either ignore it or answer it. But no need to berate the asker, or to characterize the discussion as "bickering". It's like the cell phone, if you don't want "to be that available", then turn it off; but don't take a hammer to it. You never know when you might need it.

Ralph

[Max Action]

Any recent discussion about making all or some of these forum topics private? Although I'm only in the research stage at this point, I would be willing to pay the ADI membership fee if this forum were no longer publicly accessible.

[bluestar]

Any recent discussion about making all or some of these forum topics private? Although I'm only in the research stage at this point, I would be willing to pay the ADI membership fee if this forum were no longer publicly accessible.

It would not be unreasonable to have part of the forum public and part private, but is there a need to distinguish between a "private" part for those who are full ADI members versus those who meet the professional criteria previously mentioned, but not ADI members?