I have spent the past year and a half on the Caylee forum. So many wonderful people and amazing work there, really wonderful. Unfortunately also a strong prosecution bias on the threads sometimes to the point that some fencesitters are the constant recipients of rude posts etc, and many areas of discussion in the case are treated as taboo, basically limiting discussion to the perameters of the prosecution's case.... It is literally taboo to ask questions about almost anyone other than Casey and her family, unless it's someone the prosecution would like to discredit, if you know what I mean. Even people who had been in close quarters with Caylee prior to her disappearance (except Casey and the A family members of course), taboo to ask questions about them! With a few exceptions. And I'm not talking about accusing anyone of a crime, I'm talking about just public information and general discussion. (I don't know if sometimes this may have been actual board policy for legal reasons? I'm not sure if it's that, I could understand that-- if it is it would be very helpful to have private groups to be able to discuss the case more fully.)
I don't know what the social groups or private groups were like, it's a shame if some didn't work out, but I would have thought they could be very useful, for discussing the case itself. I had assumed the same rules applied as on the regular threads, no bashing of other board users, no criticism of moderators or admin, no rude or harrassing posts, avoiding going off topic, etc. It would be fine for mods to see or moderate the private forums (or not, their choice). Private groups could be just like normal threads, only behind a screen so to speak so there could be freer discussion without raising the ire of those who don't want certain things discussed. I wouldn't want to discuss in a private forum exclusively but (in its best form) it would be a great place to be able to discuss any case topics that are not possible on the regular threads due to the climate on the threads (or for legal reasons or whatever, privacy concerns etc).
(The only drawback would be that it would tend to take all but the prosecution-oriented discussions even more off the main board than they already are.)
I hadn't thought about some of the problems some of you mentioned such as people posting other people's comments from private forums onto the main forums and so on or private threads turning gossipy. That is a shame. And of course the ideal is that everyone would have equal access to all discussions, you know, you hate for anyone to be closed out of any forum--if only everyone could allow everyone the same freedom of speech on the main threads, not freedom of speech only regarding the prosecution's half of the case. There is often the total misperception that fencesitters are people who are aligned with the defense or who "want Casey to get away with it". This could not be less true. The fencesitters I've met here are not aligned with the defense or the prosecution and are very serious about the perpetrator of Caylee's murder, whoever it was, being held accountable, that's why they want all the questions to be asked.
But the only thing with the Private Groups or Social Groups is that I guess all threads probably need some form of moderating in the end though, and who is really prepared to take on this job?! (That our moderators so kindly do for us on the hundreds of main threads)!! I can't imagine how hard it would be.