Do you know about 'Open' and 'Closed' Posting?

[RedApple]

When you write a new post in any HealthUnlocked community, you have a choice about who can see your post.

Below the text box that you type into, there is the word Share: with a drop down button next to it.

By default, this is set to Anyone.

But if you click the dropdown button, you'll see that you can chose Community Only.

What do these options mean?

In brief, Anyone means your post and all the comments on it, will appear in search engines.

Community Only, means just that. Your post and the comments on it will only be visible within the community you posted it in.

Click this link:

Who Can See My Posts support.healthunlocked.com/... to see the full information from HealthUnlocked about this option

[SeasideSusie Remembering]

I don't understand why the default is not set to Community Only, that would make much more sense 🤷

[Anthea55 in reply to SeasideSusie]

I totally agree with SeasideSusie. The difficulty, as I see it, is that when you reply to a post you don't know whether it's Community Only or wide open to the world. This may make a difference to what you say.

Where can I see whether a post is Community Only or not?

[SeasideSusie Remembering in reply to Anthea55]

If the post is closed to Community Only there will be a little padlock showing at the end of the row beneath the post title. I always set mine to Community Only, see one of my posts below. If no padlock it's set to Anyone.

Post showing padlock

[Anthea55 in reply to SeasideSusie]

Thanks, SeasideSusie, I never noticed that before!

[RedApple Administrator in reply to SeasideSusie]

I suspect it's because HU want their 'business' to appear in search engines as much as possible.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to RedApple]

Just to make clear, Closed posts are not viewable by anyone not a member of the TUK forum. Not even HU members who have joined other forums.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to helvella]

Indeed. I did sort of say this in my main post although I used HUs word 'community', rather than forum. Thanks for clarifying further.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to RedApple]

You did.

[humanbean]

Although I can understand the logic behind Closed and Open, I do wish that more people would make use of Closed posts. I set all of the threads I create to Community Only. Whatever the originator of the thread decides is forced on the members who reply.

There have been some threads I have wanted to reply to, but have changed my mind when I see the post is open to the public, or I have severely edited what I want to say in reply.

I know that anyone can join the forum, so the idea that any post I write is "private" is absurd. But my replies being shown in Google search results is just a step too far for me in some cases.

I've just noticed... This thread has no padlock, so is open to everyone. But luckily it isn't saying anything controversial.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to humanbean]

I understand. It's a tricky one isn't it. But if every post was community only, people wouldn't find our forum when they put their thyroid related queries into google.

[humanbean in reply to RedApple]

Yes, that's true. There are no perfect solutions.

[tattybogle in reply to RedApple]

I think we should leave as many breadcrumbs to find this place as possible.... I would never have found my way here if it wasn't for seeing a relevant looking question on a search engine. Loads of people find there way here by accident via these unlocked posts .

i generally don't bother locking anything of mine , don't really see the point , surely if anyone was really interested in spying on us they would just become a member and read what we wrote anyway . .. or am i missing something .

[Hidden]

sorry this isn’t specifically relevant to the post, but what is the relationships between HealthUnlocked and ThyroidUK?

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Hidden]

Very simply... Thyroid UK is a charity. HealthUnlocked provide this free forum for health related charities etc.

Thyroid UK was one of the very first forums on HealthUnlocked when it started. We have been here a long time (since early 2010)

[Hidden in reply to RedApple]

oh I see. All health forums are free these days I think, but that’s interesting. Thank you for explaining 🙏🏻

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Hidden]

about.healthunlocked.com/