public/private forums - which to use?

#1 I click the "Unread posts" button. I don't browse each individual forum. What forum a post is in doesn't matter to me. I wish I could filter out the forums which are not relevant to me, though ;)

Generally, if it's scripting/general use, the public forum is the best place. Private forum when discussing source code or things that could potentially end up with a source discussion.

#2 Indeed. Especially when searching. It's quite annoying to find a heap of possible matches when searching and then find out you can't access the post.

Thanks for the reply.

#3 It's probably better etiquette, but the truth is that most of the activity goes on in the private forum, and if you have access to it, you're a lot better off if you post there.

#4 i try to post in the public forum if possible to get the widest audience, and also because the new site has a bug in which some private forums don't get included in the "what's new" list, so readers may not see them.

another thing to consider is that many engine topics (ie discussing C code) are relevant to multiple Torque technologies. for example the networking components, GUI components, torque script itself, etc. although it's against the rules/etiquette i've been posting code-containing messages relating to general stuff like this in public forums. otherwise i worry that there's perhaps an expert on say SimSets who just doesn't happen to own TGE, so would miss my post if i put it there. (and conversely if i happen to be an expert on say SimSets and have some hot new C++ SimSet action to share, it's best for the community if TGB, TGEA, TGFoo owners are able to see the post, not just TGE owners).
there's a thread about this topic here.

#5 also i'm wondering if GG's stance on C code in public forums is changing, in view of the fact that with the new site you don't even need to be logged in to view any resource.

#6 @Orion: You never had to be logged in to view the resources on the old site either. TX and TGB resources might have been different -- I don't remember, never looked at them -- but I had access to all of the TGE and TGEa resources years before I even had a forum account or license here. The only thing that seemed restricted were the Private forums... much like now.

#7 really ? i thought resources which were tagged as "code" needed you to own the particular product. hence, perhaps, the sometimes lengthy resource approval period. were you able to see C-code resources ? i may be wrong, for sure.

#8 Yep, I had saved the file downloads for the resources if I came across something that I thought might be interesting once I had the source. Shocking I know.

#9 huh. i guess i'm nuts. never mind, then!

#10 I was often restricted from seeing resources because I don't own TGE 1.4. It seems there was *some* kind of system in place there.