I'd like to welcome the Central Florida Grotto and the Birmingham Grotto to Cavechat. Both Grottos now have asked for their own forums on Cavechat, for use of members of those organizations.
Incidentally, those forums are blocked from public view and can only be seen by registered users. Access can be further restricted to password only, if requested.
restrictive. I find this confusing.
Last edited by tncaver on Mar 13, 2008 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Actually having the Grottos here is tremendously less restrictive because secretive grotto have a tendency to not advertise themselves at all. Also these grottos on here are "people friendly". A secretive grotto such as the Part-time Grotto or Main League Grotto will NEVER be online and are invite only grottos. Both have gone so far as to no longer be a part of the NSS, I nick-name them "Rogue" Grottos. I find TAG and eastern Grottos to be FAR more open and friendly than western mountain Grottos.
To me with the statements you said above it is obvious you never met a real secretive Grotto. Just the fact that I write on cavechat an am a member NSS online cavers my membership to one of the Rogue Grotto was rejected. Which to me is no loss but they are more active than the NSS Grottos here in Wyoming.
I find TAG and eastern Grottos to be FAR more open and friendly than western mountain Grottos.
To me with the statements you said above it is obvious you never met a real secretive Grotto.
sure that will ever change.
I tend to agree with Evan. I don't think it's overly secretive. If anything, the grottos who choose to chat here on the forum might be considered more open than most.
However I do wonder why some grottos choose to use a somewhat-open forum environment for discussing their grotto business and idle chat. Most of the grottos I've been involved with are content to use their own email list through Yahoo or Google groups etc, with a password-protected archive on line. Maybe the grottos here on this forum do that as well? I'm not suggesting more secrecy/discretion for grottos, but to me if a grotto has a nice, informative, up-to-date public website - plus (more importantly) a couple of good contact people who can be reached or respond promptly by phone or email - it's not too secretive in my book.
If a person is interested in caving, it's their responsibility to seek out and contact their local grotto if they choose to do so. After that, how the grotto responds and welcomes the newcomer (or not) is the all-telling thing. Just my opinion, of course.
P.S. Regarding tncaver's comment about "closed trips" listed publicly - I know what you mean but I don't object to it. It shows the grotto is at least active and doing trips, although a better suggestion might be to add why a particular trip is to be members-only. And then possibly balance the situation by having other trips listed as "all welcome" or "beginners welcome" etc.
Last edited by NZcaver on Mar 13, 2008 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
It's not really secretive if ANY registered member can read it and ANY caver can register. It's just not broadcasting Grotto discussions out on the Internet via Google cached pages or RSS feeds. While Grotto meetings are open to the public (anyone who wants to can attend) they don't go publishing the minutes of their meetings in the newspaper. I don't think it's much different from the NSS requiring your NSS # and zip code in order to access the business section of Caves.org.
Sounds good to me. Nothing like a simple answer to a simple question.