@hypericin @Moliere I'm removing the custom permissions for the essay category, which will put things back to how they were before I made the mistake of getting involved. They are now unavailable to anyone who isn't signed in.

Please discuss the issue amongst yourselves and come to a democratic decision, then let me know.

Okiedokie.

@Amity -- what's wrong with making them publicly available?

If any participants want to keep their essays off the internet, I can once again restrict them to members-only, which is the default for the Symposium. — Jamal

Please discuss the issue amongst yourselves and come to a democratic decision, then let me know. — Jamal

Authors are supposed to be kept anonymous until 16th June. Nobody is likely to discuss it here.

what's wrong with making them publicly available? — Moliere

I am not inclined to pursue a debate, right now. I've better things to do.

@Amity The discussion group is all back-and-forth, no time for reading. I was wanting to give interested people a chance to read before we began the discussion. It is too long for me to post on the group page. The history of @Jamal making this private was so he could try publish one of his own stories. I don't think anyone minds at this point if this content is available to non-members of TPF. If someone truly wants to publish in the future and its availablility is actually an obstacle (I think less common for academic papers than fiction?), I guess we can make it private again.

Authors are supposed to be kept anonymous until 16th June. — Amity

Nothing to do with author anonymity. The only difference is that non-members of TPF can view the essays as we can.

@hypericin Ok, if in 12 hours nobody has given a reason why the essays shouldn't be made public, I'll make them public. How's that?

I had forgotten about the private/public thing and @Jamal was just trying to be helpful. However, I vote along with @Amity to keep them private at least until authors are revealed and decide publically to change that if that was the original expectation. Seems fairer.

(It might be that some or other author entered on that basis or that it is particularly important to them, I mean).

what is unfair about making the essays public? That is just the basic expectation of posting in a forum. I think few if any of the posters were even aware of the public private thing. I knew just because we ran into the same issue during one of the writing contests, and I had long forgotten it.

I would say, unless one of the entrants actually wants their entry private (for some reason I can't even fathom now) let's make them public as @Jamal suggests

what is unfair about making the essays public? — hypericin

Nothing---unless an author submitted on a reasonable understanding they were going to be private. We just don't know if that's the case, right? I think that's @Amity's point. However, that's just my take and I am just one vote. From a purely personal point of view, I don't mind either way.

We just don't know if that's the case, right? — Baden

Since @Moliere did not make this explicit in the rules of entry there is no reason to suspect anyone would have this expectation. The private thing for the symposium is far from common knowledge.

You may be right and my reasoning might be too cautious. It wouldn't be the first time..

This is becoming ridiculous. I vote with my feet. I am out of here.

Something to ward: The privacy in question isn't who wrote what, but rather whether a search engine can find the essay through searching our website.

So the authors will still not be revealed until the 16th.

But if there's no reason to hide them and @hypericin needs access then I vote to make them visible to search engines (while still keeping the authors unknown)

There are people who post on an internet forum with the understanding it is "private"? :lol:

Missed the cut off, but i've got 2800/3000 words down.

Is there another one for later in the year?

@Moliere @hypericin @Baden

I have made the essays public, as promised.

Although @Baden and @Amity were against it, they did not give any reasons beyond speculation that some participants might be relying on the fact that the category is members-only. But I don't think this is a realistic possibility, and nobody with such a concern has spoken up. Against that, @hypericin has a real need to share the essay with some non-members, and it is pointlessly cruel to disallow this on the basis of basically no good reason at all.

The short stories were once public too, and nobody complained. I made them private because I, and I think @hypericin, were trying to get our stories published in magazines.

As far as I know, nobody has voiced a desire that this unusual permissions scheme be extended to the philosophy essays. It just happened to be the default because I applied the members-only permission to the whole Symposium.

I have made the essays public, as promised. — Jamal

:100: After all, we are not a secret society.

I note that there is no longer a need to sign in to read the essays. A good move. To make them easily accessible and highlight the June event.

The short stories were once public too, and nobody complained. I made them private because I, and I think hypericin, were trying to get our stories published in magazines. — Jamal

I complained of the change to 'private' and the need to sign in to read them. I remember well your reasons and wonder if /why this is no longer a concern.

***
As for:

Authors are supposed to be kept anonymous until 16th June.
— Amity
Nothing to do with author anonymity. The only difference is that non-members of TPF can view the essays — hypericin

My quote is taken out of context. It was in reply to Jamal:
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/991864

***
Finally:

Although Baden and @Amity were against it, they did not give any reasons beyond speculation that some participants might be relying on the fact that the category is members-only. But I don't think this is a realistic possibility, and nobody with such a concern has spoken up. — Jamal

Mostly, I was surprised at the initial action taken without warning or explanation. I've already mentioned that in relation to your long-standing decision/position to make them private.

Nobody is suggesting that we should be a 'secret society'. Indeed, I am in favour of increased access to the forum.

I simply don't appreciate sudden decisions to change without prior consideration to other participants.
The initial lack of communication is why questions needed to be asked.

Now answered. Perhaps the event can move on.

the event can move on — Amity

:up:

Glad it's sorted now. :up:

:up:

My quote is taken out of context. It was in reply to Jamal:
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/991864 — Amity

Ah, I didn't notice we were supposed to be doing full anonymity with this one.

Well, the anonymity won't be preserved if we add another essay, but I don't mind throwing another one that's done into the mix -- the next one won't happen until next year.

But I don't want to upset anyone either. So I'd welcome it, but can see a need for a cutoff as well.

- I would suggest allowing his entry but exempting him from consideration for the $10,000 grand prize. :grin:
And then delete these three posts to make the submission semi-anonymous.

These are actually fair points. Note though that they can be made private again after @hypericin finishes his meeting. If someone submitted under the expectation that they would be private and therefore publishable, that strikes me as a better reason than anything to the contrary.

If someone submitted under the expectation that they would be private and therefore publishable, that strikes me as a better reason than anything to the contrary. — Leontiskos

I have moved on to reading and commenting on the essays. More than a few are exceptional. Excellent and publishable. One could even be the start of a series. The illustrated adventures of...

So, yes, the issue of publication still bothers me. Not for me personally!
But I received no response from @Jamal to this:

I complained of the change to 'private' and the need to sign in to read them. I remember well your reasons and wonder if /why this is no longer a concern. — Amity

What has changed regarding keeping essays or stories private for the sake of publication?

What has changed regarding keeping essays or stories private for the sake of publication? — Amity

Nothing has changed, except that @hypericin wanted to share essays with non-members.

I made the symposium viewable only by members because I wanted to submit stories to magazines, and because @hypericin had (I think) expressed a wish to do so too. That doesn't apply to the philosophy essays—nobody has expressed a desire for them to be members-only—and on the other hand, someone wants to be able to share them.

Yeah, I got that already, thanks. I meant from a publisher's point of view and any rules that would prohibit an essay if it was already published on TPF.

I don't know if the potential publishers of philosophical essays apply the same exclusivity criteria as many of the fiction magazines do. From my very cursory research, they seem to be more permissive, meaning that if someone wanted to get their essay published, for example on Aeon, it might still be possible.

If anyone is thinking of doing that they should speak up and I'll do what needs to be done. As it is, most if not all participants would have assumed the essays were going to be viewable to non-members, since that is always the default on TPF and discussion forums generally.

and others:
Personally, I am not concerned one way or another about whether the essays are public or not. There is just one aspect which I wish to draw people's attention to, I get emails about Feedspot, which links to a number of sites about threads on various sites, including TPF and Reddit. I found emails from Feedspot creating links to at least a couple of the TPF essays.

I am not a member of Feedspot and don't know what it involves exactly and how it links to various media sites. However, I am wondering about people who may have submitted to this writing activity, or even created threads, having their writing made accessible publically in such a way. If anything, I am concerned that it may give rise to plagiarism of TPF poster's ideas far more easily than previously.

As for the essays, I am wondering about the decision to make the writing public on the mere basis of one member having difficulty signing in currently. But; as I say it is not my personal concern, but the essays being made public on Feedspot is an issue which needs to be taken into consideration.