Are you ever going to bring back The Underground?

[meow2u3]

I was a member long enough to remember The Underground, a forum only members could view. Would there be a chance you could bring back this forum, only this time limiting viewership and membership to donor members?

[Skinner]

1. Absolutely not.

We've had some bad ideas, but that was perhaps our worst idea ever. Giving people a protected space that they believe is private (and where they think they are not accountable for the things they say) is a very bad idea. It is an open invitation for people to say incredibly inappropriate and hurtful things about other people. And it creates a hierarchy of "in people" and "out people," which then empowers the "in people" to engage in mob bullying behavior against "out people."

And then, of course, there is the inevitable paranoia about moles and leaks and stuff. It really brings out the worst in some people, and is a very unhealthy thing for a community.