First, the proposal for PM: an additional flag for nodes that would indicate that it should not be displayed directly on the site (eg, not on front page, section lists, Newest Nodes, or via searches), though it would still be there for anyone to view if you knew the node #. More on mechanics in a bit.

Now, why ask for this? I can think of at least 3 reasons, somewhat related.

• Let's say I write up a large-ish node on the order of a tutorial, code, or review. However, before I want to distribute it to PM as a whole, I'd like to have it reviewed by a few additional monks, and incorporate their comments or any other changes they might offer before the node is live. Setting such a node as private would aid in this.
• Along the same lines, if I'm writing up a long node or something that takes time to compile despite writing most of it off-site, and I need to put the work down for some time, the ability to put the current work in a private node such that the work is actually saved to the site until I have time to return to it would be helpful as well.
• In the CB this morning, I saw someone ask for a somewhat lengthy bit (more than 3 lines ) of code, which would not be best put in the CB, but wasn't difficult enough to put in to a full-fledged question (in this case, it appears the person read the doc and faq, but still was confused how to do a given step, one that 99.99% of the experiences monks know how to do). A scratch node where I would write out the short bit of code and then point the user to, would be helpful as well.

You can only set this flag on node creation and once you remove it, the flag can never be reset. When you are creating any node, now, this means you'll get 3 buttons on the one page: 'preview', 'submit', and 'keep private'. Private nodes will appear in your user node listing in case you forget them (and out to be marked as well). In addition, while the flag is set, the author should be able to delete the node without problems (eg, toss out scratch nodes without wasting high-level times).

From what I would figure, this change would require an additional column in the database, and a bit of logic, so it's not trivial; in addition, much of this is mostly convience for the end user and is not trying to make up for lack of key features on the site (eg the above examples could be done currently with an offsite URL, offsite text file, and pasting into the CB, respectively).

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain

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