Any scientist or researcher worth their salt and this would also be applicable to homoeopaths would realise that logic, reason and science are blind. Even when we believe that we know what is real, false or good we should always have space to listen and examine anything and everything that went agaist our training, teachings and experiences.

Once there was some civil engineers discussing how they could put a lift into a hotel. The engineers said that it could not be done without closing the hotel and the owner did not want to close the hotel or even part of it. So they debated and discussed and argued and came up with over-engineered and highly sophisticated engineering solutions. All were rejected for either being too hare-brained or too expensive.  The bell-boy who was standing nearby quietly went over to the owner and ask him why is it so difficult to build the lift outside the building ?  The owner suggested this to the engineers and they were all stumped by the brilliance and the simplicity of the solution.

I may not be a professional homoeopath or even a registered student but after my retirement I have great interests in healing art and have been reading up on it. I would certainly like to have access to the pro section to at least benefit from it.  I could be prevented from posting or perhaps have my posting moderated first before being posted to the general audience but why is there a need to even ban the reading by others. I thought the whole purpose is to disemminate knowledge to as many people as possible. This can only benefit the homoeopathic artform.

This is just a 2 cents worth from a "bell-boy"  8-) .

The professional forum is where we may post our patient's cases. I use this forum to help maintain some confidentiality when discussing the cases.

There is no doubt that sometimes 'common sense' works better than professional training but David has already given the reason why we cannot make the professional forums open to everyone. The cases put up for professional discussion in he pro forum need some level of restriction to prevent the information from being misused in any way. We have to balance our responsibilities towards professionals, bell-boys as well as patients!

Apart from this, I would like to share with you that most of the discussion takes place in the general forums, so you are not missing on a lot.

Originally posted by chiongguo And how does the science and homoeopathy forum be at risk of revealing personal details of patients ?

If we make this forum open, it becomes a playfield for shallow skeptics.

These are policy decisions, which have evolved after years of managing and moderating these forums. These are not going to change.

I do not consider either Hpathy or these forums as 'my' oven. There is a whole team of volunteers working behind this effort and most of the decisions are taken collectively.

I really appreciate your ability to reason. I just wish everyone were like you and I would make these forums open. Your suggestions are worth giving a thought and without making any promises to the result, I will raise the issue in our admin forums and will inform you of whatever the result is.