Hi! I’m just wondering if there is a good reason for moderators to be able to see drafts, that is, posts that have not yet been publicly posted. Is that just how the forum works technically, or is there another purpose to it? This is the second time that I have seen a moderator replying to a draft by mistake. It seems like it’s easy to miss the fact that a post is only a draft, and I can totally understand that. I would probably make the same mistake. So why have a format that sort of invites this kind of mistake?

I’m not upset or anything, just seeing that this might be sensitive some time.

To add my 2 cents, I sometimes thrash out a bunch of nonsense, maybe a little combative, then hesitate to publish so save as a draft and see how I feel about it after a night’s sleep. I almost always end up removing the draft on second thought. If I thought anyone could see it, I wouldn’t save it at all! ;-)

It's a mistake that only happens once in a blue moon. Daniel is the High Emperor of the Domain of the Dharma Overground and maybe he can "fix" it, or maybe it can't be fixed.

That’s a good example of the problem with this. If it is impossible to change the technicalities of who sees what, then maybe it would at least be possible to add a warning sign that explains that moderators are able to read the post? The first time I realized that moderators can actually read my drafts, I felt a bit uneasy to be honest. My drafts are private. Thus, now that I know, I rarely save drafts.

Too bad I missed that beautiful blue moon twice then.

A suggestion:

Never use a public bulletin board system as a repository for things you write that you may not want to be made public. Once you put it on a message board anything can happen and you can lose control over your voice.

Draft your posts in an application like TextEdit or Word. Think about what you wrote. Agonize over editing it or making it public. When it's ready and you're happy with it, copy and paste it here.

I'm saying this as someone who has had some very bad things made public on other message board systems. 

Sure. I’m not that worried. I just saw a possible problem and a possible way to fix it, but that’s not up to me. I respect whatever you decide to do about it.

Personally, I tend not to use them anyway, because they mess up the order of a thread.