What reason is there to post in private groups? To communicate with other beings, I'd think. I see private groups as a retreat - you can escape opinions you don't like, you can escape the uneducated, and sometimes the bigotry. However, you lose far more than you gain by posting in a private group. The audience in a private group is limited, but worse still, it's filtered - the people you converse with have been selected to converse with you on a set of principles, ones you have in common. Groups tend to become circle-jerks at a point in time. Not only can you converse with the same people on the mains as you do in the private groups, but you get to talk to many more too! You get the opportunity to educate others, and at the same time you get the opportunity to learn from others as well. Isolation isn't a good thing. Edit: perhaps the Flood wouldn't be so "bad" if all the "good" posters didn't retreat to groups. [Edited on 01.02.2013 6:55 AM PST]