[sruffell]

I agree that the public / private option makes sense to me.

However, regarding that the public option "...gives you a way to show publicly how friendly and responsive you are...", it also sometimes forces you to deal with people (competitors?) who want to use your forum to argue why your product may be lacking. There is also the occasional person who is upset that you or someone else hasn't taken up their issue that they mailed to the public list.