Im not going to be able to see this board when it's private but i have a suggestion: if you decide to do the voting process I think there should be one person (a mod) who gets pm'd all the votes so that people arent influenced by each other and the person who's applying doesnt have to know who wanted them in.

Also, is there a way to stop active topics on the private boards from being shown on the hot! board? There have been a lot of times where I think something sounds interesting and then Ive clicked on it and been told that I wasnt allowed, it's not really a big issue and i think it would be hard to fix though...