Boards.ie and Privacy

randylonghorn

Rb wrote: »

The visibile visitor logs seem somewhat pointless and I've certainly seen a few names on mine which have made me think "wtf were they looking for?"

Very often I don't think people are looking for anything specific, RB. A post catches their attention, and they click on the profile to see what it tells them about the poster. I found it a bit off-putting at first to see nicks I had never seen before show up, but now I just ignore it.

Rb wrote: »

I don't really think it impedes on peoples privacy though, as afterall it is completely up to the user what information they want to display (about themselves).

DeVore wrote: »

We took the approach that since no new data was going to be exposed that wasnt before, we should try these things out and see.

I think this is the important point, tbh. Once it's up to the user how much information to put up, then I don't have a problem with it.

Earthhorse wrote: »

One user visited my profile and left a message complimenting me on my website, something I'd forgotten was still in my profile. That was nice to hear and I don't think anyone would bother PMing over something like that. That's what's cool about the visitor messages, they're a lot more casual than PMs which feel too formal to me for just chatting with someone.

Yes, actually. My initial reaction was negative ... I'm not on Bebo or Faceache or any of those sites, and I really didn't like the idea of a Bebo-fied Boards. But I find that the new features are not in your face, and I actually agree with Earthhorse re: the above ... there are times when a comment on a thread is off-topic, and a PM feels formal, almost intrusive, if you don't know the person very well.

Beruthiel wrote: »

Talking about friends lists.
How did you hide yours?
Yes, I went into your profile to see how you had it set up.

And Spankeh's views have just shot through the roof as everyone went to see what Ber meant, before they read the rest of the thread ...

DeVore wrote: »

Addendum: I think its long past due we had a "how to get the most from boards" document which new (and old!) users can be pointed to because I have a strong suspicion that many people are only using a fraction of the options they would find useful etc.

+ 100

Even among people who are around a while, there are technophobes like me who don't assimilate changes / new stuff by osmosis as some seem to do. Luckily, I have a fellow boardsie / RL friend who will answer my squawks for help (even if he calls me a feckin' gobshoite under his breath!) but not everyone does. And it would be brilliant for new people ... or at least for those who take the time to read it, which admittedly will probably only be the minority!

Hobbes

Rb wrote: »

I'd have to disagree, it's entirely possible to be anonymous on a site like Boards.

Sadly it isn't true. The more you post, the more of a profile you make of yourself and the easier it gets to get information on you directly and indirectly.

Thus far, nothing I've posted can be linked back to who I am offline

Oooh a challange.

and through Boards, there's no way that someone can get my full name, address, phone numbers etc. I've been careful enough to ensure of this.

check out [wiki]Nas[/wiki].

Zaph

CuLT wrote: »

If you're set to invisible, you don't show up in the profile of whomever you're looking at (unless you're an administrator or smod, in which case you can see everyone regardless, just as with forumviewing).

It's funny, but since the introduction of the new changes it seems to me that there are a lot more people using invisible mode than there were before, judging by the Currently Active Users boxes at the bottom of the screen.

Pherekydes

That's a great post, Seamus. Well thought out. It is amusing to play with the new stuff, but much of what may have been alarming was already there, like when you have your own profile open and you see "Current Activity: Viewing User Profile". That info is available for all to see.

Boards is evolving. It is becoming a defacto networking site. Like it or not.

justsomebloke

Zaph wrote: »

It's funny, but since the introduction of the new changes it seems to me that there are a lot more people using invisible mode than there were before, judging by the Currently Active Users boxes at the bottom of the screen.

I have to agree with this, a lot of people have gone invisible who weren't before and so it is actually harder to stalk people as you can no longer see their activity which you were before

Steve

jsb wrote: »

I have to agree with this, a lot of people have gone invisible who weren't before and so it is actually harder to stalk people as you can no longer see their activity which you were before

As I said earlier, I look at profiles get an idea what a member is like before replying to them - I don't want to be accused of stalking so I'm invisible, as are you. If 'they' turned off the stalker list then I'd be visible.

Simplicity

Rb wrote: »

Indeed but as I said above, this information is only available if they make it available and therefore, they only have themselves to blame. .

Rb wrote: »

Al: Great photos! Love how this one makes me look like I've mega long arms and am actually groping Pythia (while I'm actually not!)

Those virgin glasses are hilarious but Christ, look quite the state thanks to the heat down there

http://www.alhigginsphotography.com/Shoots/boardsbeers/content/IMG_8936_1_large.html

Rb

Lol you're such a freak

I've been invisible since way before it was "cool" btw.

Simplicity

Rb wrote: »

Lol you're such a freak

I've been invisible since way before it was "cool" btw.

I Only joined last week!

http://omg.wthax.org/rb_virgin.jpg

Pherekydes

stevec wrote: »

As I said earlier, I look at profiles get an idea what a member is like before replying to them...

You can do this by clicking on the username and then selecting "find more posts by x" from the dropdown.

Steve

Rb wrote: »

Lol you're such a freak

I've been invisible since way before it was "cool" btw.

Liar liar, pants on fire. You went invisible the day after the stalker list happened:p

Pherekydes wrote: »

You can do this by clicking on the username and then selecting "find more posts by x" from the dropdown.

It's just not the same though.

Simplicity

stevec wrote: »

Liar liar, pants on fire. You went invisible the day after the stalker list happened:p

shhhhhhssssh He is way smarter than that.

Tar.Aldarion

Simplicity wrote: »

I Only joined last week!

http://omg.wthax.org/rb_virgin.jpg

Man that will really put rb on tilt.

Rb

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

Man that will really put rb on tilt.

Not really. Just serves as proof that he's a braindead little troll who, like DBC, won't get the message.

Tar.Aldarion

/rb not get post ;-)

Simplicity

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

/rb not get post ;-)

:pac:

Rb

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

/rb not get post ;-)

Lol, whoops

Simplicity

Rb wrote: »

Lol, whoops

6th

Simplicity wrote: »

<waves> Hi Dave! <waves>

danish pasterys

Someone give me step by step instructions sos that nobody can go into my profile and see all my posts , cant see anything for it in privacy settings

LizT

danish pasterys wrote: »

Someone give me step by step instructions sos that nobody can go into my profile and see all my posts , cant see anything for it in privacy settings

There's no such feature.

danish pasterys

LizT wrote: »

There's no such feature.

Well that sucks! All the features in privacy settings yet anyone may read all your previous posts an threads, needs to be addressed

El Guapo!

danish pasterys wrote: »

Well that sucks! All the features in privacy settings yet anyone may read all your previous posts an threads, needs to be addressed

You're posting on a public forum for all to see. If you don't want people reading something then don't post it.

RoundyMooney

On a related note-having just read through all this again, five years on...

Would I be generalising, by stating that we've all (generally) become rather blasé about identification, breadcrumbs, etc.? Facebook was mentioned in the OP (by Seamus, as with Bebo and Myspace-well, it was five years ago!), and personally, I feel that this whole ethos is down to them-even Youtube, that haven of anonymous stool throwing pretty much twists your arm to put your own name on your account now, and many have complied.

These were all very legitimate concerns back then, as evidenced by the response the post got, and how much of a sea change it represented from the vBulletin of old.

I don't see a problem with it myself, and didn't at the time-and I cut my teeth on usenet, where you were your email/header and nothing more, unless someone was cute enough to strip out the IP of your ISP, which was as far as it went, without a hundred euro letter and a wig. Rightly or wrongly, you are what you post, and I never had a problem associating my various hissy fits or witticisms with who I really am.

Of course, even on sites where facebook and twitter logins are de rigeur (thejournal for example), people will just set up throwaway ones, with nicks that tickle their fancy, so maybe things haven't changed that much after all.

The web as a whole is different though- I took up the guitar lately again, after a couple of years of a gap (one of the kids is learning, and I'm re-learning with them), so have been looking up tabs and what have you. All of a sudden, Youtube is throwing guitar playing videos at me, despite me never having looked there...

None of this is Feedback, per se, so will most likely be locked shortly, because b.ie as of now are not pushing people into linking with their facebooks (which is highly unlikely-ever), or pushing for real name logins either-but it is interesting, to me at least, how much the environment has changed in just a few years.

Overheal

One of the earliest things I did on this site was hide my online status, because people will very quickly use it against you within a thread ("derp why aren't you responding" etc) and I have numerous deleted visitor messages, because that system was at one point poorly misused.

Ultimately though over the years I've seen just as many calls for new functionality. Threads crop up once in a while calling for the site to implement newer vBulletin features like zombie-thread detection and whatnot, but the site is already heavily customized as it is. Plus, the roadmap from what I understand is to eventually break free of vBulletin altogether in the far flung future.

armchair fusilier

One thing that I found to be quite curious when I joined Boards.ie was that the " Stay logged in" box was ticked by default. I came as a bit of a surprise to come back to boards days later to find myself to be still logged in. The only other sites I can think of where this happens is Twitter and Facebook. I'm so used to other accounts I have automatically logging me out shortly after I leave those sites, that I keep forgetting to either untick the box when I log in or logged out before I leave. I doubt I'm the only one.

There are still a lot of homes out there with computers which more then one user. Devices can be lost or stolen. So it is a very real account privacy/security issue I think. Maybe there is a very good reason for having it like that here, but I can't think of one.

nesf

armchair fusilier wrote: »

One thing that I found to be quite curious when I joined Boards.ie was that the " Stay logged in" box was ticked by default. I came as a bit of a surprise to come back to boards days later to find myself to be still logged in. The only other sites I can think of where this happens is Twitter and Facebook. I'm so used to other accounts I have automatically logging me out shortly after I leave those sites, that I keep forgetting to either untick the box when I log in or logged out before I leave. I doubt I'm the only one.

There are still a lot of homes out there with computers which more then one user. Devices can be lost or stolen. So it is a very real account privacy/security issue I think. Maybe there is a very good reason for having it like that here, but I can't think of one.

"Keep me logged in" is a default on most forum sites.

Steve

afair, it used to be the other way around - there were constant complaints from people who had written long (or well pondered) posts only to have them disappear into the ether because their login session had expired.

This is the first time I've seen it mentioned here since it was changed a good few years ago.

El Guapo!

Steve wrote: »

afair, it used to be the other way around - there were constant complaints from people who had written long (or well pondered) posts only to have them disappear into the ether because their login session had expired.

This is the first time I've seen it mentioned here since it was changed a good few years ago.

That was one of the most frustrating things about the site until it was changed.
The disappearing post trick happened to me lots of times. It got to the point where, if I was writing any relatively long post, I'd always copy it before hitting the post button. That way I could just log back in and paste it in the reply box.
It was infuriating though.

randylonghorn

Steve wrote: »

afair, it used to be the other way around - there were constant complaints from people who had written long (or well pondered) posts only to have them disappear into the ether because their login session had expired.

Spot on.

seamus

It's just awesome when five-year-old post of yours gets dragged up again.

Though it still stands pretty well. But calling social networking sites "ego ****-fests" would probably be out of date at this stage. Initially they were mainly popular with the "look at me" types, but now they're mainstream and most people just defriend the ego ****.

[-0-]

So has anything been done about this?

Czarcasm

seamus wrote: »

It's just awesome when five-year-old post of yours gets dragged up again.

Though it still stands pretty well. But calling social networking sites "ego ****-fests" would probably be out of date at this stage. Initially they were mainly popular with the "look at me" types, but now they're mainstream and most people just defriend the ego ****.

Incredible foresight though all the same!

Steve

seamus wrote: »

It's just awesome when five-year-old post of yours gets dragged up again.

You were such a thanks whore when we first got thanks.. it's still working! :P