New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Concern about HTF members' privacy...

post #1 of 31
10/24/10 at 10:16am
Thread Starter 

I've always wondered a bit about our privacy here on HTF (w/ the various profiling features being so visible, especially since the software switch), but this latest addition of top posters (on the homepage) *PLUS* the easily accessible rollover profile feature *PLUS* the fact you don't even need to be an HTF member (let alone be a genuine member vs a troller/SPAMer/etc) to have full, easy access to them is becoming rather alarming to me.

 

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/305142/site-was-updated-this-am#post_3743044

 

Did the powers that be somehow forget that HTF members' privacy, safety, etc. should always be considered as a top priority?  I sure hope not -- and yes, I suspect some of this was just a simple oversight or software bug, but still, I'm always a tad wary of the bleeding edge of tech advances, and HTF might well be falling off into the wrong side of the slippery slope on this...

 

_Man_

Reply
post #2 of 31
10/24/10 at 10:37am

That, my friend, is why i refuse to use my whole name. REFUSE! But at least i do not have a funky "handle" listed as my name.

 

I think people would be more willing to list what they own, equipment, and movies, if you did not have to have your whole name, where you live, yadda, yadda, yadda, listed on the site.

 

With about 5 minutes of work, someone from this forum, could be standing on your doorstep Man.

Reply
post #3 of 31
10/24/10 at 10:49am
Thread Starter 

IIRC, my whole real name was required back when I joined in 2001, and the Huddler software has not allowed me to change my displayed name AFAIK all the while seeming to reduce my privacy and making me less safe every few months.

 

So yes, besides the requests I already made, please also allow me to change my display name going forward as I no longer feel safe enough to keep using my full real name here...

 

_Man_

Reply
post #4 of 31
10/25/10 at 12:20pm

It definitely was required to use your real name on HTF way back when. It was actually nice back then. You felt like you're talking to real people and not just on an internet forum. I'm not sure when that rule was relaxed. I just noticed one day that member names had changed to the informal. Not sure why, but maybe the administrators just got tired of having to police the names. I remember there was a lot of issue with people trying to use fake names.

 

 

As far the original question: I don't personally have an issue with the top posters display, but I can see where you're coming from. There is a balance of having enough useful features available for new and prospective members in order to attract these new members and from protecting against junk/spammer members.

Reply
post #5 of 31
10/25/10 at 3:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Buklis View Post

It definitely was required to use your real name on HTF way back when. It was actually nice back then. You felt like you're talking to real people and not just on an internet forum. I'm not sure when that rule was relaxed. I just noticed one day that member names had changed to the informal. Not sure why, but maybe the administrators just got tired of having to police the names. I remember there was a lot of issue with people trying to use fake names.


It's all there in the Rules, Bill (and, Man). 

 

 

Quote:

Membership

1. Real first name. We ask all members to register with at least their real first name. This makes communication among members more personal. Every member also has a unique "username", which may or may not be the same as your real name. The username can be anything as long as it is not profane or obscene, an email address, a celebrity name other than your own or otherwise objectionable. Your username will appear on every post, and your provided real first name will be listed immediately below. Obviously we have to trust people when they provide us their real first names at sign-up time. It's an honor system, and we do not go out of our way to check on people. But if circumstances indicate that a member has given a false first name (e.g., if the member publicly discloses that his listed first name is false), then we are obliged to take appropriate action. Historical note: You may notice that many members with join dates of 2006 or earlier have only a username. This is because, for the first nine years of HTF's existence, members had only a username, which was required to be their real name. However, as the forum grew, it became increasingly difficult for new members to create a username that was both real and not already taken. The current system was designed to address this problem. During the transition to the current system, existing members were offered the opportunity to change their username, and that is why you will see some members with join dates of 2006 or earlier who have a separate username and real name. But regardless of whether they changed their username, all existing users were "grandfathered" in at the time of transition to the current system. Other than the transition to the current system, which has been completed, changes to established names are not permitted except in extraordinary circumstances, at the sole discretion of the owners of HTF.

 

Reply
post #6 of 31
10/25/10 at 5:08pm

Rick is who i am.

 

And i know if i showed up at the Frezon house i would be welcomed with open arms! Right Mike? Mike...helloooo?

 

But some names just lend them-self to trouble, with an easy Google search. Not that i would have anything to hide, but shoot, if people can get robbed after they use that facebook, "i am HERE" thingy, anything can happen!

Reply
post #7 of 31
10/25/10 at 8:39pm
Thread Starter 

Can I have my username changed then?  Looks like that's what I really need.

 

If not, maybe I just need to delete my account and start over...

 

_Man_

Reply
post #8 of 31
10/25/10 at 9:23pm

Man:

 

I'll have someone contact you.

Reply
post #9 of 31
10/25/10 at 9:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RickER View Post

 

 

And i know if i showed up at the Frezon house i would be welcomed with open arms! Right Mike? Mike...helloooo?

 

hidesbehindsofa.gif 

 

Was that someone outside my front window?!?  

 

Quote:
But some names just lend them-self to trouble, with an easy Google search. Not that i would have anything to hide, but shoot, if people can get robbed after they use that facebook, "i am HERE" thingy, anything can happen!

 

I can't lie that I don't worry about that sometimes...
 

Reply
post #10 of 31
10/26/10 at 10:47am

Quote:

It's all there in the Rules, Bill (and, Man). 

 

I admit that it's been a while since I, um, actually read the rules.

Hopefully I haven't broken any (fortunately I highly doubt it)!

Reply
post #11 of 31
10/26/10 at 10:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Buklis View Post

Quote:

 

I admit that it's been a while since I, um, actually read the rules.

Hopefully I haven't broken any (fortunately I highly doubt it)!



Yeah, well...we've got our eyes on you! 

 

As I've told Man in a PM, there is a discussion (WAY above my paygrade) taking place on some of the issues being discussed in this thread.

Reply
post #12 of 31
10/26/10 at 11:41am
Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon View Post

 

I can't lie that I don't worry about that sometimes...


As someone who has lived through a home invasion (with police with weapons drawn removing the culprits) I can tell you that they aren't much fun and I still have dreams about it even tho nobody got hurt or was ever in any danger in my case....  But that has not stopped me from using my real name in dozens of forums, on twitter, my blog and facebook.  We are simply in a time of a transition and a lot of the policies and protective practices are still being explored.   (In my case it was local drug abusing kids, not net stalkers tho!)

 

I'd like to see HTF allow those of us who were asked to use full real names have an easy to use alternative to changing that while still keeping existing account history, but I personally would not take advantage of it, at least not at this time.

Reply
post #13 of 31
10/26/10 at 1:08pm
Thread Starter 

FWIW, I do actually use my real name in certain other instances, eg. on DPReview forums (when I used to visit regularly), on pbase, etc.  However, none of those sites are ever likely to turn me into some sort of forum celebrity w/ a top posters list, etc. nor do I typically post/provide as much easily accessible personal info in them as I do/might here.  Also, in the past, google didn't bring a sea of people here to read our posts, etc. (nor those of other places for the most part), so my concern was extremely minimal to virtually non-existent.

 

But the developing trend since the site software switch has clearly amplified (by at least a couple orders of magnitude) what virtually non-existent concern I had before to something much more palpable, especially as one considers that this is becoming a trend, not just a unique instance of change.

 

Please do note though that the thieves that might want to come into your home are not the only bad things one should be concerned about -- in fact, I suspect they should likely be the least of our concerns in most cases wrt our participation here.

 

Anyhoo, I'm glad to hear that these issues/concerns are being seriously discussed/addressed behind the scenes -- and thanks much to Mike for following up w/ me...

 

_Man_

Reply
post #14 of 31
10/26/10 at 3:54pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man-Fai Wong View Post

I've always wondered a bit about our privacy here on HTF (w/ the various profiling features being so visible, especially since the software switch), but this latest addition of top posters (on the homepage) *PLUS* the easily accessible rollover profile feature *PLUS* the fact you don't even need to be an HTF member (let alone be a genuine member vs a troller/SPAMer/etc) to have full, easy access to them is becoming rather alarming to me.

 

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/305142/site-was-updated-this-am#post_3743044

 

Did the powers that be somehow forget that HTF members' privacy, safety, etc. should always be considered as a top priority?  I sure hope not -- and yes, I suspect some of this was just a simple oversight or software bug, but still, I'm always a tad wary of the bleeding edge of tech advances, and HTF might well be falling off into the wrong side of the slippery slope on this...

 

_Man_


Man-

I'd like to start with the last part of your post first.  Speaking on behalf of myself, Ron and Parker, We want people to feel comfortable posting here on HTF.  I understand your concerns, but I don't think its as black and white as you are making it out to be.  For example we require a real name (no longer full name) to participate.  On one hand you are giving up some privacy by participating with your real full name, on the other hand we think it gives HTF a better feeling of community.  Technically that sense of community comes at an expense to your privacy.  Having a drop menu where logged out or non-members can see your profile and other posts is pretty standard across all forum platforms.  It makes the forum more usable, its not intended to infringe on your privacy.  Its up to members how much information they want to share both in their posts and profile.  I'll followup with you via PM as well.

 

The front page module was put there simply as a fun thing.  A way us to see what was going on in the forums, and maybe bring out the competitive nature in some members.  You bring up and interesting point with it.  Since it was just highlighting content that was readily available in the forum we didn't think about it from a privacy perspective.  How would you feel about it if you weren't using your real name?

 

I guess that is a question for everyone.....Would you rather have that module visible only to logged in members?
 

Reply
post #15 of 31
10/26/10 at 4:02pm
Quote:
I guess that is a question for everyone.....Would you rather have that module visible only to logged in members?

 

I second that option. There's generally no interest or usefulness for this information for non-members. There's no competitive spirit aspect unless you're already a member. That should alleviate some (if not most) of the privacy issues with that.

Reply
post #16 of 31
10/26/10 at 4:02pm

 

Quote:
It definitely was required to use your real name on HTF way back when. It was actually nice back then. You felt like you're talking to real people and not just on an internet forum. I'm not sure when that rule was relaxed. I just noticed one day that member names had changed to the informal. Not sure why, but maybe the administrators just got tired of having to police the names. I remember there was a lot of issue with people trying to use fake names.

 

We went to relaxing the member names a while back due to the fact that we were running out of real names we could use. There are a lot of people out there with the same name and with the software no two people can use the same member name.

 

Parker

Reply
post #17 of 31
10/26/10 at 4:05pm

 

Quote:
We went to relaxing the member names a while back due to the fact that we were running out of real names we could use. There are a lot of people out there with the same name and with the software no two people can use the same member name.

 

Makes perfect sense. It's actually amazing how many Michael Jackson's I've met. And yet, none of them have been a famous recording artist.

Reply
post #18 of 31
10/27/10 at 9:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Buklis View Post

 

Makes perfect sense. It's actually amazing how many Michael Jackson's I've met. And yet, none of them have been a famous recording artist.


At the time we were getting a lot of complaints from people trying to sign up that their name was already taken that was the reason behind the change.
 

Reply
post #19 of 31
10/30/10 at 7:19pm

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

btw anyway to see the list of all time number of posts beyond the top 10?

Reply
post #20 of 31
10/30/10 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

btw anyway to see the list of all time number of posts beyond the top 10?



Not that I can see, Tony.  But I would love that feature.  We used to have it on the old software.  Don't know why we shouldn't be able to do it here, too. 

 

Let's see what Adam says.

Reply
post #21 of 31
11/13/10 at 6:28am

 

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

 

That's a serious problem. And to be quite frank: I don't like that aspect of changing user names. (BTW, note that we still want the real name as a "second field", to be consistent with our original policy as well as with feelings about this forum like expressed in posts above).

 

However, as it appears, the technical problems associated with an attempt to change a user's name are enormous. After we tried (and finally did) change one or two now recently, it appears to be a technical p.i.t.a. and as Tony said, it's not very pretty to other members either.

 

We're even not completely sure about the data-base's stability (and there are several aspects, including other types of entries than posts, about copied and quoted names in text, consistency of archival threads, etc. that remain to be studied if we would).

 

People need to think about their "user name" very carefully when signing up - and there's also a stern cautioning in our text on the register-pages to that extent. The name under which I'm known to some of you for more than 13 years on this forum is my real name. Never felt uneasy about that. Current experience suggest NOT to try performing changes to user names lightly, preferably not at all anymore, except perhaps in very, very special cases.

 

 

Cees

Reply
post #22 of 31
11/13/10 at 7:25am
I admit, I sometimes worry about this, I've used my name and initials on a bunch of different boards, and I tend to always use the same "handle" because I can remember it easier that way. *shrug*
Reply
post #23 of 31
11/13/10 at 5:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

btw anyway to see the list of all time number of posts beyond the top 10?



Not that I can see, Tony.  But I would love that feature.  We used to have it on the old software.  Don't know why we shouldn't be able to do it here, too. 

 

Let's see what Adam says.



Any woord on this?

Reply
post #24 of 31
11/13/10 at 5:30pm

In my experience, even when guidelines and warnings are present when registering (on any site, not just this one), it just isn't always possible to know how you're going to feel about a (usually hastily-chosen) user name after being on the system for a little while, because it takes some time to get a sense of the community and of what feels appropriate.  I personally like the idea of using a real name or the same handle everywhere, but that's dependent on privacy across various sites/forums not being an issue, and on not having any other reason to hide behind fake names or multiple handles.  So, everyone's mileage may vary.  I'd rethink all of mine and go to one handle across the whole damned internet if I could, but for most of us that train left the station quite a while ago.

Reply
post #25 of 31
11/13/10 at 9:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

btw anyway to see the list of all time number of posts beyond the top 10?



Not that I can see, Tony.  But I would love that feature.  We used to have it on the old software.  Don't know why we shouldn't be able to do it here, too. 

 

Let's see what Adam says.



Any woord on this?


We are looking into it.  Its a way down the priority list at the moment.  I guess where do you stop?  The top 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000?
 

Reply
post #26 of 31
11/14/10 at 5:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Frezon View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

I had to search posts to figure out who Man W_the uncool is.

 

btw anyway to see the list of all time number of posts beyond the top 10?



Not that I can see, Tony. But I would love that feature. We used to have it on the old software. Don't know why we shouldn't be able to do it here, too.

 

Let's see what Adam says.



Any woord on this?


We are looking into it. Its a way down the priority list at the moment. I guess where do you stop? The top 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000?
 


 

Since you asked.

 

I remember the old software would even show the people who had 1 or two posts.

 

How about count everyone that has 50 posts or more. I would also only allow people who have 50 posts or more to post a link. Thin out the spammers, and most of the people who have 1 question (what TV, receiver, Blu-ray player should i buy?) and will never return anyway.

 

But that's just me.

Reply
post #27 of 31
11/17/10 at 5:42pm

top 50.

Reply
post #28 of 31
11/17/10 at 8:23pm

Most of the Huddler lists go up to 100. 

 

You can click the "More" button under lists of "subscribed threads" or "latest reviews" and reveal 10 pages of ten items up to 100.

 

Maybe Top 100 would be the way to go?

Reply
post #29 of 31
12/27/10 at 4:16pm

Anything further on the listing of more then a top 10 posters.

Reply
post #30 of 31
1/4/11 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD View Post

Anything further on the listing of more then a top 10 posters.



I'll followup and see.  Can you do me a favor and start a new thread about it in the suggestion box area?  It would be easier for us to track that way instead of combinded with this issue.  Thanks Tony.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home