Privacy and the club website

V

vol_reefer

New member
Hi all,

I just saw the revised club website and it's clear someone (not sure who?) has done a great job with it and put in a lot of work. However, I wonder if it might be possible to create a "members only" section that is password protected. To be honest, I'm not wild about having my full name pasted next to my RC name and my regular e-mail address, all out in public. Not only does it invite spam, it also removes a layer of protection of anonymity provided here on RC. Another thing that could go in a members-only section would be the addresses for the homes of members who host club meetings - that really shouldn't be out in public. I don't know if anyone else was contacted for permission before this info was published on the site, but I wasn't.

It might sound paranoid for me to be worried about these sorts of things, but so be it. Occasionally I have to deal with disgruntled students. Some of them have internet skills that exceed their common sense. Just three weeks ago, some idiot filled out my name, home phone, email address and street address on a bunch of websites requesting auto quotes, loan information, college admission, and various types of insurance. I started getting phone calls and e-mails within half an hour of this, and it went on for over a week - probably over 100 phone calls from honest salepeople who thought I had requested information. While a determined prankster can probably figure out all this information even without the ETRC website, I'd just as soon not lay it all out on a platter for them.

If a password-protected members-only section can't be created, then regretfully I'd like to ask that my name be taken off the list of club members (not that I'll actually quit the club, just the website).

Thanks,

Jeff (vol_reefer)
 
+1. I don't mind our names being posted, but no email or address.

I've often thought it was weird that folks just post their names and addresses for meetings on public internet sites like ours and public forums like reefcentral. We'd like to host a meeting someday at our place, but not if our address is made public on the ETRC website.

I teach too and students do crazy things. Like you Jeff, I had a friend/colleague get all sorts of "enlargement" mail and free vacation offers at our department and via the phone, and it turns out it was a student that registered him for it all. Luckily this was only a mailing issue and not something worse. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd rather make it harder rather than easier for students to know where I live... not that I'm an evil teacher, just cautious and realistic.

All that said, posting this is something of a catch-22 for both of us to some extent... - How many profs of planetary science in knoxville are named Jeff? ;)
 
I have more of a problem with the posting of our personal addresses when we host the meetings... But agree that it would be nice to have some type of security measures...

Maybe we could start our club forum again for such information... lol ;)
 
It will be a kicking good time... :D All the bunnies and roosters would have a blast... :lolspin:
 
I also was thinking my screen name as my real name was a bad idea... especially since my town is also listed and a quick phone book look and you are at my door! I actually freaked out awhile back and was casually chatting on a off topic subject about guns and mentioned I had a bunch and another member alerted me I was hosting the meet and my addy was 2 threads down for any dirt ball to see where he could pick up some loot if he was so inclined to break in. I went and got our fire proof megga gun cabinet from Corys moms right away just incase and locked them all up tight short the one special surprise I keep out handy just incase anyone tries to ever come in on me and the girls. I don't want to kill anyone for I think all people can change but I am not above blowing off there kneecaps :lol: :uzi:


But if I blowed off both of the dirt balls knee caps I guess he would have to do this :bounce2: when he went out dancing instead of this :dance:


:hmm5: Just over look me ;) I just get so darn :furious: when I think about stinkin dirt ball theives I could just :blown: them up! But its not my place to decide there etenity and when they meet the maker so I will just blow off there kneecaps if they try to mess with this a red neck with a shotgun gal...
Have a nice day :wavehand:
 
Good post. You are a better person than I. If somebody enters my house uninvited and I likely won't be aiming at the knee caps.
 
Funny thing is I sat here cracking myself up pluggin in all them cute icons and the stupid RC rules said I had to many! So I had to go delete half of my story via funny icons so the RC computer thingy would accept it :).
 
Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this way about all that personal data. That way, at least, if I'm paranoid I'm in good company!

Joel, you're absolutely right that someone would not have a hard time figuring out more about me knowing from RC my first name, profession, and home town. But I'm less worried about people on RC trying to figure out who I am than I am about someone who knows my name finding out things about my personal life, like that I'm into reefkeeping (the shame of it!) by doing a search on my name. There's also the webcrawlers - if I'm not personally being targetted, an automated script would never piece together all the information that's currently contained on the club site - it would take a human at the computer to figure out who Jeff the professor is on RC. But with it all in one neat package like it currently is, my information could easily be sucked in to a database with thousands of others for telemarketing, etc.

So who has been re-doing the website? Could whoever that is speak up and let us know if we can have a members-only section that is password protected?

Jeff (vol_reefer)
 
Eddie has a friend from church doing the website... I asked him to give the password to Donny so that he could make some changes for the Frag Swap... I'm not sure if that happened or not... I'll try and see if I can get the password to either Joel or Adam so that someone that frequents the boards more often can make small adjustments as needed...
 
Sounds good - thanks Randy. Once it's set up, maybe we can PM the password around to club members - I know I don't have it. FWIW, I can help with sending out the PMs, since I initiated this.

Jeff


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14967575#post14967575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ct_vol
Eddie has a friend from church doing the website... I asked him to give the password to Donny so that he could make some changes for the Frag Swap... I'm not sure if that happened or not... I'll try and see if I can get the password to either Joel or Adam so that someone that frequents the boards more often can make small adjustments as needed...
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I haven't received any information about the site yet. I'm sure it would be no problem to have a member login page to have our information hidden.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14967575#post14967575 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ct_vol
I'll try and see if I can get the password to either Joel or Adam so that someone that frequents the boards more often can make small adjustments as needed...
Click to expand...

Good idea.
 
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