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blocking specific threads and identifiers for unregistered users

Discussion in 'Empty Closets Help and Feedback' started by Alexander, Apr 7, 2008.

  1. Alexander

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    Isn't that a bit dangerous for some people to have the entire site open to browsing by any random stranger? It might be good to at least add in a few mods to hide some personal data. Specifically the pics thread and the location indicator, possibly even the age field. And why oh why is the members tab open to unregistered users?!?!?!?
     
  2. Micah

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    There are certain measures in place to stop "lurkers" from interacting with sections of the site (namely the chatroom/homepages/Member list) - and going a step further to require 10 posts before access is granted.

    But there are also advantages to having data open to people who don't sign up, such as allowing them to see the sort of activities and discussions that go on here, which could encourage them to sign up.

    The thing is that anyone can register, and as such even the limits we place on sections of the site for members only are easily broken by simply signing up - I don't think we even require you to use a real email address.

    Also: there are a lot of genuine reasons for not signing up (yet still utilising the site), such as lack of time, lack of confidence etc. By further restricting the amount of content they can view, we're essentially alienating them from EC. The way vBulletin (the forum we use on EC) is set up, we would have to make an entire forum section private - which is quite drastic. The option to make a single thread private just isnt available.
     
  3. CrimsonThunder

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    Good post Micah.

    I wouldn't have joined here if the forum was private (have to join to view) Plus there would be heaps of people that haven't joined and just read and learn.
     
  4. Wired106

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    ya I probably wouldnt of joined either if I couldn't see thing like how old people were because I wanted to make sure I was talking with people around my age and also people who could relate to me that live in the u.s.. I also wanted to make sure this site wasn't like many other sites where everyone is older and act hella weird like many other sites, so if age and location weren't available to see I might not of joined because I would of suspected it was like the other sites.
     
  5. SlickyPants

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    I lurked here for several months before I actually joined. I probably wouldn't have joined had it been blocked to unregistered users which would have been a shame because reading these forums has really helped me with a lot of personal issues.
     
  6. Paul_UK

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    The point Micah raised and others have agreed with is right. Currently thw front page shows:

    Currently Active Users: 376 (25 members and 351 guests)

    Of course many of those "guests" are search engine spiders (Yahoo! seems active here currently) but some are real people who are looking, reading, hopefully gaining benefit from what they see and maybe considering joining. We don't want to prevent them seeing the site.

    The search engine spiders are welcome too. The more regularly changing content the search engines can find, the more likely we are to get better search engine placings and the more likely people are to find us.

    You need to remember that when you put something on the internet everyone can see it, so you should be careful what information you share and how identifiable you are. Even if you delete it again it could be stored by search engines and web archive websites.
     
  7. joeyconnick

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    I think it would be reasonable to block access to the members listing and members' pages for non-registered people.
     
  8. Micah

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    Currently that's how it is.
     
  9. joeyconnick

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    Oh ok, I thought from the original comment that that wasn't the case.
     
  10. Alexander

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    If you log out and click the member's tab you can still see all the latest pics and stuff...
     
  11. joeyconnick

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    Uhm... when I log out, yes I can see the userinfo of someone who's posted but I can't get to their user page or the Members List. I'm not sure if there would be a way to hide/block the user's info if you weren't logged in. I guess that wouldn't be a bad thing, if all it displayed if you weren't logged in was the person's username. But I definitely can't click on "the member's tab" and get any info.
     
  12. Paul_UK

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    I'll have a look at the permissions on all this when I'm doing the update to v3.7.0 and the homepage system in that.
     
  13. sngl

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    I think there is no problem with the forum being accessible to everyone, but if you log out and go to the members page and click on a photo or a blog, you can view the user's full profile, photos, blogs, everyting! But if you try to access their profile through the forum, then it asks you to log in first.

    So the profiles of those people who have posted photos or blogs can be viewed by everyone...by unregistered users, but also by search bots??! That's a bigger problem I think. Maybe the user homepages should only be viewable by registered users.
     
  14. Paul_UK

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    As I said, I will look at that when I do the update. The current homepage system has several bugs, these permission issues being just one of them. That's why the whole thing will be replaced in the next couple of months. See http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9109.

    I do agree that blogs and galleries should be member-only access, and maybe even 10+ post count members only. People sometimes put more personal stuff in their blogs than on the forums.
     
  15. joeyconnick

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    WTF? Would someone please explain this to me?! If I log out, I can't find any way to get to any member's page or to the Members List page, so what is this "going to the members page and clicking on a photo or a blog" that people keep talking about?!

    Maybe some step by step instructions would help because as far as I can see, if you're not logged in a registered user, you can't get at people's member pages or the list of member pages.
     
  16. Paul_UK

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    Possibly from the "Members" tab at the top right?
     
  17. joeyconnick

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    Oh my gosh THANK YOU... I never look up there.

    Surely it would be easy to remove that tab and/or block access to that page for non-registered people, right? Or at least remove the tab? That would make it a lot less discoverable in the 2-month interim before vBulletin gets updated.
     
  18. Jim1454

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    But isn't this just internet common-sense? If you don't want your picture posted on the internet, then don't post it on the internet. If you don't want your name to be known, don't use your real name anywhere! If you don't want your usual internet 'handle' to be affiliated with this forum, then you shouldn't have used it as your ID...

    I think it's great that the forum is open to people to look at / read without being a member. I'm sure we've helped tons of people get comfortable with their orientation without us ever knowing them.
     
  19. Paul_UK

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    Blocking access to the page for those not registered is not that easy because it is not part of vBulletin so doesn't use the authentication system. It links into the homepage system which we know is broken.

    Removing it would involve removal of a useful feature, and would need editing of the top banner graphics and some info on the front page etc, for something that people could see if they spent 1 minute registering anyway.

    I'll add that page as an exclusion in robots.txt so search engines ignore it (and therefore don't follow links in it), but that's as far as I'm prepared to go at this stage.

    If people are unhappy I can disable/remove the whole homepage system as that's where the problems are.

    I practice I doubt many people knew or cared whether non-members could see their homepages or not, so I think we are getting carried away with something that is really not an issue.
     
  20. joeyconnick

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    Internet common sense is like regular common sense: it's nowhere near as common as it should be. :slight_smile: I used to moderate a forum relatively similar to this one and people, especially Internet newbies and young(er) people, were often incredibly naïve about what information they'd reveal and the extent to which that information (and indeed every post they made) would get propagated and archived.

    On top of that, it's interesting you should mention not using your real name because I think a few months ago a change I suggested to the info panel was shot down because the assumption was that if you asked people to put in their real name (and the suggestion was only for first names), many people would be overly naïve and enter their full real names (even in the presence of a disclaimer explaining that that would be a "bad thing." So I think that at least on the surface the default at EC is to assume people are not in possession of all that much Internet savvy-ness. That's probably actually a wise presumption just given the headaches people can cause themselves. I think it can be overdone, of course, because I believe people should be encouraged to educate themselves and to ultimately reduce their naïveté but as a default I think it's sensible.

    I don't think anyone posting in this thread with a concern is advocating shutting down access to the forum for those who are unregistered--at least I'm certainly not. I think the major push is to avoid posting anymore info to the unregistered world than necessary... and in terms of the helpfulness of the forum to the unregistered, they really only need to be able to see someone's username and their post.

    I personally don't think it's very useful to allow search engines deep enough into the site to index all the postings but I can see how people would disagree on that and it's not something I feel super-strongly about.