Cannot view profiles....

[Timmy!]

Who knows what I would be doing now...

Going outside and stealing some more toilet paper. 

 

[Mike Baker]

Going outside and stealing some more toilet paper. 

Oh dear god not this again! ;D


Beaver

 

[armchair_throwaway]

I thought I was the only one having this problem because I didn't see any thread on the issue a few days ago.

I have been on this forum more than half a year and still only have 22 posts (3 more to go!). I know how to use the search function, and I hate to contribute on a topic when I don't have the experience to back it up.

I understand the policy. It's not too much of a hassle right now, though sometimes I want to check some of the members' past posts to see their opinions on certain subjects and am unable to do so.

 

[Timmy!]

Oh dear god not this again! ;D


Beaver

Here comes the pain train baby... choo choo..  ;D

 

[Mike Baker]

Here comes the pain train baby... choo choo..  ;D

Hey! Theirs no more trains here in NL!

I'm goin' downtown, you'll never get me there! ;D


Beav

 

[Timmy!]

I'm goin' downtown, you'll never get me there! ;D


Beav

You go there to get your toilet paper these days? Wow.. must of upgraded. Good on ya.  ;D

 

[Mike Baker]

You go there to get your toilet paper these days? Wow.. must of upgraded. Good on ya.  ;D

I should soon be getting my TP in St. Jean.

 

[Timmy!]

I should soon be getting my TP in St. Jean.

Ah.. Government issue TP.. Best bet to save up your allowance and buy your own. Trust me.. your rear with be thankful.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Ah.. Government issue TP.. Best bet to save up your allowance and buy your own. Trust me.. your rear with be thankful.

Ah yes the one step above using the whole tree.

 

[Timmy!]

Ah yes the one step above using the whole tree.

You have to in order keep er clean..  :-X

Don't tell Green Peace

 

[Blackadder1916]

A time-based solution isn't a bad idea... but the post-based solution was very quick and easy to implement. There's no mechanism for limiting profiles based on time unfortunately.

Perhaps the solution could be reached by approaching from another direction.  Would it be possible/easier to make the check mark in the box for "Hide email address from public?" the default setting?  Adding a short note warning of the security implication for those allowing public view of their email address may be appropriate.  I have no idea how often pers use email originating from this site rather than PM to contact other members (you may be able to access such stats), so cannot comment on the necessity/desirability of being able to see other members' email addresses.

 

[leroi]

I thought I was the only one having this problem because I didn't see any thread on the issue a few days ago.

I have been on this forum more than half a year and still only have 22 posts (3 more to go!). I know how to use the search function, and I hate to contribute on a topic when I don't have the experience to back it up. I understand the policy. It's not too much of a hassle right now, though sometimes I want to check some of the members' past posts to see their opinions on certain subjects and am unable to do so.

Congratulations on having just been sworn in; I enjoyed reading your blog; it shouldn't take you very long to get to the 25-post-milestone--judging by the quality of your writing.

I highlighted your words above to commend you for your wisdom. When I first came here, I posted a few comments (sweeping generalizations) which, in retrospect, I realize I did not  have the military experience to make. (BTW I'm a civvy). For what it's worth, I think it's better to focus on quality posts as opposed to quantity--my 2 cents.

Anyway, good luck ... only three more posts to go ...

 

[George Wallace]

Perhaps the solution could be reached by approaching from another direction.  Would it be possible/easier to make the check mark in the box for "Hide email address from public?" the default setting? 

I guess you didn't grasp the idea behind this.  If someone can view your profile and gather information, they can PM you whether your email address is visible or not.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Actually you don't need to view someone's profile to PM them.

 

[George Wallace]

Actually you don't need to view someone's profile to PM them.

That's been mentioned, Mike.

What he was getting on about, was simply making the person's email address in the Profile be defaulted to "Not visible".  I was saying that the rest of the profile is still visible, and the ability to PM was still there, allowing a SPAM Artist to gather information and spam people.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Ah, gotcha. The good news about that is we have some mechanisms (such as flood control) to prevent someone from sending a lot of PMs in a short period.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I guess you didn't grasp the idea behind this.  If someone can view your profile and gather information, they can PM you whether your email address is visible or not.

I thought I had grasped the idea behind it very well,  especially since the good Mr. Bobbitt had stressed in his previous post . . .

. . .
Cheers
Mike

* This is a good reason to have your e-mail address hidden from public view.

Though there may be other contact information that could be harvested from a member's proifile only the email address would (if visible) be found on all profiles.  I don't know if there have been any widespread (or narrow focused) attempts to spam members with PMs but the other thread that I recalled reading about spamming dealt with members' email addresses having been harvested from here.  And as has already been said, you can PM any other member without going to his profile, but such a spammer would be readily identified and quickly banned.

 

[-rb]

Mike,
Assuming the main issue is from automated spam bots harvesting the profile info, why not incorporate an image verification text field on a buffer page? Not a perfect fix as bots with OCR may still be able to bypass but the profie should be a little more secure.

ie. something similar to this... http://recaptcha.net/

cheers.

 

[cardinal]

Anything is possible here... using time, MilPoints, posts or some combo. However only posts are built in to the software, anything else would require a custom development effort.

Could you at least extend the privilege to subscribers? Surely those of us who pay should not have arbitrary restrictions on our use of the site.

cardinal

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

Mike,
Assuming the main issue is from automated spam bots harvesting the profile info, why not incorporate an image verification text field on a buffer page? Not a perfect fix as bots with OCR may still be able to bypass but the profie should be a little more secure.

ie. something similar to this... http://recaptcha.net/

cheers.

Already in place, and has been for a while. They still seem to bypass it, likely by having a human sitting there manually registering accounts in some cases.

Could you at least extend the privilege to subscribers? Surely those of us who pay should not have arbitrary restrictions on our use of the site.

cardinal

Good idea, and (I believe) now implemented.