posts appearing on the web

[gavilan]

maybe I am dumber than the rest of you but I did not realise that posts appearing on AC also appear on the world wide web for all to see/read eg recently I asked if anyone knew the age of threshing floors ... some days later I was googling re that subject - and my own post on AC came up ... I find this somewhat disconcerting as I had assumed that our posts were only available to other members of AC .. or is there some way of blocking this happening?

[MrsP]

I thought guests could read the forums

[Campo Kenny]

I know what you're saying but it is normal and not really a need for concern. The search engines do a quite fine search when you type in a subject which is more than useful.

As an example if for arguments sake I have a problem with lets say a car, I'd type in "Jeep warning light ". This search would then more often than not steer me to a jeep forum where somebody had mentioned this i.e. a forum similar to this.

If someone types in Andalucia they will see this forum in the list anyway and could still read the posts.

Hopefully it's not a problem and I would not be too concerned about it Gavilan as I can't really see a problem with it.

Cheers,
Kenny

[Dealer]

or is there some way of blocking this happening?

There is but it has to be done by admin as they have to write a 'spider block bot' into the website. However if they do that they will loose advertisers so yes it can be done and no it will not be done!

[Dealer]

Try this, put your name into google like this "campo kenny" and look at the results for single names just put - andalucia + username.

[gavilan]

just a bit paranoid about the whole wide world knowing how dumb I am!!!

[gretch]

just a bit paranoid about the whole wide world knowing how dumb I am!!!

But it’s OK for everyone on A.com

gretch

[BENIDORM]

This week I was contacted by a friend whom I haven't seen for over 30 years...tracked me down from an article I wrote over 5 years ago...my real name of course...Amazing this web thing...isn't it!

[laclotte]

just a bit paranoid about the whole wide world knowing how dumb I am!!!

I am copying here an e.mail I sent to A.com this morning. No Gavilan....you are not paranoid - neither am I..........however we have both realised that there are LOTS of strange people around who make (mis)use of www.

PS - I have not yet received a reply from A.com. I have deleted the name of the country.


Message sent this morning 11.26am to A.com

It appears that certain forum users have an extremely unhealthy interest in
my background. Normally this would be of no concern to me whatsoever.
However from Andalucia.com I receive e.mails directly to my private inbox.
You use my e.mail address that is my family surname (an exceptionally well
known ' - deleted - ' family). How safe is your site in protecting my personal
information? Have you ever had a case where 'hackers' retrieved private
details?

Should I post a copy of this e.mail on the topic 'about this forum'?



Thanks!

[Grouser]

Laclotte perhaps if you are that concerned you should use an e-mail address that is anonymous as your contact for A.com. That will put the 'real' you one step further away. If hackers can get in to US military soft/hardware they 'aint going to have a problem with the servers here.
On the more general topic I suspect that the whole point of the forum, as far as A.com is concerned, is to generate the hits needed to keep it at the top in search engine rankings so it has to remain publicly available. Regardless of this it should be freely accessible anyway as it does have some real value as an information resource and therefore anyone should be able to search it whether they wish, or are able, to contribute or not.

[lightangel]

I just did a google search using my user name and it listed postings I have previously made on different forums which is a big surprise. Just glad I havent listed any personal information.

[gavilan]

to grouser ... maybe there is useful information within Ac but I would like to have known when I joined that it was accessible world wide .. I had assumed that as we had to be accepted as members what we wrote thereafter stayed private for reading only by other members ...

[Campo Kenny]

Gav, I think you'll find it is the same on most sites/forums. As I said earlier if I do a search for a particular query it will always throw up the point I'm looking for off some other fora.

Anyone can read this site without being a member. If you look at how many people are watching at the bottom of the main forum page the number of "guests" is people who are not members/ or who are not signed in.

I browsed the forum for a while before deciding to join.
Funnily enough what amazes me is that there are certain sites (similar to 192.com) who if you search a persons name will give you address, phone numbers and a map to the house .....even if you're ex.directory.

Kenny

[marchamona]

I just did a google search using my user name and it listed postings I have previously made on different forums which is a big surprise. Just glad I havent listed any personal information.

DITTO......

Bit un-nerving that!!

[gavilan]

campo kenny - I dont belong to nor have ever thought of looking for other forums so have no idea of their accessibility or otherwise ...
also think I looked at the bottom of that main forum page once ... boring .. so never bothered again and did not even notice 'guests' nor would I have known what a 'guest' was as it is not explained there ... is it defined somewhere else?

to gretch ... I thought I was 'keeping it in the family'!

[laclotte]

I will just 'keep my head low' for a while and see what happens. I am very 'security conscious' and on advice intend on keeping it that way. I await a reply from A.com on my recent mail.
Bye for now!

[zanuck]

Gavilan,
You've just explained something that struck me as odd the other day. In A.com on 17 July, I followed a link to nicestories - the link was to an article "we trod the tapa trail".
I printed it out to read, and found that it printed in a long strip about 9cms wide and in about 8 point font, so I thought I'd take it to work and enlarge it to A3 format on the photocopier, so that I could read it.

Next dayI realised that I didn't have the full URL with me, so googled nicestories.freewebspace; and to my surprise it threw up only 2 articles, the first was headed "Andalucia.com :: Search" and was the article I wanted to read.
My reaction was that it was a bit odd, and I didn't think too much more about it.
I printed it and it came out in about 10 point font and I was able to read it.


Like others I've now googled my name and to my surprise and somewhat dismay, there I am for the world to see. I too thought that registering kept us all together in our own little society. Clearly I was wrong.

Ho Hum.......

[Campo Kenny]

Only trying to help mate ....if it worries you that much and you've no interest in other forums and find things boring I suggest that you jack your internet connection in and call it a day.
What harm can people reading these posts cause anyway?....I don't get it.
I think there are bigger security worries which are more prevelant than the one you mention.

In my humble opinion of course.

Kenny

[tidal]

I have been and still am a member of many different forums and for that reason uses a fairly "common" username everywhere.
Seaching for Tidal sometimes bores people to death before they find anything I have posted
Yes Of course I can be found and identified and having known that for many years now I have ceased to be concerned by it.

There are far mor important things to worry about......like how to keep your beer cool on a hot day without drinking it too fast

[Valencia_Paul]

Yeah I think some people here don't get how the internet works. I don't think either Gavilan or Zanuck qualify as real names and identities, anymore so than Valencia_Paul or Campo Kenny.

Do you mean if you search for Zanuck you can display your real name?