Can someone smarter than I please move the posts from Poem relating to security here. I had bad experiences with MSN Groups making personal demographics open to all. Some one looking to meet for hot sex got into the Cat group. I love seeing your pictures-but how would you feel if someone you know peeked in and recognized you. No-we're not ashamed of the disease-but we do let it all hang out.
I can't find it right now, but there are at least two posts from me on the security subject. I have made it very clear that anyone who posts pictures and personal information is allowing anyone to read it. When I get a chance this week, I am going to put up a new section on the left side of the website that explains it in a place where no one will have to "search" around for it.
Here it is: Anyone who clicks onto "message boards" can read the posts and the profiles. It is the same as the Alz. site message boards. Their's is called "browse". That is why I continually warn people that they should post in their profiles ONLY what they want public. Many people DO NOT post their real names or e-mail addresses. NO ONE CAN WRITE on these boards without registering, BUT I DO NOT GET THEIR E-MAIL ADDRESSES OR PASSWORDS when they sign up.
There was another option for me with these boards. I could have opted to check every sign-up before allowing someone to join - I would have gotten their e-mail address that way. I chose not to do it that way because when someone has the urge to tell their story or vent or answer another post, they won't bother if they have to wait a day or two for me to get around to "approving" their registration.
VERY IMPORTANT - I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IF YOU ARE GOING TO POST YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR PROFILE, THAT YOU GET A HOTMAIL OR GMAIL ACCOUNT WITH AN UNRECOGNIZABLE SCREEN NAME TO BE USED ONLY FOR THIS BOARD. IF SOMEONE INNAPPROPRIATE WRITES TO YOU (AS - LOOKING FOR SEX), YOU MARK IT AS SPAM, AND IT WILL BE RETURNED TO THAT PERSON AS UNDELIVERABLE. ALSO, NO ONE WILL KNOW YOUR REAL E-MAIL ADDRESS. I ALSO RECOMMEND USING AN ODD NAME AS A SCREEN NAME. FOR EXAMPLE, BLUEDAZE BEARS NO RESEMBLANCE TO THAT PERSON'S REAL NAME.
If you e-mail me, and you use your real name, most of the time, I don't know who is writing unless you tell me your screen name also.
Also, VERY IMPORTANT - I NEVER, EVER give out any personal information to ANYONE about members, not even other members, without their permission.
I hope this answers all of the security questions.
I've been careful about how much contact information I've got on the accounts. My photo is already out there because of the digital scrapbooking forums, so that isn't an issue for me. In fact BOTH of the photos I've used are photos that were originally worked up for scrapbooking forums. If you want a photo, but not your own, you can do what I did on Daily Support where they use quite large photos. I used one of an interesting animal.
Basically, use some common sense and things will be OK. Try Goggling your real name and the handles you use here and on other forums. There is a whole lot of stuff on my real name because I come out of the convention where you were requied to use your real name to get an account. My internet use goes back to an account on a local BBS group. And I've done family genealogy that way as well. However, there really isn't all that much out there when I check.
By the way, NEVER use a Mother's Maiden Name as a password for a bank unless they won't take anything else. Your mother's maiden name is out there on the Internet.
Just for the heck of it I Googled my sign in name from another site-up comes my picture and a posting my daughter did on a SCUBA site. This is becoming a scary cyborg world.
bluedaze, 99% of it just is not a problem. I'd worry about a child or a teen where there were both pictures and addresses, because children and teens don't have enough experience in life to know when it is dangerous to have a stranger contact them. As an adult it really is not a problem. A lot of it sounds a lot more scary than it really is.
When I was an insurance agent I did a follow up call on a policy that had been assigned to me for servicing. The call sounded weird. I backed up and made sure she had my full name and the name of my company and then I asked what the problem was. It turned out that her husband had died, and he had other policies with the company which had been paid. I told her I'd get her the money from this one too, which I did. It should have shown up in a search, but hadn't. Computers were rare and strange things in those days. But my point is that having me call her made her sound "off" because in her reality I should not have been asking to talk to her husband. And her sounding "off" made me aware there was a problem. If someone made a call to you, you would react that way too.
I have really enjoyed seeing the pictures that you precious people have posted. I chose not to post a picture, however, for the reasons bluedaze stated.
I fully understand why people don't want to post pictures. In fact, the only reason I have is that the picture is already out there, and it is already attached to my "handle". I chose a handle that was hard to Google. In fact I don't show up on the first few pages at all.
Welllll, I agree with Starling. I do worry about young peole and the web. I love to play cards and have played on Yahoo and MSN game sites. I thought that should be nice & friendly. Not chat rooms. WOW!!!! Wronggggg! The language, innuendos were beyond Beyond! And young 10-12 year olds. I wouldn't want my 10 year old playing there. Anyway, I'm an elected official, so everyone knows me. Most know Bob, as he was an appointed official, and many people dealt with him. I want everyone to know about AD and that its more than forgetting names. I tell anyone who will listen about the heartbreak etc. Many, many ask about him (and me) each and everytime they see me or us. I haven't put anything on this site, I wouldn't say to anyones face. My email, address, phone nbr, is public anyway. I'm out of a job come November and looking forward to that. I would not have run again (old age/75) and I've tried not to let my home life interfere with my public one. Anyway, its your own choice people and I got no problem with anyone keeping their privacy.. I just wish there wasn't so much heartache here and this was more of a fun site. I've spent many moments crying over the various postings and still I keep coming back for more. Thank ou Joang!!!!
I agree. Briegull is out there, big time, and so is my name, which is in my profile, though very few connect the two. Google, in its infinite wisdom, bought Usenet, and has the chat boards going back to at least 1991. My name is there, talking about the new Mac System Seven, which was revolutionary. And briegull is all over the place too. But, interestingly, this forum is NOT. You can't search in this forum, but you can, for instance, in Google Groups ones that aren't private.
Years ago, about 1998, I went to Thailand and afterwards did my first travelogue website. I called it "Thai Me Up". It kept that name for quite some time until I discovered that it was listed in a list of PORN sites!! Naive me! It got changed pronto!
I googled Mawzy and came up with geneological sites, rock & roll bands, etc. But nothing of me using this screen tag. Huh. Must have done something wrong. I never dreamed Mawzy was a surname.
My, what a lot of google hits for "sunshyne" ... the very first one being ... ah ... apparently quite unsuitable for children and prudes.
briegull, if you mean that googling will not pull up discussion threads inside Spouse ... it definitely will. I googled for sunshyne plus a couple of unusual key words I've used (such as "cholinesterase inhibitor") just to check, and promptly found a bunch of my posts here.
A google search for Starling + dementia did pull up some interesting things, but none of them are me. I attempted some other searches and, again, did not find me. Starling +digital +scrapbook found not just me, but bunches of my scrapbook pages from sites where I posted them a few years ago. I've never taken the galleries down.
I searched Yahoo with Mawzy + dementia and Joang's discussion group popped right up. I clicked on it and the gen'l discussion for early September came up with all of the threads.