[pikilily]

i have just been looking at the list of guests and what is of most interest to non memebers.
i am surprised to notice that Guests can print off our forum topics and posts. Mmmmm!! That sort of puts a dampener on what I would feel comfortable posting. It means that things could get taken out of context by people i dont know or trust. Errrr, mmmmmm! can this be stopped! how does everyone else feel?
Emma T

[doganjo]

To be honest, Emma, you can copy and paste just about anything on the web.  You can paste into another applcation and alter as much as you like. Not much you can do about it.  Even photographs that are protected can be copied - just do a screen drop then crop as required.  Dan's new website/forum might allay some of your worries but as a non techie person I'd be surprised(but delighted   )  if it can be stopped.
For example

Errrr, mmmmmm! NEVER WANT this to be stopped! Don’t care how everyone else feels

[Fowgill Farm]

i don't always sign in so i would appear as a guest when i'm browsing, i onlu sign in if i'm going to add a comment to a topic, i'm sure there are more TASer's who do this too.
Mandy 

[pikilily]

Thats true Mandy. good point!  dunno  I'm making 'mountain out of pimple' prob. Yeh I hope that the new website will be, perhaps a bit, more secure in that aspect! However, its good that nonmembers can see the quality of the site and our discussions, cos that will encourage folk to join..
Emma T

[doganjo]

Thats true Mandy. good point!  dunno  I'm making 'mountain out of pimple' prob. Yeh I hope that the new website will be, perhaps a bit, more secure in that aspect! However, its good that nonmembers can see the quality of the site and our discussions, cos that will encourage folk to join..
Emma T

Positive thinking Emma 

[Fleecewife]

If you google your real name ie not your avatar, posts you have put on TAS under your avatar will come up  . Similarly if you google topics to which you have contributed yours may come up amongst all the others.  So if you don't want what you have written to be known by the whole world (should it be interested) then be very careful what you write.  It does concern me that we all tend to put too much personal info on here.

[SallyintNorth]

If you google your real name ie not your avatar, posts you have put on TAS under your avatar will come up  . 

Eeek!  I googled my real name and nothing from TAS came up (thankfully.)  Although apparently someone with my name is high on the FBI wanted list...       

On my profile I have set my username the same as my displayed name, which probably accounts for not coming up on TAS posts. 

[bazzais]

As a rule of thumb - you should never post anything, anywhere, by any means, in any language etc etc that you would later not be comfortable to be quoted as saying. (there is nothing you can do about being taken out of context)

Forums, facebook, twitter etc etc are really the same as everyday interactions.

The only real difference of making the forum private would be to the forum owners - who would see a massive dip in 'spidered' pages in the serps, a fall in revenue and an increase in 'one time' sign-ups using temp email addresses in order to read threads.

Baz

[Rosemary]

Our nephew (aged 16) was a bit shocked when we pointed out that what goes on Facebook is there forever - so if you don't want your kids reading it (or seeing the photos), don't post it 

[Sandy]

I think some people on here live in a made up internet only world and have no animals, no plants, no interests other than winding people up!!!!!!!

[waterhouse]

The Internet generates a sort of transient permanence. All the garbage of every day life seems to hang around for ever obscuring the useful things you need to know. 

My son's friend Joel, a lovely boy with everything to live for who died in a boating accident last week, remains alive on his Facebook page.  Perhaps that becomes his memorial.

[Dan]

i have just been looking at the list of guests and what is of most interest to non memebers.
i am surprised to notice that Guests can print off our forum topics and posts. Mmmmm!! That sort of puts a dampener on what I would feel comfortable posting. It means that things could get taken out of context by people i dont know or trust. Errrr, mmmmmm! can this be stopped! how does everyone else feel?
Emma T

That's the internet! It's becoming much more accessible yet personal at the same time - for example almost everyone's on Facebook, and a lot of people on Facebook post very personal stuff for the world to see.

[Dan]

As a rule of thumb - you should never post anything, anywhere, by any means, in any language etc etc that you would later not be comfortable to be quoted as saying. (there is nothing you can do about being taken out of context)

Absolutely right, and great advice.

The only real difference of making the forum private would be to the forum owners - who would see a massive dip in 'spidered' pages in the serps, a fall in revenue and an increase in 'one time' sign-ups using temp email addresses in order to read threads.

Absolutely wrong! The single most common source of new members is Google, and the forum would never have survived without Google indexing our threads. We get a lot of new members from people searching for answers to their problems.

If the forum was only accessible to members they'd never have known we existed, and we'd never have been able to help them, and we'd have twenty members.

Yes, the more members we have the more revenue the forum will generate, but it also means more cost for bandwidth, and more time to deal with spam and moderation. Believe me we don't do it for the money! 

The purpose of the forum is to help people. Not everyone is comfortable joining, some people just want to read advice given to others, some want to join and participate - it's all good. 

[princesspiggy]

how many members are there dan?

[supplies for smallholders]

Hi Dan,

Agree completely, Google is a great source of info, around 40% of our site visitors come from Google (compared to less than 2% from TAS).

I use many forums in everyday life that I would never consider joining, as I only need that "one off" bit of information, like how to fix a certain car problem, how to modify a certain bit of software code etc etc. I wouldn't join these forums as I dont think I would ever usefully contribute to them.

Personally I dont use facebook, I really dont see the point of it - if I want to keep in touch with people I tend to do "Old Fashioned" things like phone them or actually go to see them !

Thanks