Google and your privacy

[Wheetsin 714]

I agree with Dawg. The 'net is as secure as you want to make it. Just assume you have an audience of millions when you do something, and all will be fine. You cannot do anything private.

Be careful which message boards you use - and be selective about which you trust and what you do there. Most are fine. Several work under unknown premises.

If someone who knows how really wants to find out more about you, there's not much you'll be able to do to stop it. Someone posting a pic for example - under the right circumstances, I could go down a trail that would tell me their home number, address, employer... Completely legal. BUT - don't be paranoid about it. In the big scheme of things, none of us are anything special. Like any other media, just be smart about what you share.

OT - that's a bit of a complaint I tubled around with the OH staff. They ask you your first & last name, never indicating that will become your user name (or at least they didn't when I signed up). I kept waiting for the place to specify a username and it never came... then *poof* there I was.

[SouthTX LapBand 0]

(the yahoo bandster site) (they don't have the delete feature of this site)

The moderators you wrote may not have been aware of it, for Yahoo has not ALWAYS had it, but for quite some time you HAVE been able to delete your own posts. Join again, under the same email address, then delete away. Can't EDIT, but deletions you can do.

It is ObesityHelp where there is NO WAY you can delete a post. BUT you CAN change a user name after joining. They don't TELL you how to do it, but you can. I did.

[SouthTX LapBand 0]

Deleting posts is not as effective as it sounds. A google search will likely turn up a cached page (an old view of what the page looked like when the search terms were still there).

Not to fear. Eventually Google's spiders again make their rounds of the web, and new versions of pages are cached, replacing the old. Won't linger for more than a month.

[barbara465 2]

I just did a search and the first site that came up was this one. The link took me to the home page, and not my individual posts. The other two hits from the initial search were not me. Umm, I think I'm in disguise without even trying!

[Hopes place 0]

Alex, I would like to continue talking on this site but I don't want to use my last name anymore. How can I change my name to something else and start fresh?

[sarahv 0]

As it turns out - for me anyway - if I google my name... there are several more people out there with my name and even a song by Acoustic Alchemy. There are two younger women on MySpace.com and a web site that sells custom made jewelry - all with my name on them.

It actually makes me feel better that if someone was looking - it would take them FOREVER to sift through all of the others before they found me.

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

Alex, I would like to continue talking on this site but I don't want to use my last name anymore. How can I change my name to something else and start fresh?

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR OWN USERNAME!!!!

Log into your CP,

Click on "Edit Email, Password & Username"

At the bottom you can change your username, right under "Change Username (Optional)"

[TheWomanWithin 0]

But if you change your username, does it delete all your posts?

[the best me 6]

But if you change your username, does it delete all your posts?

Nope, it changes all of your old posts to the new username.

[TheWomanWithin 0]

ahh ok thank you, that would stink if it did and bring up a whole new set of problems.

[TheWomanWithin 0]

Ok, I know you could change your user name as Alex showed us before, has that option been moved or changed? Did I miss it totally?

Thanks

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

Ok, I know you could change your user name as Alex showed us before, has that option been moved or changed? Did I miss it totally?

Thanks

If you're logged into the forum just CLICK HERE to modify your user name.

[TheWomanWithin 0]

Thanks Alex, that's how I did it before, at the very bottom - that option is not there now

Enter your present password to continue:

Edit Password (Optional)New Password:

Confirm New Password:

Edit Email Address (Optional)New Email Address:

What am I missing?

[Alex Brecher 10,494]

Thanks Alex, that's how I did it before, at the very bottom - that option is not there now

Enter your present password to continue:

Edit Password (Optional)New Password:

Confirm New Password:

Edit Email Address (Optional)New Email Address:

What am I missing?

You don't see the "Change Username (Optional)" option ?

[Goannabanda 0]

I found this place via a Google search, and will be forever grateful.

However, it would have been more useful to find a home page first, with summary info and links to the forum itself.

A couple of my posts show up if I google my screen name - that doesn't worry me too much, but I would prefer to only have the forum indexed if possible.

As a way around the indexing issue, maybe we could have an indexed home page set up that is separate to the LBT forum, which includes summary information and a link for new subscribers / guests to the main forum pages, which could then be unindexed. Would this work?