Posting emails

[Gord]

Hi all.

Just a quick note on posting our personal emails. To reduce the risk of spam emailers obtaining our emails, Ive removed the two or three places where we posted our email address.

In the event where we want to contact each other for various reasons, going through the private message route is the best as all the information, phone numbers, email addresses and so forth cannot be seen by anyone other than the two people involved in the message. Even your all-powerful site administrator cannot view private messages so comments about my music tastes or need for mints can be freely shared. ;D

I doubt our site is getting any unscrupulous visitors gathering emails to sell, but I thought we might as well be safer than sorry.

Ill also double check to make sure no one's emails are visible in their profiles.

Any questions or comments about this, let me know!

[Deleted]

Hi, self-confessed tongue-in-cheek all-powerful site administrator (aka Gord).

I don't know anything at all about your musical tastes, and the times I've met you or gone on field trips with you I didn't notice any need for mints, and everyone I know who knows you thinks you are a great guy, and I do too.

I also agree that it is important to protect both the list and the individual participants from spammers, unscrupulous gatherers of email addresses, etc., and I agee, too, that people should not include their email address or phone number in their messages.

I have two questions though: First, when one of us wants to contact another of us privately, what is the best way to get the private information needed to do so from one to the other (email address, phone number, whatever)? Many of us don't know each other except through this group, and have no other contact.

In past I have sometimes started the process by posting my email address in a message on this website so the other person could get back to me privately and continue the conversation.

Presumably another way would be to ask you to pass it on to the other person, since you surely have access to the profiles of all the members. I think I did that once, too, but I can't remember for sure.

I occasionally see people post their email in a written out form, such as "name AT provider DOT com," or whatever. I don't know how safe this is, but presumably hackers can and do write programs to seek out and parse these, too, so I doubt it's any safer than posting a real email address.

What do you suggest as the best way to go about it?

Second point: just out of curiosity -- most similar internet groups that I participate in encourage, even require, that each person posting identify themselves in each post with name and location (town or city only, of course). Hence my profile for this group automatically displays my name and city at the bottom of each of my messages.

I've always wondered what your reason is for the apparent "culture of anonymity" on this group. Not that I'm in any way complaining or disputing the way you do it, as I can see advantages both ways, and you are the administrator, but I've been curious for a long time as to your reasons. But an answer is optional, if you don't want to go into it.

I do enjoy this group and am not trying to stir up anything. Nor do I want to sidetrack the discussion away from the main topic -- sharing about our birding experiences. Just being curious.

Thanks,

Stan

[Gord]

Stan, excellent comments and questions.

I would suggest for people wishing to make contact with another member outside this forum (via phone or email) to private message that person and exchange info there. Click on the person's name and then click on 'send this person a private message'. l I don't believe we get many people though here that would use emails for spam, but I wanted to be 'on top of things' and would hate to see someone have problems based from here. Maybe Im being over protective/fussing.

You are right on when people substitute @ for 'at' and . for 'dot' to prevent computer programs from finding emails.

To your second question, I too have noticed this among other birding forums. Im easy either way on putting my name and hometown among birders. Out of habit when I set this forum up I used my nickname but have always meant to change it (as Ive done now). Currently, Im comfortable to leave it up to each member on how much information they wish to share in regards to name and town or anything else for that matter.

I wonder what the reasoning is behind requiring members to post their name and town. Ive actually wondered but never asked.

All this being said, it's ultimately up to each member on what level they want to keep their privacy at here. Maybe, in hindsight, this topic could have been raised before I went and made adjustments. My intent is to keep this site working and operational, to allow as much choice from each member as possible with little involvement from the 'administrator' beyond helping with bugs and other questions on using the site.

Glad you brought these up!

[Deleted]

Hi, Gord.

I don't have a well thought out rationale for lists who require anyone posting to identify themselves with name and place, but I have a general impression from being on several lists over the years and at times seeing discussion unfortunately arising out of incidents that reinforced the call for identification.

Sooner or later, hopefully never, someone gets on a list and posts objectionable material, or becomes argumentative and abusive, or exploits the goodwill of the regular members, and often does so under a false name, or anonymously.

As I see it, requiring everyone to identify themselves is an attempt to require accountability in hope of disouraging this sort of thing.

A recent example was a photographer (not a birder) who began to monitor a birding list in BC as an easy way to get locations for rare or sensitive species sightings, nest sites, etc., that he could profit from, and when asked to stop harrassing these birds for his photographs he simply became abusive and kept on taunting the members. He always posted under false names and when they attempted to ban him from the list he would just register under another false ID. It was a long time before he finally went away and the list settled down.

Obviously it's not possible to completely prevent this sort of thing. I fervently hope it never happens here, and have no reason to believe it will, but there is no guarantee it won't, either. I think this is the sort of thing most list owners, having been burned, or seen others burned, are trying to guard against. That's at least one reason they require ID from posting persons.

So I don't think you need to change anything, but this is why I was rather surpised when I joined this group to see, as I interpreted it, that there was no requirement for accountability on the part of those who posted.

Interesting issue.

Stan

[Deleted]

Gord, in response to the other issue of how to contact individual members, I have a question still.

I clicked on your name on one of your posts, and I see a link that says Send Personal Message. It opened an email template. I assume this email would then go only to this person?

This is a very nice feature of this software if it does that.

Thanks

By the way, to get back to birding, I glanced out the window a few minutes ago and saw an adult Bald Eagle gliding away and then land on a treetop across the street. This is in urban Abbotsford.

Stan

[Gord]

Hi Stan, I agree, so far the need for accountability is a non-issue here, and I also dont predict it ever becoming an issue. Forums are somewhat easier to 'manage' in the manner that any problem individuals can be 'screened' before they have any ability to post messages. I believe e-mail groups cannot limit who sends the group emails, but I may be wrong.

You are correct with the PM going to one person. It is exactly like an email with the only difference people have to come here to view their message. Members can have a choice to share emails, phone numbers for future communication or to plan group outings such as our trips to Cheam Mtn and so forth.

Nice to hear about the eagle! A couple days ago my little guys were out playing in the backyard of our urban neighborhood and the middle one started shouting about a 'seagull' (which turned out to be a bald eagle circling overhead)