I would like more options within “Hide my public profile” (Dashboard/Preferences/Profile). Currently, this disables your profile/bio from popping up when users click your pfp or username (screenshot 1) as well as preventing them from viewing your site data in the full profile menu (screenshot 2).
I would like options to disable these individually. I don’t care if someone wants to know what my favorite yoyo is: if I put that in my profile/bio, I wanted it there. But I would like for people to at least have to manually search for my posts instead of having everything I’ve ever liked/reacted to at a glance. Sure, it’s the internet, and the data is still on the site if someone really wants to dig for it. But, for some level of privacy, I’d rather not have everything I’ve done tied up in a neat package for anyone who wants to spy (most of which is accessible logged in or not).
Sure but I’ll argue if you have that enabled it disqualifies you from bst activity. If activity can’t be easily parsed then you can’t sell in the forum period. It’s one of the many ways folks vet each other to ensure they are trust worthy.
How so? What I’m asking for is an option to hide the detailed profile page while leaving the profile summary/bio/pop-up as is. I don’t see how it would stop anyone from making a BST Feedback thread for someone with that hypothetical “hide my detailed profile” enabled.
I haven’t thoroughly researched the existing setting, so I may well be missing something. That said, I used a device on which I’m logged out, and I can search @SlacKing with that setting enabled for my profile and still find any/all of my posts. Perhaps that wouldn’t be the case for posts I made while that setting is enabled. I could test this, but I don’t want to be obnoxious making a test post for something only I care about.
If I can’t see your activity and how you’ve interacted on the forum then I don’t want to do business with you. Maybe it’s just me but I research a person heavily before buying. I take the feedback thread as just a part of the whole not gospel
That’s fine if that’s what you’re comfortable with, but to say “you can’t sell on the forum period” seems like an overstatement. Even looking at a person’s interactions on the forum in detail (which you can still do if they have this toggled on) can’t guarantee they won’t walk off with your yoyo/money if you give it to them. I can think of a recent member with a couple of years on the forum, some positive feedback, and otherwise no suspicious activity. The same user walked off w/ a Ti from a PiF. Ultimately, there’s always risk someone is 1). a dedicated fraud, or 2). desperate and willing to do something wrong, so it’s best (imo) to mitigate it with something like PP G&S. Even with trades & PiFs, I think it can be used effectively if there’s doubt about who you’re sending something to (though it’s less common to do so in these instances, it’s really only one more step).
Again, don’t do anything you aren’t comfortable with. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to do business with someone who has this setting turned on.
but by your own admission you arent hiding the info, you’re just adding in steps. so it wont afford you any additional privacy, but it will make it actively more of a pain to vet ppl. transparency helps keep ppl on good behavior, or at least better than without
Having a fence around your yard or a lock on your door doesn’t make it impossible for someone to break into your house. Yet, I’m willing to bet we’re all going to make sure ours are locked before going to bed tonight. In both cases, they’re an additional layer to deter people from easily doing the bad things they would otherwise do. If a crime is convenient, a criminal is a lot more likely to commit it.
Now, someone looking at data I’ve put out publicly on a forum certainly isn’t a crime. If I really didn’t want people to read it, I wouldn’t post it. But it’s slightly alarming how convenient Discourse makes it for literally anyone with internet and a computer to see everything we do on here (they really wrap it up in a neat little bow lol - well done on the UI, devs). Companies like Google make billions from data collection, and stealing identities is a profitable crime that’s become increasingly popular. You’d be surprised what seemingly insignificant things people with enough time on their hands can piece together and use against you. Much like in the analogies above, if someone seriously wants to find out all they can about me, they can manually dig through using the search function even if I have my profile hidden. But - with ticking of one box - it might just be enough extra work that the person decides it’s not worth their time, and they move on.
Again, I’m not particularly worried about it on here, but as a general practice, I like to maintain as much privacy as I reasonably can. I really don’t see how it’s a problem in this case, and obviously Discourse provided that option for a reason. I’m just asking for options to fine-tune it.
the type of information grabs you’re taking about arent being performed manually by some hacker at their computer. its automated. you havent slowed anything down
Honestly, I probably would’ve said the same thing a few years ago. I agree the chances of anything happening to a user on here are extremely unlikely. Primarily, I’m thinking about things like if you make a deal with someone, they have your address (unless you use a P.O. box). Sharing pictures around the house (such as when recording tricks, displaying collections, etc), showing where you’re throwing, and what times you’re usually active can all provide info that a bad actor could use. Those things can be mitigated by just being mindful about what you post in the first place. There are other possible small concerns on the digital side, but I don’t think anyone cares enough for me to continue.
I suppose my post really is meant for Discourse more as a platform. I might move it over to their community page as a feature request, since this obviously doesn’t seem of interest to anyone here but me, and it really wouldn’t be that great of a benefit to this specific forum. I’ll stop replying and let it die here. Really didn’t anticipate it starting an argument. Sorry for clogging everyone’s feed.
