This too, and I say this as somebody who is often aggressive.
My stance has always been that, in serious discussion groups such as this, I won’t post anything that I wouldn’t be willing to say in public. My main reasons for keeping it semi pseudonymous, are A, to make it difficult for random or casual searches, such as done for jobs or by trolls, will not immediately bring up the thousands of posts here, which may easily be taken out of context. I am not important enough to have anybody who is interested in taking my stuff out of context who is willing to do a deeper search, and B, being pseudonymous also adds a layer of privacy for the rest of my family. So a Google search of my wife, my kid, my parents, etc, won’t bring my stuff here or from a couple of other forums where I am, or have been, active.
However, It would be simplicity itself for anybody here to figure out who I am in real life (parents whose kids attend the same high school as my D19 already have done so).
That being said - nobody except the people who upkeep the site or researchers of the sociology of forums have any need to know how much time a person spends here.
We seem to be focused now on this read time metric. Who thinks read time is so important- to either to seek out or to hide? It’s one of the least important bullets. So we all agree to make it not public. But I get the feeling we’re so focused on this one thing and ignoring the other things that make up the profile.
Is there much disagreement that the following would be at least acceptable and better than the current situation (“all or nothing” switchable between public and private) to most posters?
Post history, last visit, and join date public.
Everything else in the profile private (or switchable by the user).
We are still working on this, but have had a number of technical hurdles that have prevented us from importing them. It’s been frustrating for us all, but we haven’t give up on importing likes.
Really well said. I was sure there was a way to get this data on your profile, but as you mention below, it only includes the top few posts. That list is going to be pretty static especially after we import likes from the previous platform. It would be handy if the list of your replies included an indication of the number of likes.
I don’t mind if people see what I post. That’s the reason I come here. The last visit is helpful information so people know I still exist and the date joined lets people know I didn’t stroll in this afternoon, but none of the rest of it is necessary. I do kind of enjoy the like feature, but the rest can go.
@lookingforward, Thank you. The PMs might be blocked because of my privacy settings. People don’t really need to know all the things listed in my profile. I’m sure I don’t care to know most of the things listed in my profile.
I think “likes” say a lot about a person and should be public. Some people respect those who have many more “likes” than the number they give to others, while other people think those people are a lot less “likable.”
I say “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” - or at least it should be, so please keep those public.
Likes are only as valid as the folks giving them. And why they do. They’re fun, supportive, no harm done. Some seem to equate popularity with authority, that popularity breeds trust. Really? Likes have no impact on my “trust.” They don’t even necessarily reflect whether some posts are accurate.
Think about it.
What people like is more informative than the number of likes they receive. Numbers without context don’t mean much to me. But it’s a pretty harmless function as far as I can see, so I don’t mind if the system admins post mine.
Chiming in to say I think it is important to see others’ past posting history (and I don’t mind people seeing mine). I also dislike having my reading time public – not only because I often leave CC up on my computer, but because I am a little embarrassed about how much time I spend here!
I’m still struggling to figure out what invasion of privacy people are bothered by. First, this is an anonymous board, a few of you know who @dadof4kids is, but those that do know more about me than you see in my profile anyway.
I’m kind of like @cinnamon1212 in that I am embarassed by how much time I spend here (in waves, not all the time). But I also leave windows open for weeks at a time sometimes, so I don’t think you learn much about my browsing habits from that data point. Given that the one data point that bothers everyone is known to be inaccurate, can we just all go public? I would take the option away personally. I just don’t see the need for it, and it makes it more difficult to do a legitimate quick check to see the background on a poster.
The only folks I worry about knowing how much time I spend are my daughters.
I don’t think anyone here has said they go looking for the hours read detail. I don’t think many CC-ers go into another’s profile, at all. Just seasoned folks who know there’s someting there and need to check past posts or when the last acticity was.
When students are looking for suggestions on which schools to apply to, I often go back and look at past threads to see if they mentioned where they are from, what their interests are, etc. I did it more when we had a one and done shot at posting. Now that we can edit, I don’t do it as much.
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