On privacy and membership here

What's an IP address?

your server

Okay, thanks.

What you say about banning AOL is true and so is the fact that people can have several screen names, BUT in defense of making this a Members Only site, THE PET AGENCY more than likely wouldn't have bothered registering to be able to read WI_Fighter's posts!

Granted, it wouldn't make it 100% safe, but let's face it! This is the Internet! NOTHING is 100% private on the internet! Googling your screen name or your real name WILL NOT bring up posts on this site! We DO have protection from that. I know. I tried Googling my screen name as well as my real name. It didn't come up with ANYTHING! The same Screen Name has been with me for FIVE years!

Also, I Googled Sleeps full screen name and not one time did it come up with ANYTHING on this site. Try your own screen names and see if you find anything at all from Pysch Central. I'll wager you won't!

oh no doubt in my mind you are right on all counts!

Psych Central - Newsletter: November 2004 Community UpdateThis thread was started by fayerody and has brought a lot of people into the conversation. There have been well over 100 replies quoting music from every ...
psychcentral.com/newsletter/ issue001/community_update.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from psychcentral.com
and there's more and more and more....i didn't copy and paste anything that involved other poster's screen names.

I'm not sure . . . but I think AOL assigns various IP addresses, with each logon.

Yes, blogs and newsletter articles ARE searchable, I think. If you go to shields up! you can see that your IP is relatively the same regardless of what email addy you use. The CITY that your service comes through will ALWAYS show the same,unless you move. The basic numbers of your IP addy change some. If you log out of PC and don't disconnect from the internet, and then log back into PC, your IP addy will stay the same. If you disconnect from the internet then log back onto it, and to PC, your IP will change, but the same ending showing the CITY will remain the same. This is especially true if you use different email addys from the same provider, i.e. yahoo gives you options for many different screennames, but the addy is the same: you.

Maybe, as I think I suggested in the "ideal site" thread, SOME general or common knowledge forums could stay open for public, and the true disorder forums be by membership only viewable? IDK if that's possible. I need to study more hehehe

And when I clicked on the link, this is what I got:

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Issue: We could not find the post or forum that you were trying to access.

Please use your back button to return to the previous page.

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Still NO access to the board.

Just Googled my screen name again. It too, took me to the newsletter, NOT the board. It's a known fact that the Newsletter goes out over the Internet. No news there!

Sky, you're really smart.

YEAH, I KNOW THAT DOESN'T SEEM TO GO TOGETHER, BUT I WAS AWFULLY PROUD THAT TEXAS BEAT MICHIGAN AND NOW OU GOES UP AGAINST USC...I AM ACTUALLY NOT MUCH OF AN OU FAN, BARRY SWITZER SORTA BURNED ME OUT, BUT CERTAINLY HOPE THEY WIN TONIGHT...WE DO HAVE A TOP NOTCH COACH WHO IS A GENTLEMAN AND GOOD AND TRUSTWORTHY AND PROBABLY WAS AN EAGLE SCOUT IN HIS CHILDHOOD...SO, HOW COULD I NOT CHEER THEM ON???? PLUS WE HAVE JASON WHITE AND THAT LITTLE RUNNING BACK WHO IS SOOOO GOOD....JUST CAN'T REMEMBER HIS NAME.... SO, IF THERE ARE FOOTBALL FANS HERE.....WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR? AND DO YOU THINK THIS REALLY IS THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME?

this is what i got when i googled fayerody and clicked on the link. i'm confused. i wonder why mine is the only name that can be googled and then the link works???? i wonder if i clicked on the links that include other poster's names if i would come up with their posts? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm it would be an invasion of their privacy, in my book, to copy and paste their posts. i guess i'm still shell shocked over what one poster did this past weekend and am feeling sensitive and kind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fayerody, I can only find links to your blog, and the newsletter, not any posts in the forum... and different ones for yahoo and google

i have never understood how the phone, a television, a car motor, a computer, a fax machine, golf carts, microwaves, chain saws, presidents, secretaries of defense or the queen of England works. so, i'm definitely ignorant of how the internet works. i can't help you. sorry. oh, did i mention helicopter? i understand those. my neighbors have taken me up enough that i've learned how they work.

ff_topic: Yeah but helicopters aren't supposed to work! lol

Well, I'm not doing anything fancy, I do get forum posts when I Google certain keywords for this site (which I've shared with DocJohn). I'm not doing a straight search; I'm using one of Google's options for searching a specific site; in this case, psychcentral.com. These are the results that come up on the first page alone (more forum links on further pages) for me (only some of the text, of course, is linked):

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Psych Central - Newsletter #3: February 2005 Community Update
These community forums are a place for members to give and receive support. ... Shar, another forum member mentioned her favorite one liner to hate. ...
psychcentral.com/newsletter/issue003/community_update.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

Forums at Psych Central: Qs @ user names
... Another recent post was a notice that a forum member was reverting to a previous user name, having adopted a temporary one due to a computer problem. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Number=96316&amp;page=0&amp;view=collapsed&amp;sb=5&amp;o=&amp;... - 57k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Psych Central - Newsletter #4: April 2005 Community Update
The new feature, Ask the Therapist, promises to be a huge help to members of the forums. Because of this new feature we have a chance to ask the resident ...
psychcentral.com/newsletter/issue005/community_update.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

Psych Central - Newsletter: November 2004 Community Update
The purpose of the Forums at Grohol.com is simple, but the members' ... Here new members can easily make the transition to other forums when they are ready. ...
psychcentral.com/newsletter/issue001/community_update.htm - 14k - May 3, 2006 - Cached - Similar pages

Forums at Psych Central: therapists and parenting
... Post Extras: Print Post, allautumn Member Offline Member since: 11/27/04 Posts: 140 Ontario, ... 0 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Board=psychotherapy&amp;Number=94498&amp;page=0&amp;view=co... - 54k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Forums at Psych Central: Finding a "supportive" psychotherapist?
... Other members here will tell you how frustrating it is to begin with a different T - real therapy ... 0 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Number=95900&amp;Main=92855 - 47k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Psych Central - Newsletter #8: September 2005 Community Update
Many members, including myself, have taken breaks from the forums for vacations. ... Playing word games in that forum has been fun for many members. ...
psychcentral.com/newsletter/issue008/community_update.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

Forums at Psych Central: Forums at Psych Central
... This forum is for first-time community members here to find one another, especially if you're coming from another online support community. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/index.php?Cat= - 46k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

Psych Central: Mental Health: Support Groups
Our growing database of links to information on the top is well over 200 plus we offer links to other forums if a member wants to check out other ...
psychcentral.com/resources/Mental_Health/Support_Groups/ - 38k - May 3, 2006 - Cached - Similar pages

Forums at Psych Central: Is T calling me stupid?
... about other members) or skills outside of group. &amp;#1589; zh Post Extras: Print Post, ... Extra information. 0 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Number=93618&amp;page=0&amp;view=collapsed&amp;sb=5&amp;o=&amp;... - 57k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

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Edit: Oh! I should mention again, using this type of search still does not bring up profiles using a member's name. But visiting the forum page (and you can use the cache even if you're not a member, I'm sure) does show posts and who posted them. Clicking on a member's name from that takes you to the profile on the actual site, so you might not be able to access it as a non-member, if you have to be registered and logged in.

Ok. those links are due to the newsletter. Everyone here must realize also that DocJohn ADVERTISES this site... in the sense of... How did YOU find it? I was looking for a place to kill time instead of myself...and psychcentral came up on a depression search. That's a type of advertising.

Yes, if you search for mental health info in general, it's searchable. But they have to come here first for that, and then read the forums etc... by clicking on the Support Community tab.

Also, for some of those links, you need to know the name of the site, thus search/google PsychCentral.

IF you google your own s/n it will not come up, in general. (Yes, there was a cunning search engine that got in the other year. DocJohn was on that like a bird on a bug! and closed the access they had found. If you knew how many search engines outside try to access every site around, you would be proud of the job DocJohn has done, and does to keep our own information UNsearchable! imo.

Three words:

World Wide Web

This means this site can be accessed by any one.
Could be Bin Laden is posting about how upset he is with his sister....you just never know.
And, this isn't to spook anyone.
But, if you are going to bare it on a site that can be seen from "Asia to New Zealand and beyond" then you have to believe anyone, at any time can log on and read.

Isn't that right Mr. Bush??

As I said, you have to use a site search. It wouldn't be hard to find out the name of this site. You didn't look at the list in full, did you? Look at this one:

Forums at Psych Central: Qs @ user names
... Another recent post was a notice that a forum member was reverting to a previous user name, having adopted a temporary one due to a computer problem. ...
forums.psychcentral.com/showflat.php?Cat=&amp;Number=96316&amp;page=0&amp;view=collapsed&amp;sb=5&amp;o=&amp;... - 57k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

That link goes straight to the forum. It's not from the newsletter. And you don't have to go to the forum to read it. You can click "Cached," and you'll get the page as it was recorded that day.

However, DocJohn or someone must have contacted Google in the last few minutes, because those forum links do not come up now.

But there are still five pages that come up on The Wayback Machine from forums.grohol.com.

Most search engines honor sites that disallow access to the robots.txt file. That's why some sites are not listed, or certain pages from some sites aren't listed.

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Twisted_Soul said:
It is one thing to post how you are dealing with your day, your illness etc. But, when you start totally personalizing your posts, your BIO, your pix then that is where the the threat of security breach comes into play.

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I have to agree...........if you post your personal information on ANY website you are only asking for trouble.

I get about 40 results at Yahoo!, 40 at AltaVista, 11 from Webcrawler (mostly gotten from Google, but it is showing forum results), Hotbot finds 46 using Google, and 76 from Search.com, and there are more out there.

However, not all these have cached results.

Who really cares how many results>? I mean, what does that even prove at this point.
We know there is not a lot of security. And this is a public site on the WWW.
How did any of you find this site?
Were you in search of wanting to cope, live another day, find support?
So, you don't even have to type in something specific about this site.
You guys are expanding a lot of energy on this >>> Why?

(((((Everyone here looking for answers)))))))

i, fayerody, care and evidently others also care.

what difference does it make if someone here wants to google anything? if i'm correct, we do have the freedom to do whatever we want to in the privacy of our own homes.....and then we can post it here......if we so desire. that's my thoughts on what posters are doing right now.

should we worry about curious posters?

i,fayerody, aka pat, am very interested in how the search engines work. i'm enjoying these posts. i'm learning a lot.

thanks from the "not sharpest tool in the computer shed" poster to the more computer literate folks. xoxoxo

I guess we're discussing it because it's a thread on privacy? Why not?

I'm just pointing out that there is no 100% security on the Internet. I'm not that skilled or experienced in search engines and the Internet, but I've learned a thing or two in my years online. If I can find these results, imagine what a hacker can do. If you ever thought any site could guarantee you 100% privacy and security, you've been misinformed or assumed too much. Yes, there are steps that can help, and will prevent some people from getting in, but there are those whose intelligence and knowledge go beyond the average hacker. They're the ones who really keep the government and those in the tech world on their toes. However, not all hackers are bad; even the government and big companies hire hackers to help find security holes. Some hackers want to cause mischief and harm; others don't, and may even want to help.

It's not just that way online, it's in the real world. I'm not trying to scare anyone, but I've heard about technologies that are being developed and that exist now that proves privacy is a myth. And some people aren't respecting any rights to privacy, either.

And people are making it worse by signing away their freedoms.

I'm only posting this info for those who want to know.