Steve Curtis
Puritan Board Senior
I just encountered a member who had no signature and whose profile was blocked so that I couldn't view it. Is that a fluke or are some people able to interact on the PB incognito?
Profile blocked?
- Thread starter Steve Curtis
- Start date
- Status
Members can set their privacy settings pretty tightly. Check under Privacy under your account name.
Jake
Puritan Board Senior
Did this change with the forum software change? I didn't remember this being possible before.
I think that is the case. The admins cannot be blocked.
Good question. Some of the rules may not have made the transition to XF. I'll bring it up to the admins.
I honestly can't keep track of what features existed in vBulletin. I do recall that I didn't just let every Member see everything about every other Member in profile. Admins and Mods have certain privileges to make sure people can legitimatley participate here but we have far too many members to simply allow a person to be approved for membership and immediately have the ability to start collecting information about the names and locations of everyone on the board. I specifically make the Signature requirements be semi-vague. We live in a time where we don't need to be giving away more information than is necessary. If I need to update the rules atsome point I will but the basic idea is that we need enough information to vet but your profile should not be fair game to all who pass ourvetting process.
Edward
Puritanboard Commissioner
I understand that some folks on mission fields in sensitive areas might need to refrain from disclosing their location, but their sig block could state that. Common first name or nickname, missionary, sensitive area isn't going to give anyone more info than they'll get by monitoring one's internet traffic.
Ask Mr. Religion
Flatly Unflappable
We handle these sort of situations on a case by case basis. These persons know who they are and the rest must comply with the mimimum sig requirements:
First Name (or nickname)
Ministry Position (if you are a Church Office holder)
Denominational Affiliation
State of Residence
Note:
If a member runs across someone missing these elements in their sig just let a member of the staff know versus calling that to the member's attention publicly.
Edward
Puritanboard Commissioner
Of course THEY know who they are, but the rest of us are left to wonder when we see posters with no sigs and no profiles. At least make them say whether they dip or pour - that can be relevant to some discussions and why I hit the last dead end I found. If "Joe, Undisclosed, Baptist" or "Jane, Sensitive Area, Presbyterian" is going to blow someone's cover, I'll come close to guaranteeing that they are known to local authorities. The countries with the greatest need for privacy tend to be the ones with the strongest restrictions on VPNs.
Ask Mr. Religion
Flatly Unflappable
These persons are not granted the exception to not make their denomination or at least a Confessional basis known. So, if you run across this, let me know.
Berean
Puritanboard Commissioner
I've also noticed that this Biography section seems to be missing from most newer members, especially those that joined since we switched from vBulletin software. Perhaps it isn't apparent or readily visible to new members. I can see the "About" and "Signature" sections of members, but nothing else under the Information tab. On older members the Bio info appears below the "Confessional Subscription". On newer members there is nothing.
The biography also didn't make the transition to XF and the system either cannot or it is some kind of problem making it a required field. Rich explained it to the admins but I forget exactly what the deal was. Maybe he can explain.
Not much to explain except that the Biography field is built in to the program and doesn't work the same way it did in vBulletin. If you recall, we always had the Biography field primarily to answer the question: How is this person Reformed? The goal was to get a sense of where they stood theologically to include what, if any, exceptions they took to their chosen Confession. It was more of a vetting tool. In fact, it was more problematic for us if a person used 1000 characters to tell us their life history and that they liked bowling and action movies and never got around to telling us in what sense they are demonstrably Reformed. As we shifted to the new board software we wanted to get down to brass tacks those things we really needed to make decisions. Thus we now have a way for them to not only identify any exceptions but also for them to make a choice that they will not promote unconfessional views.
Obviously, with over 8000 registered users and thousands who have not returned or edited their profile in years it's not possible that everything is going to be updated. We've vetted them previously and don't have the time or the inclination to go back through that process just to make sure their profile is completely accurate.
Look, our main goal is to make sure there's no way for people posing as Reformed or for trolls to come in here. We have a mechanism if a person is way out of line to link them back to where they are (assuming they're not deceiving us) and, in some cases, report bizarre ideas to warn their session. That said, we are not in the business of gathering a bunch of private information that we're going to require that everyone who participates on the board has to give in order for everyone else to simply go around and learn all sorts of things about people they otherwise might not know. I don't want to give out private information to everyone nor do I want the burden of exposing everybody's information and nefarious things being done with it.
Everyone may have their conviction but my goal is to keep my internet profile as private as possible. I post here and many know who I am but I'm not going to surrender all my private information to anyone who may be curious.
Obviously, with over 8000 registered users and thousands who have not returned or edited their profile in years it's not possible that everything is going to be updated. We've vetted them previously and don't have the time or the inclination to go back through that process just to make sure their profile is completely accurate.
Look, our main goal is to make sure there's no way for people posing as Reformed or for trolls to come in here. We have a mechanism if a person is way out of line to link them back to where they are (assuming they're not deceiving us) and, in some cases, report bizarre ideas to warn their session. That said, we are not in the business of gathering a bunch of private information that we're going to require that everyone who participates on the board has to give in order for everyone else to simply go around and learn all sorts of things about people they otherwise might not know. I don't want to give out private information to everyone nor do I want the burden of exposing everybody's information and nefarious things being done with it.
Everyone may have their conviction but my goal is to keep my internet profile as private as possible. I post here and many know who I am but I'm not going to surrender all my private information to anyone who may be curious.
- Status