So now that we are on a public, searchable forum, I find that I am much more hesitant to post info about myself, as opposed to on the old chat. But I also understand very little about the details of what we are doing here. So I would love to hear from you others with more experience / wisdom, what do you think are reasonable boundaries here in terms of privacy? What will you share, and what will you not? Your real name? Personal info? Travel dates? Hometown? What are your thoughts? @Lentesta or other staff, any advice?
Thanks in advance! 
My understanding is that posts in the La Cava section are NOT public - or at least not any more public than Chat was. you must be a subscriber to see information there, just like chat.
The regular forums are, however, searchable by things like Google. Since I tend to be a private person, I won’t use my real name or hometown. Travel dates are kind of useless to someone else without that information. Heck, most of my neighbors don’t know when I’m away - just the one keeping an eye on the house and picking up mail.
In the end, it’s what you feel comfortable with, and for everyone that will be different. There’s already tons of information about each of us already out there. My feeling is one little piece more isn’t going to make too much of a difference, but neither am I going to broadcast it from the rooftops.
3 Likes
Is any if the profile information visible to outsiders?
I think all the forums should be subscriber-only and not searchable by the gen public. We pay for this service and the info garnered therein.
3 Likes
I agree with @Agent_C, I will not post any identifying info or my real name. I ask that we all agree that photos that include people especially other liners are only posted in La Cava.
2 Likes
There were a few times in chat that I posted my email address to be helpful to someone, but now the personal message feature on the forums means I don’t have to do that publicly anymore.
2 Likes
IMO, one of the best features of the forum, @B_squared!
3 Likes
Yep…
Honestly it doesn’t bother me. Privacy pretty much became a thing of the past when the internet became popular. Websites collect a lot more than you know. Those spam emails don’t come from nowhere lol. I’m not putting my cc numbers, address, and phone on here but I’m not worried about other things.
1 Like
One thing that does worry me is people knowing when we are out of town…
People could/should be a lot more worried about privacy than they are.
1 Like
I think I tend to be less concerned about privacy because I had family who grew up in small-town life, so I was exposed to that a lot. My grandmother had a party line telephone – no such thing as privacy there. I just think that for me, I’m not interesting enough that people (whether with positive or negative motivations) that people care about my life.
ETA: I also recognize that as a “public figure” in some different slices of the world, albeit a minor one, privacy isn’t something that would be guaranteed anyhow.
Yep.
Yep, they should, but most don’t seem to care (or don’t understand) how all those FB posts give away important information.
I had someone tell me “I put my wrong birthday information on it, so they can’t get that”. To which my response was “Any how many of your “friends” posted on your wall “Happy Birthday” on your “supposed” birthday, vs. those who posted on your “real” birthday.” All I got was an “Oh”.
Having had my son be the victim of identity theft at 4 months old 
, I’m REALLY careful with what I give out/post and where.
2 Likes
I totally agree with what you said. People also need to think about how all their posts will look when used by an attorney representing the driver they rear-ended, or the attorney representing their company in a workers comp case the poster files, or their potential employer, or…
1 Like
Besides not having any interest (the horror! ), and not wanting to spend even MORE time on my computer/phone, that’s the main reason I won’t do FB. Anything you post can, with judicious editing, be used against you. Maybe not legally, but in the court of public opinion.
2 Likes
FYI, anyone can read the chat. But only subscribers can post, and non-subscribers can only see the most recent 2 or 3 (or most recent) page(s).
1 Like