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[S.L. Lewis]

You guys are gross... that's why I love you so much

 

Who, us? We're cute and innocent. *pounces* *cuddles* *bounces off leaving behind a ruffled and dazed rknapp*

 

Whoops for double post

 

Eh, it's been happening lately. Don't know why.

[Tiger]

You guys are gross... that's why I love you so much

How are we gross?

[S.L. Lewis]

How are we gross?

 

 

I bet it's because we're cuddly.

[Tristan Thinks]

I've always been of the opinion that 'chat' should be on IRC, with posts to forums reserved for more considered or informational posts that have longevity.

 

With one or two exceptions, I only post meaningful topics or responses to forums. I would actually be quite embarrassed and almost ashamed to be a prolific poster.

[S.L. Lewis]

I've always been of the opinion that 'chat' should be on IRC, with posts to forums reserved for more considered or informational posts that have longevity.

 

With one or two exceptions, I only post meaningful topics or responses to forums. I would actually be quite embarrassed and almost ashamed to be a prolific poster.

 

 

And thus the reason for threads like this for those who like to drop a hello to multiple members and have a fun time without racking up the post count.

Sometimes, you can have a very meaningful chat here. I have, a couple of times. But mostly, it's done in fun.

[Tristan Thinks]

Going slightly off-topic but as it's part of the reason why I'm uncomfortable about 'chat' in forums I'll expand. For anyone who didn't read what happened to my ex-boyfriend who was blackmailed, casual 'chat' recorded in forums gave the blackmailer information about my ex-boyfriend that wasn't available elsewhere, and was stuff the blackmailer couldn't ask without raising suspicions.

 

My point about 'chat' is that by it's nature it is casual and transient and to a great extent, throw-away. I've never felt it a good thing to preserve such conversations in a database indefinitely as happens with forums. In chat people can often be remarkably candid; usually not expecting what is said to be recorded for anyone to find.

 

It'd be rather like all the casual conversations you have at home, school, work, whilst socialising or on the telephone being recorded or transcribed and retained where anyone can then find them in the future using a simple anonymous search.

 

Some of the sophisticated identity theft schemes use web searches and custom web-crawlers to piece together snippets of information that people casually drop into forum posts to build up a complete profile of a person - sufficient to misuse someone's identity.

 

I have the same concerns about the kind of personal content many people put in their blogs.

 

For example, here on Gay Authors the publishing of peoples birthdays and all the congratulations in the Lounge makes it real easy to get someone's date of birth, simply by combining the date with snippets in their profile and other posts to get their age. Add to that clues as to home location, names, and other information, and it makes it ridiculously easy for that person's ID to be abused.

 

This kind of information is, in general, more prevalent in 'chat' comments. More considered articles generally have a different focus and don't contain candid information nearly as often.

 

Identities of young adults are particularly attractive to cloning gangs since there is less existing 'official' data about that person in existence, making it easier to create a fake identity. Older people usually have much more data in various official databases that will help anti-fraud measures spot anomalies more easily.

 

People tend to forget that although they're aiming their comments at a small group of people they feel they 'know and trust', the world and his dog can find those comments at any time using most search engines.

 

Even if a site implements a 'robots.txt' exclusion file only the well-behaved web crawlers obey it - there are lots of crawlers operated by criminal gangs that specialise in crawling 'community' sites to gather these snippets and put them together.

[Tiger]

I bet it's because we're cuddly.

Everyone needs a good cuddle. I just happen to one who can cuddle with men and women alike. That doesn't make me a bad guy, does it?

 

Going slightly off-topic but as it's part of the reason why I'm uncomfortable about 'chat' in forums I'll expand. For anyone who didn't read what happened to my ex-boyfriend who was blackmailed, casual 'chat' recorded in forums gave the blackmailer information about my ex-boyfriend that wasn't available elsewhere, and was stuff the blackmailer couldn't ask without raising suspicions.

 

My point about 'chat' is that by it's nature it is casual and transient and to a great extent, throw-away. I've never felt it a good thing to preserve such conversations in a database indefinitely as happens with forums. In chat people can often be remarkably candid; usually not expecting what is said to be recorded for anyone to find.

 

It'd be rather like all the casual conversations you have at home, school, work, whilst socialising or on the telephone being recorded or transcribed and retained where anyone can then find them in the future using a simple anonymous search.

 

Some of the sophisticated identity theft schemes use web searches and custom web-crawlers to piece together snippets of information that people casually drop into forum posts to build up a complete profile of a person - sufficient to misuse someone's identity.

 

I have the same concerns about the kind of personal content many people put in their blogs.

 

For example, here on Gay Authors the publishing of peoples birthdays and all the congratulations in the Lounge makes it real easy to get someone's date of birth, simply by combining the date with snippets in their profile and other posts to get their age. Add to that clues as to home location, names, and other information, and it makes it ridiculously easy for that person's ID to be abused.

 

This kind of information is, in general, more prevalent in 'chat' comments. More considered articles generally have a different focus and don't contain candid information nearly as often.

 

Identities of young adults are particularly attractive to cloning gangs since there is less existing 'official' data about that person in existence, making it easier to create a fake identity. Older people usually have much more data in various official databases that will help anti-fraud measures spot anomalies more easily.

 

People tend to forget that although they're aiming their comments at a small group of people they feel they 'know and trust', the world and his dog can find those comments at any time using most search engines.

 

Even if a site implements a 'robots.txt' exclusion file only the well-behaved web crawlers obey it - there are lots of crawlers operated by criminal gangs that specialise in crawling 'community' sites to gather these snippets and put them together.

You simply need to be careful about what you say in forums and chatrooms. People often forget about stuff like that. For example, I used to be in Yahoo! Chat a lot. This woman used her real name as her handle. Someone used it to find information about her and posted her address and phone number in the chatroom.

[S.L. Lewis]

Everyone needs a good cuddle. I just happen to one who can cuddle with men and women alike. That doesn't make me a bad guy, does it?

 

 

You simply need to be careful about what you say in forums and chatrooms. People often forget about stuff like that. For example, I used to be in Yahoo! Chat a lot. This woman used her real name as her handle. Someone used it to find information about her and posted her address and phone number in the chatroom.

 

 

Of course not! I love to cuddle with male and females to. I'm an equal opportunity cuddler. *pounces* *cuddles* *bounces off leaving behind a ruffled Tiger, looking for her next vic...^cough^ cuddle*

 

That is so true. I don't use my real name as my handle. When chatting or IMing, depending on which one you get me, it's either Psycho Yaoi Bitc* or Psycho Yaoi Bitc*, that is I. As it is, the name you know me as is just my pen name. It's to protect myself. I used to post my original stories, then I ended up with a stalker. I stopped posting, took my stuff down and ended up with writers block for a good year. All that happened under my real name and I refuse to do it again. That and it's easier for people to call me Rose. My real name is to hard to say, much less think properly.

[Tristan Thinks]

You simply need to be careful about what you say in forums and chatrooms. People often forget about stuff like that. For example, I used to be in Yahoo! Chat a lot. This woman used her real name as her handle. Someone used it to find information about her and posted her address and phone number in the chatroom.

Indeed - I've been involved in running on-line communities since 1994 so I've about seen it all.

 

It's the dribbling of small nuggets of info that is the problem, and if they are left lying around in a database it's trivial from someone to connect them together. Don't think that not using your real name is a protection either, because it isn't. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to cross-correlate those nuggets, combine them with searches of real-world databases, and stir in some pattern recognition to find the real identity.

 

I don't worry about it for myself since I make sure only the stuff I'm comfortable being public is available. My address and telephone numbers are available for business reasons anyway. I also keep an active check on misuse of information.

 

It doesn't stop me being concerned about how the other 95% let things slip - people who aren't clued up on the miracles of modern search and pattern-recognition technology.

[Tiger]

Indeed - I've been involved in running on-line communities since 1994 so I've about seen it all.

 

It's the dribbling of small nuggets of info that is the problem, and if they are left lying around in a database it's trivial from someone to connect them together. Don't think that not using your real name is a protection either, because it isn't. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to cross-correlate those nuggets, combine them with searches of real-world databases, and stir in some pattern recognition to find the real identity.

 

I don't worry about it for myself since I make sure only the stuff I'm comfortable being public is available. My address and telephone numbers are available for business reasons anyway. I also keep an active check on misuse of information.

 

It doesn't stop me being concerned about how the other 95% let things slip - people who aren't clued up on the miracles of modern search and pattern-recognition technology.

That sounds horrifying. :wacko:

[BeaStKid]

at another forum I am a member, newbies have VIRGIN as the member title till they hit 5 posts...

[Tiger]

at another forum I am a member, newbies have VIRGIN as the member title till they hit 5 posts...

What site is that? <sniggers>

[Benji]

What site is that? <sniggers>

 

 

.......With that, I would hazard a guess that Tigers status on that site would last a minute!

Edited March 6, 2008 by Benji

[BeaStKid]

What site is that? <sniggers>

The site I talked to you about while we chatted...