Question about reading posts on the forum

Anyone can read.  You must be a member to post.  That's why it's important that your email address be in your profile rather than on the post itself.  You have to be a member to see the email address in the profile.  The casual reader wouldn't have access to it.

You do not need to be registered to read postings. You need to be a registered member to post on the forum or look up a members profile. However, if you post in the buy/sell or wtb forums and include your email mail address anyone can contact you.

It is not recommended to post your contact information. Just list it in your profile. That way only a member can see it.

My understanding is that anyone can read the forum posts. Only members can reply to posts or see the profile info you choose to make public. This is why you shouldn't put your email in your post, but should make it available in your profile if you need to be contacted.

It doesn't take anything special to be a "member" though(anyone can register under any non-taken screen name they want). 

So if someone really want's to try to conduct a scam, it would not be difficult to get the info out of one's profile.

Point is, trust people you recognize from their forum activity, not just because they are a "member".

Dave45681 posted:

It doesn't take anything special to be a "member" though(anyone can register under any non-taken screen name they want). 

So if someone really want's to try to conduct a scam, it would not be difficult to get the info out of one's profile.

Point is, trust people you recognize from their forum activity, not just because they are a "member".

Let me address this statement.  About two years ago we instituted a very thorough verification process on new member applications.  All information that an applicant provides must be able to be verified through a variety of online data services we use and must be a deliverable residential address directly linked to the applicant along with the IP address identity of the computer and/or mobile device they are using.  This has greatly decreased the number of fake applications and one reason why you don't see odd ball ads popping up as we use to see every once in a while.  We are also going through current member profiles that joined prior to this verification process and checking to see if we have honest and up to date info.  Some of you already know this as you may have gotten requests to update your info so that we can verify that it is accurate and not deceptive in any way.  Those of you that have profile inaccuracies will be contacted eventually.  We are doing this because we are trying to provide as safe a place as possible for both our current membership as well as future members, but please remember that we can not possibly anticipate intentions members may or may not have in regards to their reasons for being members here.  So, since this forum can be read by non-members and only members can see profile information that you chose to share within your profile, we encourage you to not share personal info within posts.  If you want to sell or buy something, then provide contact info in your profile and not in your for sale or want to buy post because a non-member we do not know could contact you since you made your contact info available openly within the post!  Buyer or seller beware ... and always check first to see if the person that contacted you is a member.  If you can't find them, then ask them if they are a member and what avatar name they go by.  Do all the things common sense demands and don't get emotionally involved in your desire to obtain something without doing the proper research.  And always remember to follow our TOS as well as our for sale/trade rules ....

Good to know.  I appreciate that the management is attempting to do something, but I remain skeptical.

There are TONS of new members with a very specific format for their usernames.  They also all share the same birth date when you click the profile, which I still have no idea why that's even a thing - in this age of identity theft Birth Date (even without year) should have no place in a profile. I'd probably default it to January 1st too if asked, I guess.  States are different, but that's easy enough for a computer to randomize with only 50 legitimate choices.

I believe I've seen a few (very few) members with usernames in this format that actually have posted questions, etc. recently, but MANY show up as the "2 points for joining" category, with no activity whatsoever for many months after they have joined.  (Maybe those that actually are legitimate users saw some of these examples when picking their username and followed suit). 

Not sure how everyone else does this, but I generally only register somewhere when I want to ask a question or respond to something.  Why would one register and then have no activity of any form for months after doing so?  Makes no sense to me.

Since the POINTS in the profile indicate activity level, why can't they be used to restrict those who are on the forum strictly for the purpose of BUYING/SELLING?  Perhaps those people should be required to earn 1000 or so activity points before they earn that privilege.

wild mary posted:

Since the POINTS in the profile indicate activity level, why can't they be used to restrict those who are on the forum strictly for the purpose of BUYING/SELLING?  Perhaps those people should be required to earn 1000 or so activity points before they earn that privilege.

You are assuming the software has the capability to restrict posting based on that parameter.  Based on previous comments from Rich and/or Alan, I'm suspecting it does not. 

And the Buy and Sell forum is no different that any other forum in the way it operates, from the computer's perspective.

-Dave

Guys...you all are doing a lot of "speculating".  The question was answered and frankly this category is for questions...not continued discussion and especially now the comments are getting off topic from the original question.  Some of your comments are based on not really knowing how the software works.....

Dave45681 posted:

...There are TONS of new members with a very specific format for their usernames.  They also all share the same birth date when you click the profile...

I believe I've seen a few (very few) members with usernames in this format that actually have posted questions, etc. recently, but MANY show up as the "2 points for joining" category, with no activity whatsoever for many months after they have joined.  (Maybe those that actually are legitimate users saw some of these examples when picking their username and followed suit).

Dave, what you are seeing are new member entries that are the result of purchasing a Digital Subscription. An OGR Forum Membership is one of the perks of a digital subscription. However, many people who purchase a digital subscription are not members here, and may not even know this forum exists.

When that happens, we automatically run a script that enters them here as new members. The script checks to see if the person is already a member, and if so, adds the "DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER" icon to their account. If the person is NOT a member here, a new membership account is automatically established for them. We set their Display Name to their real name plus the date, such as "Rich Melvin - 11-12-2018" or something similar. Since we do not know their birth date just from their purchase of a digital subscription, the script enters a default date which is the same for all new digital subs. We don't use the DOB for anything anyway, so using the same date for all of these new members is not a big deal.

The bottom line is that this is nothing to be suspicious of, it is simply new Digital Subs being automatically entered as new members here when they purchase their digital subscription.

Topic Re-Closed.