Big brother is watching...

[mngolfer]

I just discovered that everything we write on this forum is available to anyone using a Google topic search.

Search for any subject ie Someone backed into my car, MN or dead clutch pedal or vibration at 120-155 mph or any other subject and you can read the entire posting with everyone's comments.

Discussions of speeding or damage to your car can be found with similar searches. This really surprised me. I thought our comments were available only to forum members. 1984 is looming large.

[SBFV10]

Scary isn't it!

[SDR8]

Look at the bottom of the forums and you will see who is online. Ever wonder why so many guests? Click on "currently active users" and you will see a list. It is usually pretty long, so you will need to increase the number per page to display all of them. You will normally see several search spiders/bots that are data mining. This even goes for names for photos in the gallery (if you use Google to search for "J4T_Sunrise", you will get a photo I posted here). So keep this in mind, even when you post names for your photos or anything you post here.

[SBFV10]

Boy...that list is long....and a bit disturbing! I guess that is the "newest" problem with the WWW. Sharing tooooo much info!

S.

[peterh]

Just typing in your name in Google is eye-opening. NOTHING is private anymore!

[rmicroys]

there must be a way to configure the forums to prevent google and other bots from crawling across the whole site.

[mngolfer]

I belong to MNAUDI. It is a private forum and nothing can be seen unless you are a forum member. The membership is limited and the site host is strict about who is allowed into the forum.
There is a way, although I do not know how to make R8talk private, I can check with the host of MNAUDI for a fix if the members have an interest.

[SBFV10]

I know that this forum is a terrific resource for the world about the R8....but, I think that it should be open to members only, and not guests. That would solve the spy problem.

Thanks mngolfer for suggesting this.

[SDR8]

It all comes down to how the administrator sets up the board. You can open it to any user or make it so that you need to be a registered user. There are some reasons to have it open to the public and I understand the privacy part too. A lot of admins will have different security setting for different sections (have general and some others open to all and certain others locked down).

The reason I came here is a search I did while I was researching R8s. It is a great resource for info and I would hate to see it locked away. Perhaps offer a limited access area or option to secure a thread when it is created might make some happy.

[SBFV10]

You're correct about this site being a great resource. I also found it via a search when initially doing my research on the R8. So I agree that it has a great value as an open forum.

But I do like the idea of closing a thread to members only if chosen by the thread creator. I wonder if the Admns would go for that as an option?

Hum....