ALERT: FJ registered email addresses on public view

[Guest Anonymous]

I know that this has been addressed before, but I have noticed there are quite a few newish FJers who have been sharing very personal things about their family/friends and who have their personal email addresses on public display in their accounts. If the email used for registration is the same one used for any other public forum or site such as Facebook, then it could compromise your identity and that of the people whose stories you share here.

There may be more than I have spotted, so I thought it worth putting up another reminder: in the left hand corner of any posts you have made, there are little buttons that other members can use to send you PMs or to check your profile. For some members there is also an 'email' button and , if you hover over it, your email address shows in full in the far left hand corner of the screen. The same email address is also visible in your profile.

To remove your email from public display you need to open your User Control Panel, and click on Board Preferences, in the Options list. Click the "No" button on the first option, "Users can contact me by email", hit the "submit" button, and your email address should then be hidden from view.

[ZTwist]

Thank you, did not know this.

[Bella99]

Thanks, I've been around awhile and this might explain a really odd piece of spam I got last month.

[freejoytoo]

Thanks, didn't know it was on display! Bit of a horrible thought....

[Deleted06]

Thank you, I had no idea about this.

[Minerva]

Wow, thanks! I had no idea.

[ladypuglover]

Bumping this up. Thanks for the heads up and when I checked I found that I already had made sure that mine was blocked. Not that it matters as it seems I'm locked out of my e-mail anyway. :(

[Whydoyouask]

Thank you... even though I register for message boards with a 'dummy' email I still like to block everything.

[AudreyE]

Thank you! I'm not sure I've ever seen that be the default setting before.

[SpeshulTaterTot]

Thank you!

[Dinaberries]

Thanks very much!

[delilahdog11]

Thank you! Holy hell. I posted a seriously personal story and I wouldn't want anyone in the story compromised. Changed that setting. Thanks for watching out for everyone.

[Third]

How do I change the setting?

Edit: I figured it out. :)

[wildrose]

Thank you so much! I have not run across this in any of the other forums that I post on. Could the default setting be changed to protect everyone's privacy or could the sign-up procedure be changed so that one has to agree that one's email address will be shown?

[Guest Anonymous]

Thank you so much! I have not run across this in any of the other forums that I post on. Could the default setting be changed to protect everyone's privacy or could the sign-up procedure be changed so that one has to agree that one's email address will be shown?

You would need to PM admin (Alecto, Austin or Treemom) to suggest this.

[Alecto]

Thank you so much! I have not run across this in any of the other forums that I post on. Could the default setting be changed to protect everyone's privacy or could the sign-up procedure be changed so that one has to agree that one's email address will be shown?

Sadly, that's not an option with this software.

[Boogalou]

Thanks for letting us know. It's good to be safe.

[OohLaLa]

Thank you much, I had no idea.

[littlehouse]

Just fixed mine as well...I hope!

Thanks!

[ilovetchotchkes]

I THINK I fixed it? OMG thank you for telling us.

[luckylibrarian]

Bumping this again. Thanks for the reminder, anniec.

[VenusDaisy]

Oh wow! Thanks for letting us know!

[Terrasola]

Thanks and bright blessings to you Annie

[J-Watcher]

It is massively irresponsible of the forum owner to have default settings that make e-mail addresses public. I've never seen this on any other forum. Makes me wonder what her motivations are in running this forum, or if she's just plain incompetent. I used an anonymous address to register, because this forum seemed a bit sketchy -- apparently my instincts were right.

[holierthanyou]

It is massively irresponsible of the forum owner to have default settings that make e-mail addresses public. I've never seen this on any other forum. Makes me wonder what her motivations are in running this forum, or if she's just plain incompetent. I used an anonymous address to register, because this forum seemed a bit sketchy -- apparently my instincts were right.

Maybe you (massively irresponsibly ) missed reading the admin's note on this thread- it's not something they are able to change with the forum template/software.