Poll- Do you want to be seen online?

[Dani Larcom]

Guess I should have read before I posted. If it's slowing things down, you can get rid of it. It doesn't really matter to me either way.

[lbeier]

I voted, but want my 2 cents heard to all

I don't care if people know I am here or not...unless my boss decides to join and some people who I'm trying to avoid, but other than that - let the world know that I get paid at work, but don't really do any!

My question is about Foes - do any of you actually have any. Oh wait, you might not want to answer that! I noticed the new CS site doesn't offer you a place to put your enemies!

[Holly]

Julie has a doe....Braveheart.

[bethrich]

I voted no and it's because I want to be able to pop in from work (someday) and not be visible in case one of my co-workers was also in the forum. I just prefer the option.

[EDelValle]

I know that in the club Scrap Chat
forum there was an indicator if a
person was or wasn't online, I don't
remember even seeing the box on the bottom
that says who is online. If you have the option
of just the note at the avitar I would go with that,
instead of the box at the bottom of the page.
The way the names are listed, they're not that easy to
read anyway. LOL

[Malleybean]

One of the things I've disliked about forums in the past are unknown lurkers - that's one reason I usually prefer yahoo groups, you know exactly who is reading. I voted yes, but I'm ok either way.

Is there a way to make it so you have to be a member and logged in to view posts though? IMO that's more important to know who can read as opposed to knowing who is reading at a particular point in time.

[InkPattie]

There is a board option where you can say if you want to hide your online status. I assume we could hide ourselves away to avoid enemies or co-workers if we say "yes" to hide online status, but I haven't tried it. I'm hoping I don't have any enemies here, and all the good websites and forums are blocked from my workplace (thank goodness, or I'd never get any work done!).

[Luanne]

Do I have any Foes... I almos made one, but figured they might get a notice, so I just avoided them. If you make someone a foe, I believe you won't see any of their posts. Kind of like ignore.

Can we make everything unavailable to anyone but members? Yes, we can do that. I'll bring that up for discussion with #1. We discussed it briefly when we were creating this, I think... but I tangent so much I probably steered the conversation in another direction.

[lbeier]

There is a board option where you can say if you want to hide your online status. I assume we could hide ourselves away to avoid enemies or co-workers if we say "yes" to hide online status, but I haven't tried it. I'm hoping I don't have any enemies here, and all the good websites and forums are blocked from my workplace (thank goodness, or I'd never get any work done!).

I'd have to quit my job if they blocked my websites and forums.

[donnak]

I did vote yes but either way is fine for me.

Me, too!

[tlscrap]

I think it's great if we can see them online, if we need to get someone, it's really useful. However, I do respect people's privacy. I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, that there may be an option in the user control panel, that lets you "turn yourself off" if you don't want to be seen???

[beargal]

Luanne,
I do like the idea of only members being able to see what is on this forum. There ends up being so much personal info shared as well as what is on our layouts that it seems like a good idea. Of course so much of our lives is now available to anyone who wants to search for it I am not certain it really makes any difference.
Rebecca

[paddlegal]

I voted yes, but I'm not hiding from anyone...yet. I respect though the need in some cases for privacy. Either way suits me, but I enjoy seeing who is on particularly late at night when insomnia hits.

[admin]

It's interesting to see all of the opinions here. They're all valid, and you all make good points. I do know that there's a box when you log in that says "hide my online status", but when I check it, I still see myself online. I don't know if that means I'm visible to you or not. I also don't know if it hides the part at the bottom where it lists users viewing the forum. I'll have to do some testing to find out.

Regarding hiding posts from folks who aren't registered - I'm kind of torn on that. I am all about personal privacy. However, if we don't let anyone browse our posts, how will they know if they want to join? That has always annoyed me about yahoo. I have to go through the joining process, just to be able to see the archives, and once I've seen the archives, I realize it's not what I thought it was.

And while it's fun to see that we have so many members, do we really want to have a list of members who registered just to see if they were interested? And never ever posted? I guess I'd rather someone check us out for a bit, and then if they want to post, go ahead and join up. Know what I mean?

And regarding posting layouts or whatever to the gallery, I guess I view that as a personal choice. It's not a requirement to be a member that you post a photo of yourself or your family, or any of your artwork, for that matter. So I guess I figure if a member doesn't want others to see their photos, then that's totally their choice.

Anyway, I'm following this poll closely. I respect everyone's opinion, but I also don't want to have to lay down a whole bunch of rules and strict guidelines. Art is more fun when there are fewer rules. And I'm pretty sure Luanne would agree with me on that one.

[bethrich]

As far as posting personal information, it's best to just never post anything you don't want the world to know. That includes images and words in posted LOs and artwork.