Survey - How much membership information should we collect?

[admin]

Hello everyone,

The new GD site has been going strong for a few months now, and you're probably starting to form opinions about things you like and don't like. So I'm going to ask for specific feedback over the next few months on areas I know people have been talking about.

This weeks poll relates to how much information we collect and make available to other members. Currently, the door is wide open to anyone to join the site, there is no entry restriction. This will shortly be tightened up a tad (now that the initial surge of registrations has abated), but will remain open to anyone with a valid email address. I've heard a few comments that members would like a means to identify other users, since user names alone don't always tell you much. This site is also currently not giving out email addresses - we only use your email address to send you posts you're subscribed to receive, send out individual private message and email notifications, and occasionally important site-wide notices.

You will have to be logged into the website to read and participate in this poll. Thanks for your feedback. Feel free to respond to this post if you have something to say that can't be summed up by multi-choice.

Regards,
Admin

[Colin]

Do you what is visible?

I'd be opposed to email being visible. This is purely from the practical reason of keeping such things hidden from spam bots.

[admin]

That's why I set it up like this, for that very reason. The thing that killed the Smartgroups site, among other things, was the spam problem. So currently, unless a member here gives out their email address overtly, there is no way for anyone to collect anyones email from this site.

There has been some suggestion that people would like real names published however, which is what prompted me to ask the question.

Nigel

[TabbyPossum]

maybe we could get a real name and club
First name only would be ok and be of no use anyone up to no good.
The private message function is good if you want to contact anyone without having to give out email addresses

[knight of magdalene]

Thats all very good if the user of this forum is indeed linked to any club. It may be that the user is new to or in other way non incumbered. What is the basis for the fears? What type of no good are you infering? Perhaps I amnot very savey but please xpand?

[admin]

I guess the concern here is that the more information that is provided on a publicly accessible site the more that information could be used to spam members. If your first and last name were made available I don't know that this would be too dangerous unless you really wanted to remain anonymous, in which case it would defeat the purpose of recording your real name at all. Giving out email addresses would be more dangerous from a spam perspective.

Anyone can view this website and it's public contents (public forums, links, limited member list, etc) without logging in, therefore, if email addresses were made available it's possible for someone to collect email addresses from the site for use in spam. For this reason, I am personally against providing email addresses. However, this is the reason for the poll, I'l like to know what you all think.

So far the poll results suggest that there's a fairly even split between the status quo, providing real name and providing real name and email. At this stage I'm leaning towards providing a place for people to give their real name, and encouraging them to do so, but not making it mandatory.

Cheers,
Admin

[Ben]

I think having real names for each member would be good (single field, so people can limit it to first name if they wish) and club association available but not manditory so people can state their affiliations if the wish to do so.

Publicising e-mail addresses is a risky business as spammers then get all our e-mail addresses and we get swamped with spam - if you wish to make them public please make this optional.

[admin]

Thanks everyone for your feedback, both through this thread and through other avenues. The majority concensus is that we should be asking for real names, perhaps club affiliation(s), but not email.

To this end, we'll be making a few changes in the coming weeks to accomodate this. This will include asking everyone to provide this extra information in their profile, once there's a place to put it.

Cheers,
Admin