Hi Ian,

I also agree. With this sort of fault it is so much easier to be able to work on the fault in person than having to ask questions and wait for the answers to diagnose a fault. This is one of the things that made me start the "Forum nigggles" thread.

Les.

Wotsit,

Whilst I understand your reluctance to reveal too many personal details, a profile on this forum does not.

You can say as little or as much about yourself as you wish, and you choose whether to reveal your 'true' identity, location, country etc.

As there are now many contributors in various countries, it is often useful to know where the person is located.

As for the rudeness, well, ou can choose as many of us do, to ignore the content or ignore the member.

Just my 2 penneth

CB

I think country should be displayed in the bit to the left of the posts and possibly county too. Helps make sense of some posts.

On another forum a few years ago we were trying ot help a guy who kept 'breaking' wire as he wired up his garage which just didn't make sense. Enentually it transpired he was in Canada at 30 below zero and the plastic insulation was literally shattering if moved. A location would have got it solved in seconds.

Better go and add something myself.

A Profile is a precis of information about yourself including such things as age, location, hobbies and perhaps marital status.

This Forum is open to a large number of people all over the world and there are people who would like your detail for their on purposes.

Think about Face Book and some of the ramiications of personal details and the telling of tales on that platform.

Another piece of information that might make your ears prick up is that Google goes through all these sites with Bots and picks up details and it is then recorded in Google.

Type your name into Google and see if any of your posts from this Forum appear under your name in Google! You will be surprised.

Clive

Coalburner,

As you say, I can choose to reveal as much or as little as I want – I already made my choice, for the reasons stated.

Ian,

What business is it of anyone on the forum what I am, whether 'spotty teenager, politician, brain surgeon, or just a crank'? And why should a wish for privacy be verging on 'paranoia'? This is no reason for not using the Internet. It seems that every time someone raises a potential warning about something, one is accused of 'paranoia' and told one should not use it. Might as well say 'why are you breathing, when so much pollution is about'. The Internet exists, and unfortunately there are many clowns who think it is clever to steal and/or misuse information circulating on it – I choose not to provide that information wherever possible. I would be interested in your comments when you become a victim of Internet intrusion.

Clive has pointed out some of the pitfalls of various areas of the web – this is not 'paranoia' – just sensible.

As for rudeness – there has been at least one thread (I believe) on this forum that resulted in the Moderator deleting large chunks of it. There was also a recent thread in which a contributor announced his intention to make no more contributions to the forum.

Hi Ian , Point taken , just updated my profile , I'm in Matlock in Derbysjire.

Cheers

Chris.

Hey Sid

fully appreciate what your saying, and i absolutely had no intention of reporting anyone….too lazy…. ))

pinging me [or anyone else for that matter] would only give a VERY general location and is just about useless for locating people generally.

and detecting an errant IP addy from my firewall logs would take only seconds if i were of a mind to look for one

the point i was trying to get across is that some people seem to think that if you dont want to tell the world your business then there must be an ulterior motive. Well theres not ! Some people just like to protect their privacy for no other reason than its nobody elses business.

I tried that with my name as it appears on the forum, and after about eight pages of results which have nothing whatsoever to do with me, I gave up. But I do know that if you put an even more abbreviated form of my name into it, you'll get quite a good result – although it has nothing to do with engineering in the sense that it occurs here…

Despite the fact that I still spend some time in an environment where data security is a real issue, and it's taken very seriously (databases physically disconnected, even locally, when not actually in use), I've got to the point where I really don't care too much about who can see what about me on the web. Mainly because I've been pretty careful about what's got onto it in the first place I suppose, so I don't have too much to worry about. And it's not as though I'm a recent convert, either – I've been using it since it escaped into Universities in the late 80's. Yes, there are traps for the unwary, but a lot of the hype about it is just that – hype. Mainly caused by media scares, which I regard as a far more insidious threat to society as a whole!

Edited By Steve Garnett on 10/04/2012 10:04:35

What a lot of fuss! It's just a matter of personal choice to have a personal profile or not – and the majority choose not. The private message facility works well for times when a more personal contact seems appropriate and, if a visit is possible and desirable, then arrangements can be made there.

"Wotsit" made a reasoned case for not wishing to add any personal information to his profile and , sadly, he is derided for this. Comments such as "Spotty Teenager – or even worse "Politician"! which, whilst I acknowledge not intended as insulting to him, introduce a negative aspect and encourage emotional response. It's not an action " bordering on paranoia" if he wishes to protect his security – it's his business and his right to do so.

Can we not just stick to ME, deal politly with each other and respect other folks personal preferences?

Norman

P.S.

Cornish Jack – I've just seen your post and that you can't see why folk don't put their location in their profiles – then I see you don't have YOUR location in yours!  ( Having "Cornish" in your name doesn't count – it is possible, after all to buy a Cornish Pastie anywhere – or is that a sausage roll!!)

Edited By NJH on 10/04/2012 10:44:32

Where I think it counts is when you want help.

I often look at a profile to see if i can tailer help to the guys location. No good telling some guyin the US to go to Aldi and buy a cheap caliper is it ?

Quite a few times I have offered the poster help if he comes round having found out he's local.

However many times I have refraned from helping due to not knowing where the poster is.

I personally cannot see anything wrong with county and country, unless you are one of the three people living in Rutlandshire

John S.

Bloody lack of a spel chucker.

Edited By John Stevenson on 10/04/2012 11:29:14