Future of the Forum

[Beerina]

The JREF does now appear to understand there are potential issues with the personal information it holds being transferred to new ownership. I'm not in place to speak with any authority on the matter but I would be shocked if they don't purge that information before the transfer. Remember the personal information consists of real name, country and state if in the USA, if folk have added anything else into their profile that is public and would not be covered by the JREF's privacy statement or the registration TOS.

I was banned until I gave up my real name, something I did not want to do given my penchant to savage religion. You, yourself, promised me this would be kept private. I could only imagine this was for some bizarre legal reason lest you be sued, but that's beside the point.

 

[Jeff Wagg]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.

I did send a brief outline to a JREF representative for how to deal with security concerns which would have ensured that no names or PMs would have moved off the JREF servers. They may have their own plan though.

 

[JoeMorgue]

You'll have to pardon some of us if "We might have a plan at some hypothetical point in the future if and when the people actually making the decision finally deem us ("us" apparently including the people that are actually making the deal with) worthy of their attention" is less then reassuring.

 

[Spindrift]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.

I did send a brief outline to a JREF representative for how to deal with security concerns which would have ensured that no names or PMs would have moved off the JREF servers. They may have their own plan though.

That folks means we have hit the iceberg.

I'm out of here. If the Carpathia happens by, I will jump aboard until then I don't need the angst.

One last thing to all those worried about your precious data. Now you start worrying? You were fine when it was JREF? An organization who demonstated their ongoing concern for the forum by NOT DOING BACKUPS. This site would be child's play for anyone semi-capable who really wanted to get the username, passwords and email addresses. Going anywhere else will make the data more secure, not less secure.

Au revoir.

 

[Cleon]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.

I did send a brief outline to a JREF representative for how to deal with security concerns which would have ensured that no names or PMs would have moved off the JREF servers. They may have their own plan though.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

 

[a_unique_person]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.

Would you be able to describe what they are?

 

[This is The End]

I have a cat. I call her Maple. She's pretty dumb. It's clear there's not an ounce of malice anywhere in her body. It's equally obvious that nothing could be further from her mind than the criteria by which I judge her.

She's off on her own trajectory, thinking her own thoughts, contemplating life on her own dumb cat wavelength. She lives in my house, eats my food, and sleeps in my bed. But every time our paths cross, it comes as a complete surprise to her. That's how totally orthogonal our priorities--the very lives we each live--are to each other. I'm convinced she's only dimly aware of me at all, and thinks of me in vague, transient bursts. To her I'm a momentary itch, a distraction on her road to other things entirely.

There are plenty of people in the world for whom curatorship of an Internet forum is entirely incidental to the important things in life. It seems to me quite likely that the leadership team of the JREF are such people, and that the forum is not actually important enough for the question of professionalism to even arise. Certainly my cat Maple has yet to deal with me in a professional manner. I put it down to her essential cat nature, and don't hold it against her that she does not demonstrate any awareness of my human rights and dignity, against which she constantly offends.

An absolute amazingly apt post. Penultimate amazing even. One of the best posts I have ever seen on this forum.

 

[madurobob]

Things are not as they were described to me.

Well, the good news is things were actually described to you, and you now know they are not thus. Thats a damn sight better than most everyone else here feeding off conjecture and innuendo.

Is it possible for you to fill us in on any of these details?

 

[This is The End]

If there is one fact about the internet that I wish more people would understand, it's that different people don't see the same results in google. Google customises its search results according to each user's search history, location, shopping habits and shoe size (probably).

Could not be farther from how it actually works. I'm appalled that you think this is a "fact", let alone one that you "wish more people would understand"!!

In a random search between random people they will the vast majority of the time see almost exactly the same results...

That only applies if they sign in. If they remain signed out then they should get the same Google results if they are using Google.com (/ncr)

...and that even holds true if they are signed in! Go ahead and try it for yourself, call a random friend and have them enter a random word or phrase.

 

[This is The End]

So out of thousands of members, maybe 2-3 get hung. I can live with that (but they can't).

That is not funny. At all.

 

[DrDave]

That is not funny. At all For them.

ftfy

 

[This is The End]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.
I did send a brief outline to a JREF representative for how to deal with security concerns which would have ensured that no names or PMs would have moved off the JREF servers. They may have their own plan though.

I am very sorry to read this. And I have a feeling I echo the thoughts of many many other members when I say that.

I hope that the "JREF sorts out their situation" as soon as realistically possible and to your standards. We need you Jeff.

 

[This is The End]

ftfy

Laugh more about people being murdered because of their sexuality. It looks good on you.

 

[pgimeno]

And in case folks have forgotten this is the privacy statement for the forum: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/privacy.htm

Well, this part is wrong:

As a general rule, the JREF will not disclose or share any of your personally identifiable information except if you have given permission or when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.
​

Actually it's not wrong, as the "general rule" statement covers their asses in that respect. But at the very least, misleading: the birthday in particular is made public against users' consent, via a "Happy Birthday" sign next to the username in that day.

I have an astrologer stalking me from time to time (he's quite nuts). He wants to do his tricks to his public using my birthday, and I don't want him to get grip of it by any means.

When I registered, DOB info was not mandatory, and I didn't enter it because it's something that I do want to keep private. By then I was aware that the "Happy Birthday" thing happened from just reading the forum.

At some point, it became mandatory. I then started to get errors when trying to update my profile. I raised it with an administrator back then (Darat? not sure), and I was told that it's mandatory and I just had to enter it if I wanted to update my info. Since I didn't want to, because of the "Happy Birthday" thing, I have been unable to update that part of my profile since then.

So, I have to laugh at the privacy concerns of the people who have trusted their data to an organization that is disclosing my personal data against their own privacy policy.

That said, other than DOB, email, and password, there's no other info I want to keep private. I've even posted my real name in the public part of my profile.

I hope that the new forum will be more careful about treatment of personal data. If real DOB is mandatory, chances are I won't register.

 

[NoahFence]

Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

Well since there are no admins, you can go ahead and say what you really mean!

 

[This is The End]

the birthday in particular is made public against users' consent, via a "Happy Birthday" sign next to the username in that day.

That can be turned off. I do not remember if it is on or off by default.

 

[madurobob]

...and that even holds true if they are signed in! Go ahead and try it for yourself, call a random friend and have them enter a random word or phrase.

FWIW - I get quite different results on my PC using firefox with all cookies blocked and no browsing history, than I do on my android phone with, by default, location services enabled and stored history.

For one, on my PC, the IP address from my ISP identifies me as being in Atlanta, so I get a lot of results for Atlanta when I search, say, for electric guitar strings. But, the GPS on my phone identifies me as in Central NC, and the search results are quite different.

 

[Donn]

I wish we, the vast unwashed chopped liver masses, could be told the real news. If you cut us, do we not ooze?

 

[marplots]

I hope that the new forum will be more careful about treatment of personal data. If real DOB is mandatory, chances are I won't register.

Well, happy birthday anyhow.

 

[Belz...]

I have no interest in taking the forum under the College of Curiosity brand. It's not the right fit at all.

I'm only here because I see people being treated badly, and I might be in a position to help. I'd like to see the forum go on, and I have some skills that are sorely needed in that regard, but until the JREF sorts out their situation, there's no role for me to play. Things are not as they were described to me.

Seems to me like things aren't looking up, then.

Now, where the hell am I going to spend my internet time ?