Reveal E-mail Addresses?

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
Currently, I have the forum set to request members' e-mail addresses, and those addresses are visible to all members of the forum.

Some members have written to me asking for the option of hiding their e-mail addresses from public view.

I've got mixed feelings about this...

Pros:
Sharing your e-mail address creates a more open, friendly environment.
Public E-mail addresses make it much easier for me to send out notices and other forum-related information.
This makes it easier for fellow members to contact you off line.

Cons:
We don't want spammers harvesting addresses from this forum.
Some people just don't want their e-mail addresses revealed.

Other Considerations:
SMF provides an excellent personal-messaging (PM) system that in effect makes e-mail addresses unnecessary.
Spammers can be taken care of in other ways.

So, I'll to put this out as a poll question:
Should members be required to share their e-mail addresses?

In addition to voting in the poll, feel free to voice your opinion more fully in the discussion area.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[greg mann]

Matt,

I think the PM feature makes personal email addresses unnecessary. While I have no problem revealing my own address I also have no problem with others wanting theirs out of sight. It has caused no problems for me so far to have mine revealed but I visit the forum often enough that PMs work just fine. Truth be told, I probably spend too much time here but that is another issue altogether. :

I also do not believe hiding emails will have any impact on the forum culture. This is, by far, the most pleasent and cooperative forum I have participated in with only one exception, Qayaq USA, which has a similar character.

 

[Dan Lyke]

Count me in as another one who's totally willing to have my email address completely exposed (it's danlyke@flutterby.com, so there), but who sympathises with those who don't want to show their email to others and thinks that the private message function makes exposing the email superfluous.

 

[Dan Clark]

Matthew,

I also have no problem sharing my e-mail address, but believe that it should be a user option.  However, assuming that it's feasible, I think there should be a fourth question - something like:

It is OK to receive e-mails from the FOG admin, but NOT be open to the public.

Regards,

Dan.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Dan,
I've added your suggestion to the poll.
For space considerations, I shortened it to this:
"Addresses should be accessible to FOG admin but NOT the public"
Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

Matthew - By the choices you have provided, I must assume it is not possible within the forum software to enable emails while keeping the email addresses invisible until the point when the email is sent.  Some forums have that option, so members can communicate via email, but the email addresses are kept hidden from view, and presumably hidden from email spammers as well.

Requiring an email address in order to be a forum member is not a good idea, IMHO.  Some folks simply will not share their email address, and we will lose those folks as potential froum members.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

David,
There might be a way to add a software modification to do what you're suggesting.  That would make it better.  There still might be people who just don't want their e-mail address revealed to anyone but administrators under any circumstances.

But I will look into a software tweak!

Thanks for your input.

Matthew

 

[ejantny]

Another option is to have email address available to the admin with the option of also having it public.

 

[ac]

I have seen an example of a forum and a members detail on it used to hunt down that member over a dispute of a couple thousand dollars. The fact that your location and email is exposed, a member could be 'located'. At present if you don't want that very small risk, you have to setup a unidentifying email account and/or not declare your location. However I think the 'location' is important in a forum especially this one since its a international one so I would prefer my email not be exposed at all and just declare of location.

Being in IT I know its only a matter of time before this forum is discovered and the emails harvested. Spammers are getting sophisticated too once they have the email addresses, bypassing the spam filters with carefully selected words and using your interest as registered by this forum to get the spam through.

Also I have seen 2 totally separate forums in Australia get attacked and hacked for the email member addresses it had hidden. So be warned as they can be  determined to get it one way or another.

Thanks,
AC

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Thanks everyone for your input on this.  We can continue to discuss it and people can continue to vote in the poll.  But I think it's best right now, and would reflect the wishes of members, if I changed the settings to allow members to hide their e-mail addresses.

I've just made the change.  From now on, you can elect whether to reveal your e-mail address.

Here are the steps to change this setting:
1. From the main menu, click on "Profile."
2. On the left side of the screen, select "Account Related Settings" in the "Modify Profile" section.
3. Check or un-check the "Hide email address from public?" option.

Note that you still must enter an e-mail address to register for the forum.  But with the "Hide email address from public?" checked, only administrators will be able to see it.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Tezzer]

Im happy to have my mail addy shown  ;D

To those who dont, why not open a seperate yahoo or MSN account just for this forum. That way it wont "spoil" your normal mail and you can have a gander at your new account every now and again to see if you have mail from a fellow Festoolians  ;D

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Tezzer,
Thanks for your opinion.

As I said earlier, I had mixed feelings about this, so perhaps the best solution is to give members the option.  Other members, like you, can state your opinion one way or the other.  But in the end, it's each individual's choice.

The mic is open for other voices...

Matthew