Choose your username carefully

Submitted by louiseds on July 9, 2012 - 3:19am
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When registering for the Forums we suggest that you choose your Username very carefully. Consider the intimate nature of many of the discussions we have on these Forums. You might not want to use your normal everyday username for privacy reasons, in case someone Googles your username.

I have seen a couple of usernames recently that I thought could have been the person's real name, and I thought at the time that they were poor choices. If this was you, just register another username and continue posting.

We also once had a Member who did not want her Forum posts associated with her posts using the same username on another Forum. Because we respected her privacy, we removed all her posts, but that meant we had to also delete any posts that were in reply to them. This was necessary, but unfortunate.

i am pretty sure that Members can edit their own posts. If you find yourself in a position where you want to retract a post you can probably edit it by deleting the body and replacing it with "post removed by user", which will not affect replies to your post. I have Admin privileges, so my screen may be different. Would someone (who is not an Administrator) please try editing one of your own posts, and post a reply if you were successful?

We would prefer not to have a hand in embarrassing any Member unnecessarily, and will do what we can to help mop up any 'unwanted evidence', but we need you to play your part in being responsible for maintaining your own privacy as well.

Thanks

Louise

Forum:

Surviving60

July 9, 2012 - 7:12am

Yes Louise, we can edit our own posts, or "delete" them as you describe (by replacing the text with something else). I find that even my oldest posts from long ago can still be edited, though I know that doing so will bring the topic back up to the top of Recent Posts. - Surviving

ikam

July 9, 2012 - 7:44am

Is it possible to change a user name?

louiseds

July 9, 2012 - 8:32pm

I don't know whether or not it is possible to change your username. I will get Lanny or Christine to post in the next couple of days about this.

Louise

Christine

July 9, 2012 - 11:51pm

Yes...simply go into your account settings and change username or password - be sure to "save" changes, just like we do here.

louiseds

July 10, 2012 - 12:31am

Thanks Christine. That clarifies what Members can do to protect their own privacy by editing their own Forum posts if they realise that they have said something that they later regret.

I am not sure how the edits will affect what Google sees. Google is another reason to be cautious when choosing a username, and when posting while your emotions are high. Always Preview your posts before Saving them, so you will see how your post will look and 'sound' after it is saved. If you post and don't like it, you can still go back and edit it at any time. Just remember that each of us is ultimately responsible for what we write on the Forums.

BTW, I just re-read the Privacy Policy on the website. It was updated in March this year. If you haven't read it for a while I suggest that you navigate to the Homepage. The link to the Privacy Policy is in the bar at the bottom of the page.

Louise :-)

ikam

July 10, 2012 - 4:02am

What I can see, I can change my password, but not my user-name.

Surviving60

July 10, 2012 - 6:28am

I'm seeing the same thing as Ivonush - we can change our password our or e-mail address, but not our username. Maybe this is one of those features that went away when the forum was updated.

the book of ruth

July 10, 2012 - 7:33am

Hi.Well don't worry about me. My user name refers to the chapter of Ruth in the Bible.Great love story!Thanks for watching over everyone.Finding this site to be extremely helpful.

Christine

July 10, 2012 - 8:27am

Sorry about that, folks...I just tested the system and members can change their password, but not their username. Surviving is right, members used to be able to do this!

We will put it on the list of repairs that need to be made to this forum software - to be addressed as soon as we possibly can.

For now, please send all requests for new usernames to me and I will make the changes.

Thank you,

Christine

ikam

July 12, 2012 - 10:19am

Christine, what is your email address?

Christine

July 13, 2012 - 9:02am

christine at wholewoman dot com

(if I write it normally the spiders will pick it up and I'll get even more spam!! :)

ikam

July 13, 2012 - 11:07am

Thank you :)

ikam

July 14, 2012 - 5:06am

Thank you Christine :) :) :)