User names

NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
Morning,

This is more a note to the moderating team than anything else.

I can see at least two new members have registered on this forum in the last 24hrs using what appears to be their personal email addresses as their user names.

Nothing to say members cannot do this of course but these days it's better to keep your personal data hidden.

I do wonder whether this is a conscious move on the part of the new members or is this happening due to some sort of glitch during the registration process which is preventing the use of a more bespoke user name ?

For your consideration,

Rob.
 
D

DavidB

Western Thunderer
I would advocate using own names rather than obscure usernames. I haven't a clue who most people are on this forum. I may have spoken to them at shows but never been able to make a connection to their posts and models on the forum or, in some cases, articles in magazines. I fail to see the need for anonymity.

Is it possible, as happens on another forum, to have a person's name visible if one clicks on a username - only for WT members who are signed in? At the moment, the only information is when they joined and, in some cases, their location. I would be comfortable with my name being available.
 
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oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I personally appreciate your comment there, David. My nom de plume came about because a) I'm old, b) lived until a few years ago at an ex-pub called The Raven and c) my surname's Dale. Furthermore I always (or in the vast majority of cases) sign off with my first name. I reckon some of the user names are quite fun although I must admit to forgetting the first names of participants. I suggest we can't make naming of participants a hard and fast rule and also that the majority of people I speak to on the forum "know" me because of my contributions. In most cases I have never had first hand contact and am never likely to. Nevertheless they are " friends" at a distance.

Equally there are a few acquaintances from WT I know and whose company I enjoy. Maybe we ought to make a point of reviving the meetings at the GOG bashes?

Brian
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
DavidB said:
Ah! I am now putting things together and if I am right, we know each other from the Missenden Weekends. Am I right?
Click to expand...

I think you may be quite correct, David, although I'd not matched that 2 + 2 until now. I've missed the last few because of my involvement and commitment to Finney7 but I suspect I'd just started the Brighton K or possibly an A3 when last there. I guess I could move from the Spring weekend but it sort of became a tradition and it was good to catch up with people you'd not seen for a year.

Smashing weekends to be sure. I really must try to organise my time better.....:D

Brian
 
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DavidB

Western Thunderer
I rest my case! Brian and I have known each other for several years through the Missenden courses but not known each other on the Forum. Knowing a real name behind a username or nom de plume would be very useful. Better still, have your own name as your username.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Yes, I do have some sympathy with that view, having stumbled across a fellow Ffestiniog volunteer who has a nom de plume which is the number of a Western Region diesel…

Nigel
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Whilst I’m firmly in the “use a recognisable name”, I think Rob’s comment was more aimed at folks who have used the entirety of their email address as a user name. Whether or not this is a security risk is beyond my knowledge, but it seems a bit risky, if only in increasing the likelihood of receiving more spam.
 
C

chigley

Western Thunderer
perhaps we should wear a white carnation or similar when we go to shows and try to meet up, i know simond wears pink but i still manage to miss him:rant:

Ken
 
NHY 581

NHY 581

Western Thunderer
simond said:
Whilst I’m firmly in the “use a recognisable name”, I think Rob’s comment was more aimed at folks who have used the entirety of their email address as a user name. Whether or not this is a security risk is beyond my knowledge, but it seems a bit risky, if only in increasing the likelihood of receiving more spam.
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Exactly. Thanks Simon.

My opening post has nothing to do with the use of odd user names ( I should know !) but everything to do with the potentially inadvertent publishing of private, personal information in a public arena.

The question I asked was this a deliberate use of their full, personal email address or due to a glitch in the system and was this something that needed looking into to correct.

Rob.
 
adrian

adrian

Flying Squad
NHY 581 said:
Exactly. Thanks Simon.

My opening post has nothing to do with the use of odd user names ( I should know !) but everything to do with the potentially inadvertent publishing of private, personal information in a public arena.

The question I asked was this a deliberate use of their full, personal email address or due to a glitch in the system and was this something that needed looking into to correct.

Rob.
Click to expand...
Yes I will be suggesting a user id update for them.

DavidB said:
I rest my case! Brian and I have known each other for several years through the Missenden courses but not known each other on the Forum. Knowing a real name behind a username or nom de plume would be very useful. Better still, have your own name as your username.
Click to expand...
User first name and surname are available if you have entered it correctly from the user profile page.

For various reasons some people prefer a nom-de-plume to using real names, so I've no intention to introduce rules to encourage it. My suggestion would be for users where it is important to them then I'd recommend adding their full name to their signature rather than linking to the user id.
 
Chris Veitch

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
adrian said:
For various reasons some people prefer a nom-de-plume to using real names, so I've no intention to introduce rules to encourage it. My suggestion would be for users where it is important to them then I'd recommend adding their full name to their signature rather than linking to the user id.
Click to expand...
Using your own name is a calculated risk, and is the reason why many people don't in forums. It's a benefit in some cases such as WT where you're likely or willing to meet people in real life.

The downside is that anyone maliciously harvesting the WT user directory could craft more convincing and personalised phishing emails using your correct name and send it to an email address which they know is likely to be currently active and being monitored by the owner (as happened to me this week with a request from "HMRC" directed to one of the email addresses I use for forum subscriptions).

P.S. This is one of the reasons that Apple offers their Hide My Email service (and I presume others offer something similar). It's a unique and random address which forwards to your real email, thereby protecting your email identity. It also means that if your unique/random address is leaked, any mail to it will be dropped unless is originates from the service where you originally signed up with it.
 
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A

Arun Sharma

Western Thunderer
When the online 7mm Scale Society was set up [partly due to an occasional toxic atmosphere on another forum which allowed anonymity] it was a condition of membership that full names were used. To date, the forum has only on two or three occasions [in three years] had to employ its moderators. On this forum and on RM Web I use my full name - I don't need to use an e-mail address simply because there is an IM system built into the system software.
On RM Web, there are members who work/have worked for various TOCs and/or BR and/or Network Rail and who can only speak authoritively in public from behind a mask of anonimity - without losing such access to the full-size railway as they continue to enjoy.
That anonimity is less of a problem it seems on WT, G0G, S4, S7, 7mm scale soc as we don't seem to refer back to the present day commercially sensitive railway very much - if at all.
 
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