R3 MBs Posts on Google

[Eudaimonia]

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[salymap]

Blimey. I have just googled my name, in one and two parts. There are holidays advertised in Saly Map, lots of fence adverts [???] and other strange things.

I refuse to worry as these boards seem less and less like my real life. Have a good day. NO SPIDERS ALLOWED

[umslopogaas]

The thought of all my posts coming up in Google also makes me slightly uneasy, though I admit this is irrational, because for3.org is also freely accessible to all. However, anyone who really doesnt like the idea should simply adopt a more common word as a pseudonym. I just googled "umslopogaas" which you might think not a particularly common name, but I still got nearly fifty thousand hits: there was no sign of any of my posts in the first ten pages, and who has the time and patience to look through more than the first ten pages of a google search?

I did try googling "umslopogaas radio three" and this produced about six hundred hits, with several of my old posts in the first couple of pages, but another rhetorical question, who on earth would have any reason to type that into google: except me, perhaps? So if you want to be anonymous, just hide in the crowd.

[doversoul]

Like salymap and umslopogaas, I’ve just tried Google by typing in doversaul and got endless hits, a lot about Dover but more on unrelated matters. This reassured me, sort of. But what unsettled me enough to post the OP was the fact that the words I typed in then were fairly general ones yet Google managed to find this hit by matching the words in the text. This means that whatever the subject we write about, they can be searched and found….Still in reality, we are talking about trillions of entries contained in Google so we shouldn’t get too worked up about it. It was just a bit of a shock to see my ‘private’ muttering displayed on the screen so unexpectedly and for the first thing in the morning. All the same, it has reminded me to be careful about posting any personal information. You never know.

[french frank]

But what unsettled me enough to post the OP was the fact that the words I typed in then were fairly general ones yet Google managed to find this hit by matching the words in the text. This means that whatever the subject we write about, they can be searched and found….Still in reality, we are talking about trillions of entries contained in Google so we shouldn’t get too worked up about it. It was just a bit of a shock to see my ‘private’ muttering displayed on the screen so unexpectedly and for the first thing in the morning. All the same, it has reminded me to be careful about posting any personal information. You never know.

The only connected piece of information people would have to your comments would be your name - doversoul? Hello? hello? Is that you, er, doversoul?

Onscreen pseudonyms are recommended. But I googled "french frank" and got "Did you mean: "french franc" ? ". The only hit relevant to me on the first page was "BBC - iPlayer Message Board - Profile for french frank". Nothin' to do with us, guv'

On page 3 I did get 'How much is French frank worth?

On page 4 I got a hit which suggested that french frank had registered for 'ComeOnBoro.com' - the site for 'connoisseurs of Middlesbrough FC' (but I haven't posted anything yet, apparently . The WorldWideWeb is a big place and we occupy a tiny space on it ...

Oh, dear ...

[Anna]

I don't think anyone need get paranoid about Google or Yahoo Slurp Spiders. As has been said above, use a pretty commonplace user name, remember these are public forums open to anyone to view (just as the BBC ones were) and restrict personal information you give out which can positively identify you or your family.

The one thing I find a bit iffy (but of course won't be picked up by Google) is if you use Visitor Messaging rather than Private Messaging which means anyone who is logged in can read all your correspondence if they have a mind to.

[salymap]

Anna I agree about VMs. It seems impossible to delete them, and one poster writes all the time on them

I think the things I read on Google about my name[s] come from R3OK, in fact it says it does. No offence, but one MB is more than enough for me if I am to get anything else done at all.

[Eudaimonia]

FF: you've also got it a bit easier as everyone assumes you're a man. I used to post under a gender-neutral name on a technical forum-- and when I tried to tell people I was a woman, everyone thought I was having a laugh.

Anyone who googles my name here is in for a nice afternoon of Greek philosophy. If people get misdirected and want to think I'm some feminist running a blog in Brazil...well, things could be worse! But really, I think my cat is *SO* far out of the bag around here, it hardly matters anymore. Oh well, life goes on.

However, in the Google image search, I did notice a striking painting called "Eudaimonia":

http://www.dailyartfixx.com/wp-conte...otohattori.jpg

Which makes me wonder if it's by anyone I came across elsewhere, as I have a bit of an "elf ear" too--coincidence? Oh probably, but it is rather funny.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hobanny...in/photostream

[Eudaimonia]

Sal-- you can go to your "settings" tab to disable your VM Forum. That's what I did to mine: can you believe we were up to 2,357 visits? Fun while it lasted...sad to shut it down, really. Oh well, onward and upward!

[french frank]

Anna I agree about VMs. It seems impossible to delete them, and one poster writes all the time on them

Permissions are set to allow you to 'Manage' all messages on your own profile page (i.e. edit, delete, moderate) and delete your own messages posted on other people's pages.