| Written by SM, on 25-10-2007 21:58 |
So it has come to my attention that it is (or now was) possible for members to be sneaky and spy on who's online. Stupid as I am, I never noticed this little fluke until it was recently brought to my attention. The meat of the issue is a little scary, and so after much deliberation, I chose to remove the tool that allows people to see who is online from the forums. Now, if you want to know who's online, you'll just have to view the front page "Peeps Online" list, or the Collective member list linked to above.
Let's talk about the scary that is IP address tracking. On this old who's online list, there was a link that took members to a new page. On that page it showed a list of usernames with their active IP addresses in parentheses next to them. Some people may not think this is such a big deal or a bad thing, but it could be if there were any trolls out there wanting to turn themselves into real live stalkers. A reliable source was kind enough to inform me that IP tracking can be a very scary reality. With just this information, anyone with the know-how can not only match up your usernames on various other services, but they can also locate where you live! At least as far as city and state, from what I was told. Since we here at Mutual Endeavors value your privacy, as well as our own, we thought it wisest to remove any and all opportunities any random stalker troll might have to acquire and make use of your IP addresses. The Nefarious SM is not herself a mastermind of tracking down where people live based on those happy little numbers, but somewhere out there on the great wide world of the Internets there may very well be someone malicious enough who is. For your protection, we have disabled the Who's Online feature from the fireboard forums. Until such a time in which we can figure out how to remove the IP address from being listed in parentheses next to your usernames. This shows also for guests, so we hope you are just as alarmed as the rest of us! If at any time you discover that you can see a member's or guest's IP address on our site, do please contact an administrator IMMEDIATELY. Under no circumstances do we want to be held accountable for mysterious ticking packages showing up on your doorsteps, and I'm sure you'd much prefer to do without them as well.
Last update: 25-10-2007 21:58
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