should user profiles be publicly viewable? (1 Viewer)

[Matt Derrick]

Hey everyone, I just had a quick question for the community to see how you all felt about this. I'm revamping the user permissions as stated in this thread, and I was wondering if you think we should keep user profiles private from guests? Currently, people without accounts can view the member's page here:

Notable members

squattheplanet.com

and member's profiles like this:

Matt Derrick - https://squattheplanet.com/members/matt-derrick.1/

which also means they are indexable by google, etc... I could make it so only members can view other member's profiles... but maybe you want people to be able to find your StP profile? Also, making profiles viewable to only other members would negate the ability to share your profile url with other non-members, since they would get an error message telling them to log into the website if they tried to view your profile.

so, viewable to the public? or private unless you're logged in with an account? vote in the poll!

 

[MetalBryan]

I voted no but then saw it was a 50/50 tie and wanted to expand. I like the idea of "notable members" representing the ideas & beliefs of this group, but those folks should be formally recognized and volunteer to opt in. I'm torn between wanting my ideas on StP subject matter available to folks who are just starting their search and wanting to keep these proprietary secrets to ourselves.

 

[EmmaAintDead]

I like the idea of an opt-in to be publicly viewable if that's at all doable. I would like my own profile to be visible, but I understand why people wouldn't want theirs to be.

 

[Matt Derrick]

you can adjust your privacy settings for your profile here:

https://squattheplanet.com/account/privacy

so you can 'opt in' or 'opt out' of your profile being viewable no matter what we decide. i can also change the defaults on this, for example make the default selection for 'view your details on your profile page' set to 'members only'.

 

[Matt Derrick]

I like the idea of "notable members" representing the ideas & beliefs of this group, but those folks should be formally recognized and volunteer to opt in.

unfortunately i only have control over whether the page itself is viewable. the statistics there are automatically generated.

 

[Older Than Dirt]

What is the effect of all these variations on visibility to search engines?

 

[Matt Derrick]

What is the effect of all these variations on visibility to search engines?

well, in the screen shot above shows how you can set settings for what people can see ON your profile (details, etc), and the setting im talking about changes the public's ability to view the page your profile is on at all. like, with it disabled, the public would get an error message when they view your profile via it's url (the message would say something like "you need to login first before you can view this page").

 

[Older Than Dirt]

I realize from your reply i should have read OP more carefully.

Even though any monkey can register for an account in a minute, best to make them do it to see some stuff.

 

[Dmac]

I’d love to take a shot at @Matt Derrick about selling our info to google, but they probably have it all anyway.