CHfather Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I've asked this question before, but I'm asking again. I guess maybe it's principally a question for the moderators (who, by the way, are doing a great job!!!). The count at this moment shows that there have been 168 guests at the board today, and 25 members. Is there some misleading phenomenon behind those numbers, or have there really been more or less 165 people showing up as unregistered visitors to the site? If there are a lot of guests every day, are we serving them as well as we could? They can't read the two most informative areas of the board (Share Your Busting Stories and ClusterBuster Files). I guess they could just sign up if they really want to do that, but do they really get enough of a sense of what's going on here to want to sign up? Do they sign up and become members? Anyway, my larger questions are (1) whether we're serving guests as we well as we could, and (2) the BIG question about what "protection" is actually achieved by requiring membership in order to see SYBS and CB Files. I don't know the answer to this question. It feels to me like anyone who wanted to see the posts here for any "snooping" purposes could just register and then do that. I'm guessing we're not protecting young people from the site's contents, since we recently had a 16-year-old show up at SYBS, and I assume lying about one's age is easy enough to do in any event. I'm not saying that any policies should be changed, because I don't know enough about what the policies are or how they are implemented . . . As I said, my main question is just about whether guests are getting what they need when they come here, and, if not, what we could do to be more helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 CHF I will check on that for you. Yes, we do get a lot of lurkers. But I think that if they have CH and are looking for help they join up and talk to us. I lurked for months before joining. I also feel that the closed section is warranted for members security and peace of mind. Thanks for the compliment too!! 8-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diamondmaker Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Not the expert but know a few things about such matters... The guest thing just counts how many times an unregistered person hits the site. Could be the same person 168 times, or even some members not signing in. The limiting areas to members is good to keep the rif-raf out, as most who come here accidentally, or are not serious CH people won't bother to take the 30 seconds it takes to perform a completely anonymous sign up. BUT, most importantly, it keeps the search engines out of the more private stuff. Those search engines will bring in god knows who looking for what. I may be wrong, but that would be my answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleyoop Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Not the expert but know a few things about such matters... The guest thing just counts how many times an unregistered person hits the site. Could be the same person 168 times, or even some members not signing in. The limiting areas to members is good to keep the rif-raf out, as most who come here accidentally, or are not serious CH people won't bother to take the 30 seconds it takes to perform a completely anonymous sign up. BUT, most importantly, it keeps the search engines out of the more private stuff. Those search engines will bring in god knows who looking for what. I may be wrong, but that would be my answer. I think you pretty much encapsulated it in a nutshell diamondmaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer1_NC Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 While I can't see guest info here....many times on message boards those "guests" are search engine bots passing through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Yup Racer, Not really someone who wants or needs info. A machine. diamondmaker, The number of times that I would get on, many times each day would have added a lot to the daily count. And that was just me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToniEvo Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 This also puzzled me too, re: privacy, not that I have any issues with anyone from here contacting me whatsoever, It is completely fine, but, I had a couple of messages to my private email back in September...That's the main reason I put my email on here last week, I thought everyone must have access to it anyway?? Can random non members also see/access my email address?? Do I need to make my 'user name' less obvious?? Cheers m'dears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 No Toni, they cannot access member information to my knowledge. Open CB and don't log in. You can't access that kind of stuff unless you are a member and logged in. Now, I have to go back and play while logged out to verify everything!!!!! New at this stuff. :-[ Edit: Nope, ya can't get there! Must be logged in and a member. At least, I can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToniEvo Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Hmmm. I had an email from a lovely lady from 'Ouch' in the UK. She said she'd contacted me as I'd posted on the ClusterBuster forum and wanted to let me know there is a group in the UK etc...also a very kind and lovely lady on the other Cluster.com site Wonder how they got my email then..? Like I said though, not a problem. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Checking again Toni! update: Can't open your user ID to get to your info. Perhaps the people who contacted you are members here? That is common for people to belong to Clusterheadaches.com and Ouch along with CB. Have you tried accessing info without logging in yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alleyoop Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Toni, If you will go to the top of this page and click on the "User CP" tab, it will take you to your control panel. On the far left top, you'll see three tabs. Click on the "Profile" tab. This will open the Profile page. Look to your left and you will see several options. Click on "Contact Information". At this point, you'll probably have to re-enter your password. After doing so, you'll be on the Contact Information page. At the very top, you'll see your email address. Just under that, you'll see "Hide Email From Public?". Make sure that a check mark is in the box if you don't want the public to see your email addy. alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
didgens Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 is it possible an automated "fishing" virus or scanning programs are hitting this site to invade and kicking up the counter ? (I am in IT). its hard to know what that count really means. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Well, today I have counted as a visitor 8 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHfather Posted December 10, 2014 Author Share Posted December 10, 2014 Well, today I have counted as a visitor 8 times. You mean every time you've come to the site you get counted as a visitor? 'Cause that would explain pretty much everything. I probably check in at least 10 times a day, and I'll bet Jeebs does, too (as well as many others). And I can't help noticing that not one actual "guest" has noticed this thread and had anything to say about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToniEvo Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 Cheers, I've checked; the box to keep email private is already 'checked'... I think like you said, they're members, I know one lady is anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 CHF, I just logged in and one 'guest' left. 8-) So, between 6 or 8 of us, we add up to quite a few. Watch when you open a file. Say there was one guest. When you open the General category, the number of viewers changes looking at that file changes. I don't know if it counts as a guest for each file or not, but I think so. As you change the file you have open the viewers number will change for each file - the one you left and the one you opened. Now, whether the ip is what the system uses for a guest is above my level. If you want, I could find out. But, I think that we have solved some of this query already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangerinearmy Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 surprised ouch uk are touting for donat i mean members.i mean tonievo has over a 100 posts on clusterbusters so i wud of thought he was aware of ouch uk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatHurtsMyHead Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I would suspect the scraping of email addresses is being done from one of the other CH websites. I don't know if it's still available or not, but a few years ago you could go to ClusterHeadaches.com and download everyone's email address. I downloaded it and searched for people listed as living in the Tampa area. Then sent an email to everyone (trying to connect with someone else locally that has CH). I had 2 people (out of maybe 20) respond. From those 2 only one showed up for a meet / greet dinner I arranged one night. He and I had a good time chatting, but haven't spoken since. (anyway, back to the topic I just went out and looked. Yep ClusterHeadaches.com has everyone's email address listed on the site. (nice to be able to find someone locally if one wanted to). I do like having the CB site emails hidden from public view. Since we talk about very different aspects of CH treatment. (and much more effective I might add!!) J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabalicious Posted December 11, 2014 Share Posted December 11, 2014 I have also gotten some emails from "other" CH sites. I actually tried one of them before I found CB. It just didn't feel right, I can't explain it. It seemed all they wanted to do was push scripts of Trex or Dopomax and get donations, there was really not any talk of treatments or new horizons or how to beat down the elusive beast. Then while looking around I found you incredible fabulous wonderful people...and I knew I was home! HUGS and PFW! Love y'all! ;D [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] CLUSTERBUSTERS RULES!!!!! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif][smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiny Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Thank you for the information John. And for the suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fabalicious Posted December 14, 2014 Share Posted December 14, 2014 Yes thank you Mr. John!! I tend to be a little "free" with my information. Will go through and double check all my settings (as well as clear me off of the other sites) Really appreciate the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToniEvo Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Cheers for all the info and concerns, great to know we're all looked after in every aspect!! Like Fabac said, this family feels right, no pressure just lots of love Hey BTW Tangerine army - i'm defo a girly not a mister - honest:) heehee - Just have a daft name lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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