Why So Few Members Put Location in Profiles

[mikethompson]

First question you need to ask - How useful it is. I have seen forum members making erroneous assumptions about the location of a thread, when just two posts above the post, the member has indicated the location as a part of his comment. For example today a hobby seller forum member from UK is getting advice on US payment methods.

Hey that was one time! I promise it won't happen again.

It’s not hard to remember things

That means I will never live it down right?

For those averse to such, make up a

You can make up a whole online persona if you want, such is the world of online interaction. How do you guys know I'm not living in my parents basement outside Sudbury, Ontario?

 

[scloyd]

How do you guys know I'm not living in my parents basement outside Sudbury, Ontario?

Or perhaps you're living in that beautiful shed you built in your parents backyard.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

What's the downside? I don't understand. For me it's a memory issue.

This forum, unlike two other pipe forums I am a member of, shows an explanation mark inside a triangle on Chrome for my iPad. (The other forums I mention show the somewhat more comforting “padlock” symbol.) Chrome thanks it isn’t secure.

When I first got into pipe collecting, a man named Basil Sullivan was one of the leading Charatan’s collectors in the US. Most of his collection was stolen by a burglar when he and his wife were away. It is all a very convoluted story, but suffice it to say the thief was caught, convicted, and served a felony prison sentence. He happened to be a North Carolina Highway Patrolman. Most of the pipes were never recovered,

That was in the early 1980’s, before the internet. A fair number of members here know my exact address from tobacco sales. That is enough. I want to keep what is mine. It isn’t really all that much, but on my present income it is irreplaceable. Color me paranoid if you will, but I don’t put location information in the first place a hacker would look for it. A hacker is not an honest person. A dishonest person could be a thief, or sell information to a thief.

According to Chrome, this site has not taken the security measures others have, and if I was going to put a public profile anywhere, this forum wouldn’t be a contender.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

How specific do you want us to be?

 

[lochinvar]

I just live too close to Cosmic

 

[anotherbob]

I said specific. You don’t know which sod house is mine.

yeah they do. Haven't you wondered about all the tour buses out front!

 

[anotherbob]

You can make up a whole online persona if you want, such is the world of online interaction. How do you guys know I'm not living in my parents basement outside Sudbury, Ontario?

Well because your dad keeps talking about his man cave in the basement with the no offspring or spouse sign.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I live in a van down by the river... But I aint telling which river.

 

[saltedplug]

May I remind you that this is the internet and that all manner of skullduggery occurs in this twilight by those who prefer to remain in the shadows. Also, the data brokers love to gather your every demographic.

Why make it easier on either of them?

 

[cshubhra]

I did not mean to point, apologies for that. I took that thread as an example ?

Hey that was one time! I promise it won't happen again.


That means I will never live it down right?






You can make up a whole online persona if you want, such is the world of online interaction. How do you guys know I'm not living in my parents basement outside Sudbury, Ontario?

 

[cshubhra]

I just want to clarify ... most people’s address is actually public records. Many municipalities in US (Or at least mine) put your name and address as a public record. So the incremental risk of getting hacked because you put a address in the forum is low.

As I explained earlier... I don’t put a location not in fear of getting hacked, but I don’t see a point

 

[Olkofri]

I've never even thought of it. Updated it now.

Which one? There're at least 18. ?

?

 

[rajangan]

The moderators have every one of the IP addresses you've ever used.

 

[jpmcwjr]

If fear is holding some back, information here is the last place someone would come to in order to steal your stash, your CC, bank or any other info.

The point is, cshubhra, it is sometimes vital in making sense of some posts. And it is a small courtesy to others.

 

[kcghost]

Okay, I put one in but I'll be damned if I'm giving you my street address. Damn politicians and their junk mail.

 

[saltedplug]

Total internet crime 2019 3.5 bn (FBI)
data brokering is a $200 billion industry

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

If fear is holding some back, information here is the last place someone would come to in order to steal your stash, your CC, bank or any other info.

The point is, cshubhra, it is sometimes vital in making sense of some posts. And it is a small courtesy to others.

When I first noticed the warning triangle with an explanation mark inside that Chrome uses to flag a vulnerable site, I changed my password immediately to one that is unique to this site.

Hackers fish for passwords. Once in possession of that, everything you do with accounts that use that password can also be hacked.

But how much effort would it require to change the insecure Chrome warning to match the padlock I get on Speakeasy and Pipe Smokers Den?

 

[Olkofri]

More than location on profile, a big issue would be if the site itself were hacked. Then they'd get everyone's E-mail addresses, which is the real valuable info to be gathered from a site like this. This is not a commercial site, so there's no card info to be harvested, but E-mail addresses would be quite valuable to sell to spammers.

Heck, I've been wondering if this one or some other(s) of the sites I frequent was hacked recently. This year, all of a sudden I started getting tons of spam messages to two of the three addys I have with the same provider; one is the address I used here to register, the other one is the address I use to buy online from suppliers. Someone musta been hacked at some point is my guess. The funny thing is that both addresses are targeted by the same spammers.

The spam issue has gotten so bad that I was forced to install Mailwasher, because my ISP's filters, which used to be very good, all of a sudden started letting tons of crap through. Spammers have gotten trickier.

 

[hairvise]

When I first noticed the warning triangle with an explanation mark inside that Chrome uses to flag a vulnerable site, I changed my password immediately to one that is unique to this site.

Hackers fish for passwords. Once in possession of that, everything you do with accounts that use that password can also be hacked.

But how much effort would it require to change the insecure Chrome warning to match the padlock I get on Speakeasy and Pipe Smokers Den?

Strange. I'm on Chrome right now and I do get the padlock. I'm I missing something else?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Hackers fish for passwords. Once in possession of that, everything you do with accounts that use that password can also be hacked.

That's why it's important to not duplicate PW's.

BUT: My banking online has very secure passwords, all different. So do any others that require a CC. Sites where there's nothing at risk may share a PW with others. And ones that are easy to type!