What happened to the directory?

Somehow it's missing from my forum view. Not sure why...

It's helpful sometimes...sure hope it didn't go away.

I was wondeing the same thing. Has not been there all day.
HCS

Greg,
We never did find out where the missing directory went! Anyone out there have any idea?
HCS

I took it down, considering it a privacy issue. Tell me how it was used and what value it is and I'll put it back up.

John,
I believe most people, including myself, used the directory to check where they were on the list of how many posts. What page in the directory they were on and where they were in relationship to other people. There have been some posts from people being surprized that they made it to page 3 etc.
I don't think anyone used it to get info on other people.
HCS

In all the years I have been a member I have never looked at it.

I was checking the list for total posts and would like to keep doing so.

Put me down as wanting to have the directory back.
I use it to help search material by using the member number that said what I am looking for. With no directory it makes it very hard to find the members number.
I also check the directory for nostalgia reasons. I have been with this forum since the beginning and sometimes I like to look down the list of members of the past.

Okay you caught me; I also like to see my posting rank verses the other members. The big deal right now is that more members should post. Well let them see how they stack up to everyone else.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t the directory only available to logged in members.
Also the only thing that is required in the directory is the user name and in turn all that is listed is his/her number and the number of post.
There is no phone numbers or address. A mater of fact in most cases there isn’t even a name to associate to the directory. In my opinion there is no problem with privacy.
Besides:
If I want to know about someone bad enough all I have to do is pick on his or her profile.

John was this removal of the directory a request from a member or maybe a potential member?

Well, I use it for all the reasons Daniel says. I need it to find the member numbers; and, okay, I like to see where I, and others, stand in the post hierarchy of the CF.

I don't see how it could logically be a privacy issue - I could find out the same info about the person by clicking on the little sunglass icon above any of their posts. All that the directory lists is member name and number (public), post count (public), location (public, user-input, I could say I lived in Tibet if I wanted to), occupation (user input, I could say I was Speaker of the House, and I'd probably be better at it too), and interests (it is nothing private that I am a lighthouse/Land Rover/ocean liner geek).

All of these fields are user inputted, and when you put them there, you (hopefully) see that it's going in your public profile. All the directory does is take the profiles and turn them into a database list. It does not reveal my home's GPS coordinates, my social security number, or my passport photo. Nobody's going to track me down and whack me with the Collector Forums Member Directory - there's much better ways to figure it out (maybe illicit) if you cared that much (God I hope nobody does). And besides, they'd have to register here to see it in the first place.

Basically, as some others seemed to affirm, there's more pluses than minuses to the directory...and trivial as its uses are, I already miss it. I gotta see how many people are "ahead" of me every now and then.

Actually, I agree with John that it is a potential privacy issue. Some of what has been said here is partially true, but let me share with you why this is a concern.

The list on the surface is relatively harmless, but you can then capture everyones email address without too much problem. Over the recent months Rich and I have tried very hard to keep the less desirable people from gaining access to the forums. It is Rich and my belief that somehow these spammers have developed an automated registration capability for UBB boards (and probably others.) For a long, long time those that registered were automatically admitted. They have acess to this info when you do. Given that we believe they have developed an automated registration process it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they have also developed a way to automatically harvest email info. If I had the time I would sort thru the couple thousand members we do have to kill off apparent bad guys. To give you a little bit of an idea of the scope of the problem, of the last 50 applications I believe 2 were approved and some of those are on a "watch to see" list.

I, for one, don't need any more junk email, I get over a hundred pieces a day and I am generally less generous in giving that address out and won't publish it openly here in the forums. Ever wonder why, when I post some of my secondary addresses I include spaces in them? Makes it less likely they will be harvested by the scumbags.

That's a true point, but it's still possible to access that information, even without the directory, and even without being logged in, through the profile. Try it; I just logged out, and then clicked on some of the names of the Cruise Directors that are on the home page. Up came all our profiles, email addresses included. So where's the privacy risk there?

And really, these hackers and bots aren't always getting through via the "legitimate" means - I believe they're also able to just get the forum's database files from the servers and get the information from there. There's no way that we can really secure the forums from hacking and getting email addresses at this point in the game. Preventing and screening can help, yes, but there are many ways to get the information, whether or not it's through the directory.

I make it so that to email me from the CF, it must be done via the link and then through the form that keeps my address anonymous. Even that way, I still get some spam. I'm very careful where I put my AOL address - the CF is the only forum where it's even registered, all the others I use my Yahoo! one. I get all the Nigerian scams and the enlargement offers and the antidepressants...it's just a game of careful discrimination and judgment.

Now, I'm not really an IT expert. So maybe this has actually prevented something. Maybe once I finish my thesis paper, I'll try and find something on it on the web.

I'd like to add my thoughts, feelings and 2 cents worth at this time. As Dave said, we are really scrutinizing all new member applications. During the period that Dave alluded to, where only 2 out of 50 applications were approved, we probably averaged 10-15 porn spammers, 10 pill spammers, 10 vacation resort spammers and misc. other spammers. There is no doubt in my military mind that these spammers are trying to grab names, addresses and post their garbage on our forums. It would be bad enough to open up a forum subject and see porn pictures, but, how about if these spammers sent it out to over 2000 of our members? Anything that can be done to keep this from happening should be done. If getting rid of the directory will HELP(not totally eliminate) this from happening, then try and understand why it has been removed.

I review all new applications and review 10-15 applications per day(used to be 20-25 until Dave added some filter) and then I forward to Dave with my reccomendations and he has the final say. Opening up the spammers home page is sometimes very revealing and upsetting. Subjecting our forum members to this revolting spam is what we are trying to eliminate. Work with us and realize that we are only trying to keep our forums a clean and wholesome site that we would not be afraid to let our kids surf. And if we can eliminate some of this spam being transmitted to your personal computers, this is what we are trying to do. We are not trying to censor members information, we are only trying to protect our members.

Well...alright.

I guess that I have to allude to my earlier post today regarding Pt. Bonita, and switch over to some Stones albums, because You Can't Always Get What You Want.

Yeah, I know. Not that I really care, it's just something I kind of wonder about every now and then...

Can't we build a better mouse trap? I know we have some very smart people on this forum. Isn't there some way to fix it that does not require a Herculean effort?

Not our software, Eric. We just rent it. The list puts the entire board membership in one place for the bad guys to go after. In the forums themselves they would have to go thru each and every forum and thread to get the info.

You guys made that easy to understand.
It's too bad that we can't get rid of all the spammers, permanently. Sometimes I wish I had never heard of email/

I understand.

I really appreciate your efforts on eliminating those spammers. It is a real pain in the ...

Keep up the good work. I haven't had any viagra ads for quite a while!

Judy

Thanks John, Rich and Dave. You are the guys who know what goes on and I'm glad that we can leave it all up to you and just enjoy the forums! Keep up the good work! Until recently, we didn't even know we could go to the directory and see how we ranked with each other. Frankly, it had started to become a bit of a competition - although fun - but we don't need that on the forums. Stay cool!

I think like others in the group -- leave out the directory. I appreciate all the work that Dave and Rich have put into this effort to keep out the trash.

When I slowly partially recovered from being sick, I finally logged in and was pressented with 474 emails. Only about 70 were legit.

bobo