Posts by bohm

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Simon: It's more than one line - what if someone creates a theme and forgets the 'if' for instance?

Then properly someone would find out and the iff-statement could be added. Unless the feature was implemented such that the defaulted to e.g. a pirate flag, in which case I would suppose it would be the same in all themes.

Should the option be opt-in or opt-out?

I dont really care. Is this not simply a matter of "alter table users add column show_flag bool default='false'"?

Does it apply to new accounts and old in the same way?

Why not just the same?

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

bingo incognito.

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Simon, as I wrote I am only worried about ex-jws who, acting privately, try to conduct small witch-hunts on their own. I believe people have been identified on this forum because they posted to many details.

You are correct to say this information would not identify anyone completely. Neither would their street name. however you must agree that for people in small countries it give information about a person that can kindle a suspicion and make deniability a harder.

As I have written repeatedly, my concern is if someone (say my in-laws) were trying to figure out if I was on this board, the flag would tell them which (tens?) of posters on this board were potentially relevant in their search.

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Simon: It is a trait that someone has that is shared by millions of others and in no way identifies them

This is not true in many instances. Firstly, there are countries which contain less than one million people. Secondly, and this is the really important bit, the set of relevant people are the set of people who are X-JWs (or apostate) IN THAT COUNTRY. For instance if a country contain 20´000 JWs, and an active JW post here, the set of people are those 20'000 JWs in the country, not the 8 million people living there. If in addition the person post as an active elder, with the country information, set is now the number of active elders (say about 500). This is orders of magnitude less than millions.

Now you could say: The person is stupid. He should not write that he is an active elder and ask for support if this worries him. But I still think he should be allowed to worry.

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Simon: I'm still not convinced that the motives for the original objection were really genuine and not simply someone looking for *something* to try and distract attention from the 'activists' privacy debacle.

I have had no share in the "privacy" debacle of AAWA and don't really care much about it. I really do believe my concern is genuine: Five years ago when I joined I told my girlfriend I would keep my country private, which I at the time and now feel is the right thing to do. Now this information is being revealed. You might feel this is irrational of her and I, but irrational or not, this feature will show information about me which I did not agree to have revealed. This is my sole motive for participating in this thread as I felt it was valid input on this feature.

What input on the feature would you feel was valid?

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

It seems to me that it has polarized a small number of posters to the point of intransigence.

yah.. loaded language.. I love loaded language, it makes the argument so much better.

Simon started this topic to get input on the flag-feature. Now we are giving him our input and as best as i can tell the majority of posters on here support the idea that there should be an option to hide ones true flag -- exactly what the "small" group of so-called "intransigent" posters have argued all along. Do you feel this is somehow bad?

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Kate, seing tou have read my 5800 posts and determined i have provided no revealing details, perhaps you could just read everyones posts and determine for us all if this was a problem?

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Krejames: a checkbox is a twenty minute fix*. Why should the newbies have to worry about proxies? How about those who are not comfortable about proxies?

* in the webapps i have been involved in.

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

How about this: make the display of the flag optional, but replace the green box on the front page with a globe with the position of all posters marked, and include a page with a breakdown of posters per country (total and signed in this month). This way there is privacy and the global community aspect. If people want contact with others from a particular country they can start a thread and take it over the pms

263

Poster country flags and privacy

by Simon in

the new forum originally had a little country flag next to each post showing the country that the post was made from based on the geoip encoding (the country the ip address is from).

before i switched over to the new site someone made an issue about it violating their privacy and i didn't want to complicate and confuse the switchover with policy debate at the same time as technical issues so removed the flags even though i disagreed.. someone has already requested it as a feature and i think it should be added back so i thought it's now time to open the discussion and get everyone's opinions.

first, the reason i think it should be shown:.

bohm

Kate: since this topic has been up for 20 hours, and i have about 6000 posts, this mean you have been reading 300 posts per hour or 5 per minute to conclude none of my posts contain revealing information. That is very impressive.