As designed Membercard Privacy Issue

[erich37]

Membercard Privacy Issue


please check if this issue could be fixed in XF-core:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/member-card-privacy.40063/


Thanks!

 

[DRE]

cosign

 

[Mike]

The member card is, and always has been, information that we've displayed publicly.

 

[DRE]

I knew that wasn't going to change probably cause you don't like the fact that when people click on it, they get a no permission message or whatever. I personally think this can be avoided if instead of a no permission error etc, just make the link unclickable. I've seen that on another forum software. The link only displayed as text and you would have to be logged in just to be able to click on their username.

 

[dutchbb]

I knew that wasn't going to change probably cause you don't like the fact that when people click on it, they get a no permission message or whatever. I personally think this can be avoided if instead of a no permission error etc, just make the link unclickable. I've seen that on another forum software. The link only displayed as text and you would have to be logged in just to be able to click on their username.

I don't like this, profiles should be viewable and link behavior should be predictable.

Why not allow members to hide specific information on their profiles for certain groups, instead of blocking access completely? I never understood the decision to allow members to block all access, it's anti-social and annoying.

 

[DRE]

I don't like this, profiles should be viewable and link behavior should be predictable.

Why not allow members to hide specific information on their profiles for certain groups, instead of blocking access completely?

I agree that not being able to click on the link is frustrating but if you set your profile to private then might as well make it unclickable.

 

[Lisa]

I don't like this, profiles should be viewable and link behavior should be predictable.

Why not allow members to hide specific information on their profiles for certain groups, instead of blocking access completely? I never understood the decision to allow members to block all access, it's anti-social and annoying.

I dunno... I always set mine so only other members can see my contact details, but not guests..... but then I am anti-social

 

[dutchbb]

I dunno... I always set mine so only other members can see my contact details, but not guests..... but then I am anti-social

Oh I agree completely about being able to block guests. This will also make sure your profile isn't indexed by Google and other SE. You should also be able to decide what information is shown to other members. I just don't like the fact that members can block other members from viewing their profiles completely. It feels like you're banned when you're denied access that way.

 

[DRE]

Oh I agree completely about being able to block guests. This will also make sure your profile isn't indexed by Google and other SE. You should also be able to decide what information is shown to other members. I just don't like the fact that members can block other members from viewing their profiles completely. It feels like you're banned when you're denied access that way.

I was only referring to guests having those links disabled, not members regardless of their usergroup.

The site had their profile links disabled. I couldn't click on anything.

 

[Paul B]

Blocking certain parts of the profile page and member card could be done with custom user fields and template conditionals.

See this for an example: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xfs-on-off-switch.1646/

 

[Lisa]

Oh I agree completely about being able to block guests. This will also make sure your profile isn't indexed by Google and other SE. You should also be able to decide what information is shown to other members. I just don't like the fact that members can block other members from viewing their profiles completely. It feels like you're banned when you're denied access that way.

I don't see an issue with it really. If someone doesn't want to make use of the profile area, then they switch it off.

 

[DRE]

It would be cool if someone made an addon or Template Edit that did disable profile and member card links from being clicked by guests.

 

[Chris D]

I actually agree this should not be in the core.

If you need it as a feature, I created an add-on a while ago that will mirror the privacy settings set for your profile for member cards: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/member-card-view-permissions.1193/

 

[Shelley]

when in doubt, add-on it.

 

[erich37]

IMHO, user-Privacy options are important and should not be dependent on an Add-on.

When you run a Private Community which only shows the Forum-thrads publicly and hides the Member-List, then it also makes sense to make the Membercard not to popup.
In this case it also makes sense to hide the User-Avatars, so only registered Members can see the User-avatar-images, but guests only see a default-avatar-image.
Also when a user decides to hide his Profile-page, then his Membercard should also be hidden.

Think about a matchmaking-forum, where you want to show the Forum-threads publicly for SEO reasons, but users do not want to show their real Avatar-image publicly.
The result will be, that users will not upload their "real" personal Avatar-photo, but some other image which is not a personal photo in order to remain their personal Privacy.

 

[Paul B]

but users do not want to show their real Avatar-image publicly.

Making the member card inaccessible wouldn't help with that.
You would also have to remove the avatar from everywhere else.

 

[erich37]

Making the member card inaccessible wouldn't help with that.
You would also have to remove the avatar from everywhere else.

you are exactly right.

So in order to make my Community really private ( and not to show Memberlist, User-Avatars, Membercard, etc.) I had to completely close off the Forum and make all Forum-Nodes private. Which is of course bad for SEO if you do not expose the Forum-threads publicly.

But what I really want is to expose the Forum-threads publicly (for SEO), but I do not want to expose my Members publicly. For Member-Privacy reasons.

It does not really make sense to provide members with "Privacy Settings" to give them the ability to hide their Profile from public, when on the other hand you expose Member-data via a Membercard popup (e.g.: location/hometown information in the Membercard) and expose their Avatar-image (real personal photo) to the public via search-engine-indexing.

 

[Paul B]

If these issues are so vital to your installation then you should consider commissioning someone to make an add-on for them.

As Mike has said, this isn't going to change in the core so your only options are lots of template edits and conditionals or an add-on.

 

[erich37]

If these issues are so vital to your installation then you should consider commissioning someone to make an add-on for them.

As Mike has said, this isn't going to change in the core so your only options are lots of template edits and conditionals or an add-on.

I am definitely NOT asking for changing this in the core or to make this a default XenForo-feature, but to give the Admin more OPTIONS in ACP to define and protect user-privacy.

Privacy is a very important personal right of each individual..... and this personal right is also legally protected by laws in many countries. And as a webmaster, you need to follow these legally protected laws.
If you tell your members that you will protect their Privacy, then it should be fully covered in the software.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/04/facebook-germany-data-protection
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/technology/germans-reopen-facebook-privacy-inquiry.html?_r=0

 

[Brent W]

And as a webmaster, you need to follow these legally protected laws.
If you tell your members that you will protect their Privacy, then it should be fully covered in the software.

What you do with the software is your decision. xenForo complies with all privacy laws as it is. Promises you make on your forum in relation to privacy are not xenForo's concern or responsibility.