Forum - showing full name (Not good!)

As I mentioned we are not subject to the GDPR though we have gone to great lengths to respect it on behalf of our EU users. Having said that, despite the best intentions of the law, if it allows anonymity where anonymity is not required, it makes it quite easy for people to hide on the Internet, an issue that should be especially of concern these days with foreign bad actors interfering with other countries’ elections.

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I linked them on my post. For name changes you can contact:

@Anthony_Cyphers
@Gavin_Smith
@Dana_Brown
@Jason_Parsley

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@Geoff_Perlman i’m in no way enforcing or requiring Xojo to apply GPDR that’s up to law makers. I’m requesting you to allow the end-user of this forum to EDIT/MODIFY/DELETE their personal information. In the event this forum is breached for whatever reason or cause i don’t want to have NO way to DELETE my information because all xojo moderators need to adapt. Also having a way to hide certain parts of this forum from the public view should not be an issue for xojo ? so when one has it’s account set to not allow public posting then it can only post in a private forum part (like testers). Altough these parts should not be used for general posts. It’s like facebook having a post only allowing frieds to see it instead of the whole world.

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Users already have two options:

  1. Turn off forum access.
  2. Contact us about changing their user name to something that meets the guidelines such as first name, last initial.

I have two questions about turning off forum access:

1 - Does it hide the user messages ?

2- Does it delete the user messages ?

No it does not (we don’t want to remove all posts by default and leave a hole) - but we will remove all posts if requested.

Just because the EU says that their laws apply to other countries doesn’t make it so. It really comes down to enforcement. If there is no way for the EU to enforce such a claim, it really doesn’t matter. And right now there is no such enforcement.

The question of wether or not GDPR actually applies to US companies has not yet been decided by US courts.

I want my “Rick A” back. Thank you. Handle Rick_A.

People who are not logged in see only initials.

can you let my user name MarkusR but display it like others Markus R.
i see it is now displayed without underscore.

Thank you for the answer.

I never liked the “idea” of the forums displaying a persons full name. I don’t have a problem with administrators knowing who I am (for legal, compliance and reasons to promote good conduct between parties), but the internet is a shady place. And many people have difficult jobs and are subject to online and physical harassment simply because people on the internet are trolls and some people just don’t have a life, are malicious or vindictive or whatever reason.

For decades I have had an online persona built up on a particular set of pseudonyms, and I worked in an area that meant my life was in constant physical danger from members of the public. I am lucky that I no longer have that life but I still follow a lot of those principles.

It took some work to create a forum name when I initially joined that went with my online persona and there should be some level of anonymity when being online. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be “in check” but enforcement of people identifying themselves to personal information is just not good practice (and I do believe illegal in certain jurisdictions)

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But should users have that right? Who has the higher “right”? Someone who wan’t to know who is talking to them, or someone who want’s to protect their private life?

Are you talking about my name? Anthony already changed it, I can see your full name without being logged in.

Please message @Dana_Brown with name change requests.

And that is why people create online profiles, so their private names and identifying information is not displayed to the public in perpetuity.

A person should not have to open themselves up to stalkers just to have a discussion about your product.

I will send through my name change request.

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I read this as meaning:

  1. Do not talk to us or the community about our product
  2. If you want to participate in the community, you MUST identify yourself publicly as per our own guidelines or refer point 1.

It sounds like you are saying, “learn how to hold your breath, or don’t go in the water,” and we’re asking, why can’t we have snorkle gear?

I don’t have any problem with the xojo administrators knowing who I am from a legal, compliance and “social good” standard. But I am not happy to use personally identifying information to partake in a community I paid to be a part of.

A pseudonym is acceptable in almost all walks of life, on and offline. Given the prevelance of “idiots in the real world” it would only take moments for someone who knows very little about me to identify that I was awake at 3am on a Tuesday morning and although it may have no relevance to you, it could mean everything to a stalker.

It’s forseeable that an ex-partner or disgruntled co-worker who knows I use xojo , knows my name (or how you enforce limited names), and my writing style could quickly identify when I’m on the computer, when I’m away or unresponsive, or determine many things about me based on what I say (appropriately) online. As mentioned to Dana, I have no problem with forum administrators knowing who I am, but to enforce me having to publicly identify myself to the internet to discuss your product is negligent and very much Orwellian.

It is your forum, your rules, I only ask that you respect my right to privacy and still allow me to have a discussion about xojo. My right to privacy should outweigh Bill from Toronto’s right to identify me. (Sorry to any Bill’s from Toronto!) :slight_smile:

Submitted for consideration.

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Hi Dave. I understand your concern. There are certainly exceptions to the rule for good reasons and it sounds like you both understand where we are coming from but also need an exception to be made.

Please contact customer service and they will help you get your forum name changed. You can contact them at custserv@xojo.com.

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In my opinion, the reasons stated by Dave apply to everyone, they are not exceptions.

Julen

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When I think about what machine learning can do today, I want more control over my personal information. Admins and mods have more than enough options to measure undesirable behavior. :unamused:

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