Member Profile

At my age I have had many opportunities to place foot in mouth. Many times to my chagrin! With that said, I will address an issue that has been with me since I joined this forum over five years ago. I believe that adversity offers an opportunity for change. Sorta like the issue going on at the moment with evaluating the merger of the different Jeep forums. The issue I bring to the fore with this post is the information posted to our Member Profile and Information page. When I read a post on the forum, I most always look to the member profile to see with whom I am communicating. After awhile the member posting has become a familiar figure because of his (or her) previous posts. I will tell you that I am dismayed over the lack of information by many members. It would seem to me, that our webmaster provided an appropriate forum for us to identify ourselves, in a manner that is in personnel and appropriate. Kinda like looking at your Jeep, name, model, year, use, etc.
Lastly I will offer that our webmaster set the standard for listing the information on our Member Profile page. I rest my case with the request that you look at our webmaster's Member Profile for justification. Before I get shot at, let me say, I too know that some of the information is optional. How many times have I read where someone is asking, "What part of _________ do you live?" It would be nice to look at your Member Profile for this information. Seems simple enough, you?

I agree with you 100% so I guess if you git shot you will have some company- its a good thing we live in arizona we can fire back

Count me in with the more-info-is-better group. I admit I thought about it (identity theft, cyber stalking, etc.) a moment before filling in several of the more personal fields, but in the end figured I have nothing to hide from the folks here. My $0.02

Carlsjeep wrote: Well, it's true, what would they do with what little info that's put there. It would take more than what is asked for at forums to be dangerous to a person.

Thank you, Brother. OT Did you see the jeeps for sale in Mt Airy? Check "eWillys". SIGH!

I suppose that you cannot be too cautious in this day and age, but you have to realize that not everything that you place in your profile is available to the public.  If you are not logged in, you cannot see what is in anyone's profile.  If you enter a location, then that displays in each of your posts and is available, but other entries are not.

There is a fair amount that can be deduced about us from this forum based on the bits and pieces of personal information that we reveal in the posts we make.  OTOH, as others have pointed out, the Web search engines can reveal quite a lot about most of us, but you have to know someone's name or address or phone number or other information that is not in a profile in order to do any searching.

I think that the location information is not very revealing.  If you put your birthday in your profile, then once a year your birthday is revealed and associated with your username.  Your real name remains in the profile and available only to forum members.

My bottom line is that I'm not very concerned about having placed my name, birthday and location in my profile. 

It is pretty easy to post a location that does not exactly give your jeep's hiding place to the people who might want to steal it or parts..  Central Texas is a large place to search. Even Coleman, Texas, unless you ask around..

Ya'll do know why we complain so much, don't you? It's because we, an older generation, are so trusting in our friends, acquaintances and even strangers. Truth is assumed, until our trust is shown to be misplaced. Caution is the keyword these days. Don't lie or mislead, but do take steps to protect yourselves in ways that don't compromise your friendships and business relationships. I'm done.

And I just updated mine - thanks for triggering this, Roger... R