GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

* Some of you may have noticed that links to posts in the Public forums may show up in searches on Google or other major search engines. This is all part of the site's purpose of sharing information and support. As it says in other Pinned/Sticky topics in the New Members forum and elsewhere, one should never post personally identifying information on the web, especially not in public areas of the forum. The Public forums must be Public or people who are not members could not find, read or benefit from this site. Every one of you yourselves must have first read the posts in the Public areas of this forum before deciding to join.
* You may occasionally also notice links in Google and other major search engines to posts that reside in Private/Members Only areas of this forum. I have measures in place to protect against this, but Google is a powerful search engine. Though I keep up with the major SEO and Google blogs, they (and other search engines) change their algorithms occasionally before I can match our privacy settings. Usually this evens out after a few days, but occasionally a link to a Members Only area post will appear for a short time. These links will lead registered members who are logged in to the post, as shown in Scenario A in the infographic below. They will lead nonmembers or non-logged-in members to an "access denied" login screen, as shown in Scenario B in the infographic below. Google does not hack into password protected sites.
* I think some people are imagining some dark army of internet hackers sifting through this website in order to gather names for their Satanic rituals and kidnap plots. All that is going on is that the Public forums, about hairstyles, makeup, recipes, etc are searchable. They are available to the public anyway, but now a lonely transitioner trying to wade through mountains of porn sites on her quest for friends, support and information might have a chance of finding this island of light in an otherwise bleak ocean of trash.
* The forums under the "Public" heading have always been browseable by any visitor to my website, whether by Google or just by coming to Calpernia.Com/genderlife.com and clicking on "forums".. Every person who is a member now saw those open-to-everyone forums the first time they visited the site, but only after joining were they able to access the other material like member profiles, post and reply privileges, etc.
* I have a robots.txt file in place at the site root set to exclude the members-only forums from search engine bots. If, by some chance, Google were to produce a link to a post in a members-only forum, anyone clicking on that link who was not a signed-in member of this forum would be redirected to the sign-in/join-or-go-away page in Scenario B..
* Just as www.tsroadmap.com and other trans-resource sites do the most good by being searchable and being available for transwomen out there questing for information with Google and other engines, this site is a wealth of real human experiences and information that I'd like to come up when some lonely transwoman types "transsexual health and beauty" into Google, or "transsexual coming out to family".
* Again, everyone's posts in the members'-only areas should not be indexed by Google, and in any case only a logged-in board member can access those pages, Google link or not.
* The posts in the "Public" area are... well... public, as they always have been, and I hope everyone will continue to follow the guidelines I have posted in the New Members section, and the further discussion of stealth online from tsroadmap that I have linked here. Basically, do not post anything that can leave you vulnerable. This is true of any Internet dealings.
* If you are seeing a members-only page while logged out (this means your name is NOT showing up in the upper right of the page) via Google or any other method, let me know. Send a screenshot if you can. I can't duplicate that experience on my machine, but if someone else can I'd like to see it and I'll deal with it.
* There shouldn't be anything on the internet that you didn't put there yourself, unless you are a celebrity (including people like J.M. Bailey and other well known "political celebrities"). At this point I can only throw my hands up and sigh if anyone puts private information on the web and then it comes up in a search engine. As an example, there was a court case in which the wife of a Navy Seal posted some photos of the Seals subduing Iraqi prisoners on a photohosting forum-like website. The Associated Press logged on to this public site, downloaded the photos and now the Seals are pretty much ruined career wise as covert operatives. (Read the story HERE ) Why did this woman post sensitive photos on a public forum? Who knows, but her marriage, her husband's career, and much more is now on the line because of her indiscretion.
* The Who's Online screen may, at times, show a Google bot browsing a My Home page, or a "Radioactive Topics Forum" page, or other "members only" page. What does a Googlebot or other search engine see when it looks at a "members only" page? Not what you see. Although you, Googlebot and Kreepy Chaser may all type in the address of a "Members Only" page, and a page will come up in your browser, these pages show different information depending on whether you are:

• Sally Q Sweetness, Registered & Logged In Information Exchange Member #777
• Anonymous Google Bot who is not a registered or logged-in member of this site
• Kreepy Chaser who is not a registered or logged-in member of this site

* So if a Googlebot (which, again, is not a registered or logged in member of this site types in http://www.genderlife.com/forum/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/velvetrope,
it is going to see Scenario B in the photo below:
* If Sally Q., a registered and logged in member, types in http://www.genderlife.com/forum/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/velvetrope,
she is going to see Scenario A in the photo below:

I know at times we're all tempted to post photos of ourselves. Some of us use photobucket or any other image hosting site for that matter. However, how many of you are aware of a little tag on your photobucket picture called the {img} url {/img} and what information is available from that?

It's called right click and get properties of the image. Then you copy the main url link into your browser. From there a person can view your entire photo album accounts. If there is any personal information displayed in those photos anywhere, it will be very easy for someone to track you down. So take the following:

1. Make sure you really really want to post a photo.

2. If you do, wait 24 hrs. You may change your mind.

3. Use "Paint" or "Photoshop" to clean up the image and get rid of any personal information.

4. Set your account on your photo hosting site to private which will require you give someone a password to view it. The sites default to public.

5. Also keep in mind that even though you may break the link, browsers cache the old information until you've cleaned the browser's cache. Other people will still see the photos as well and still be able to get the information from their browser cache.

6. Sorry if this freaked anyone, but you should know these things. The web is not a safe place.

the reason I'm telling you this is because this is a relatively public site, even in the private section. A person only has to join and become a member to view those sections. they don't have to even post. Consequently Callie did the purge.

So really think twice or maybe three times before you post a photo.

I recently deleted all photos from my photobucket account and deleted my account there. I will be opening a new account there for viewing by privately authorized people.

I just wanted to take some steps to consolidate some of the forum rules and information that has aggregated over the years. They are all designed to help members protect themselves and others, toward the goal of fostering the exchange of information and support among the members here.