remove public access to WF entirely. - Page 2 - Writers Forum

journyman161 · 06-26-2006, 06:24 AM

I think what he is worried about is that outsiders can google his name & find out personal info that he would prefer them not to have. And the obvious solution is to have a username change on any sites where he is listed as Ilan. On WF, that should alter his name on all posts, even old ones, so eventually the updates to places like google should be overwritten with the new info.

It may take a little time but by removing his name from all sites he posts to or is registered on & substituting a pseudonym, he will slowly vanish back into the obscurity he desires.

Ruben · 06-26-2006, 06:33 AM

Well, I did a name-change, and I still see archives with my original name in it (though that was on nanowrimo)

journyman161 · 06-26-2006, 07:17 AM

Hmmm... how long ago did you change your username? Are you seeing the original name on google or in nano?

But removing the current username should satisfy what Ialn is concerned about - if they don't see his real name how can they search for it?

Selorian · 06-26-2006, 08:17 AM

There are a number of archiving sites that keep a collection of past site records. Take WF for instance, you can go back to the beginning when it just started and see the layout and posts, all preserved for history's sake. I believe the major archiving sites try to capture a site once a month. A site as popular as WF will likely be that or at very least once every two months.

For these, there is no hope of a name change. Anyone wanting to do a google on him will find the listings of the archived WF posts as Ilan. It doesn't matter if there is a name change or making the site inaccesible to the general public, his posts can still be found. The only thing either will do is protect him in the future.

As for changing access to the site, I think the way it is setup now is the reason for our success and growth. Making it a private forum only accessible for members would jeopardize what makes it what it is today.

Ilan Bouchard · 06-26-2006, 12:36 PM

My main concern wasn't with my username; Nae offered to arrange to have it changed and I declined.

Honestly, if you do a google search for my name you won't find much information on me. (I think there are like seven results or something, half of which link to WF.)

I was mostly suggesting this just as a means of protecting all the posts on the forums, though, as mentioned, the WW forum suits that need.

Suggestion dismissed, then.

Aevin · 06-26-2006, 08:31 PM

Selorian ... Does that mean if someone deletes their post it remains accessible from these archives?

Pawn · 06-26-2006, 09:58 PM

Potentially. Check out web.archive.org.

Aevin · 06-27-2006, 12:11 AM

Odd ... I don't know how those things work, but when I searched things there and here, I ended up with the same results. So, it appears to me everything that is edited or deleted by the author is edited and deleted in the archives, too. I'd think the same would be true of usernames ...

By the way ... I searched an author for whom drastic changes should have been seen between the time I searched and the present.

blademasterzzz · 06-27-2006, 03:59 AM

I can only see the front page that's old. The rest is current, though the layout is still old.

Pawn · 06-27-2006, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blademasterzzz

I can only see the front page that's old. The rest is current, though the layout is still old.

So it would seem. Forum content is naturally displayed or modified through access to serverside databases, which remain constant unless manually backed-up. I thought archiving sites might take html snapshots of the whole cookie, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

teflon · 06-27-2006, 03:41 PM

Google Alerts always alerts you (just let it watch for a string from your writing) whenever there has been a backup on the server's database, in this case both Lit's and WF's