Search Engines and your profile ...

Just in case some of you didn't catch the post on the mainboard ... with OH being an open forum, our posts and profiles are subject to web search engines. This means anyone using Google or any other web search engine can find your profile and/or posts you've made in any forum. It's one of the reasons the OH username system was put into place recently to allow you to use an alias if you choose to. I write in my profile to record *my* WLS journey for others who might want to read it and, as well, for basic "therapy" for myself. It helps to write about this as the process goes along. I put nothing there I don't want made public, because it IS readable by anyone ... OH members and anyone searching the web. I work with computers alot, and I knew forum posts were searchable ... all too often I've found my own posts on computer tech forums listed on Google. Key words can be searched too. I'm sure alot of you aleady knew all this. I just wanted to relay the message about PROFILES being searchable so we'd all be aware. Truth to tell, there will always be a way for someone to access open forum information ... in some manner or the other ... so all these things are good reasons why it might be a wise thing to adopt a pseudonym for forum and profile use. I started out posting under my full real name, and had a couple of local friends say to me they'd read what I'd written. I thought "ok, so no prob" ... but then altered my username down to my first name because something about them "searching" out my comments out bothered me. Seemed rather silly to feel that way, but I did, and today, I'm altering it again ... but it's still me just so y'all will know! !! "You know who" sending a big from Missouri MJBG

For those of you that missed the mainboard posts on this: http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/TX/postdetail/177806.html?vc=0 and http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/amos/postdetail/1849118.html?vc=0

Hi "MJBG", Thanks for the info. I found this out first hand myself, but it turned out not to be such a bad thing. I was contacted by an old friend of mine that I grew up with and hadn't seen or spoken to in approximately 20 years. I asked her how she found me, and she said she found my OH profile by simply typing my name into "the best of all search engines combined" - dogpile.com. Anyway, I was so happy to hear from her, and the funny thing is, she didn't know that the OH web site even existed, she didn't know that I had WLS, AND... she had also had WLS just a few months prior to contacting me! We both thought it was a little bizarre - lol, but it was a very nice surprise. I can see, though, that this issue could be troublesome for people as well - especially if you are a private person. Before it happened to me, I didn't know it was possible, and I bet there are a lot of people out there who don't know either. Thanks! Tanja

Thanks MJBG, Im now a officially Grandma And I didnt have to pay a lawyer to change my name. Hugs, Soos

hi mjbg. thanks for the update and the info. good to hear from you again and i guess i'll stop looking for posts by that 'myra' person. hope all is well at your end of the keyboard and that you have a great weekend. hugs dorthe