Call me a sceptic Dove but this is a forum. You use a name to hide your true details. We all do something similar. We can all put on a profile anything we want. There is no 'truth' check. We build our trust from what people say here. I never checked your profile before asking for (and taking - thank you if you've given it!) advice - but I did/do look for consensus in advice.
I have no axe to grind either way. I hadn't realised what effect(s) the option had other than what I read it to mean.
Precisely @steveTu ... my profile could be an entire pack of lies ... I could be the Princess Royal or Gina Lollabrigida for all you know ... except that, as most regulars are aware, there are several people on here who have met me, some more than once, and some who have become real life friends and important people in my life ... and a member of my family also posts on here ... it would take an awful lot of collusion and a better memory than even I have got to remember to continue with the illusion.
I have only occasionally used the Ignore button ... I find people as a species interesting and very few folk are annoying to the extent that they are intolerable ... there have been a couple of occasions when someone has been so aggressive or unkind to me that I've wanted to 'Ignore' their posts for a few weeks ... on one occasion that wasn't possible because they had a Private Profile and even tho' I tried to Ignore them I still kept seeing their posts. This was disconcerting and a bit upsetting for even a tough old bird like me until I realised what was going on. It's all very well to say just don't read their posts ... if scrolling down a thread I don't always take on board who has made each individual post until I read something that makes me want to check who said it ... so it's very easy to come unexpectedly upon an unkind post referring to an individual, and then it can make you feel very exposed and vulnerable, and this 'safe place' we've been comfortable using suddenly feels threatening.
So when it comes down to it, the only real reason I can think of for having a Private Profile is to avoid someone looking back to see what you've posted in the past ... and why would anyone want to avoid that? If you can't stand by what you've said why would you say it? And of course, the Mods will be able to track back through someone's posting history should the need arise ... it won't be hidden to them. Or of course, to avoid being Ignored so that you can continue to prod and poke people.
It's a shame that some folk like goading others ... I suppose like most form of bullying it's a 'power thing' ... usually done by pathetic scared individuals, more to be pitied than feared. On a bad day I hang onto that ........ and keep remembering that Lionel Richie said he thought I was cool.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hit the nail on the head, @Dovefromabove. Some people have a private profile by accident, but by far the commonest reason, is people who don't want you to see what you have previously posted, because it is rude, provoking etc.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
Or as in my case, when I joined the forum and filled in my deadly boring profile and saved it my email address was there. Panic set in so I made it private where it stayed for a while. A new member brought the subject up and it made me curious so in the dead of night, well late on at any rate, Dove was online so I asked her to check via a PM when I switched it back to visible. It wasn't there and only visible to me. Panic over and back to profile visible.
I think there's an email notification when people post your thread @Uff. As a serial threader, there were rather a lot and many of them were not particularly relevant to me. I visit latest posts frequently and check with my discussion thing to make sure I haven't missed a reply.
So @punkdoc ... there we have it ... we know why they do it and they know we know ... and when they know that we know, their power has gone ... and we'll just keep hanging on to the wisdom of Mr Richie, and smiling to ourselves.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I beg to differ Dove. We don't know why members make their profile private and can only know if they tell us and in the grand scheme of things does it really matter?
I beg to differ Dove. We don't know why members make their profile private and can only know if they tell us and in the grand scheme of things does it really matter?
Sorry @Uff ... I was a little ambiguous there ... what I meant was, we know why the bullies do it. Not why others might.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh dear @Dovefromabove you have completely spoilt my day I have several Doves who are daily visitors to my garden and so you always spring to mind when I see them. Now I'm going to be imagining Gina L. fluttering down to the feeders - not the same thing at all
Oh dear @Dovefromabove you have completely spoilt my day I have several Doves who are daily visitors to my garden and so you always spring to mind when I see them. Now I'm going to be imagining Gina L. fluttering down to the feeders - not the same thing at all
🤣 @philippasmith2 I thought long and hard before choosing my possible real names … you could’ve had Sir Tom Jones or Elvis Costello fluttering down to your bird feeders 🕊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
I have only occasionally used the Ignore button ... I find people as a species interesting and very few folk are annoying to the extent that they are intolerable ... there have been a couple of occasions when someone has been so aggressive or unkind to me that I've wanted to 'Ignore' their posts for a few weeks ... on one occasion that wasn't possible because they had a Private Profile and even tho' I tried to Ignore them I still kept seeing their posts. This was disconcerting and a bit upsetting for even a tough old bird like me until I realised what was going on. It's all very well to say just don't read their posts ... if scrolling down a thread I don't always take on board who has made each individual post until I read something that makes me want to check who said it ... so it's very easy to come unexpectedly upon an unkind post referring to an individual, and then it can make you feel very exposed and vulnerable, and this 'safe place' we've been comfortable using suddenly feels threatening.
So when it comes down to it, the only real reason I can think of for having a Private Profile is to avoid someone looking back to see what you've posted in the past ... and why would anyone want to avoid that? If you can't stand by what you've said why would you say it? And of course, the Mods will be able to track back through someone's posting history should the need arise ... it won't be hidden to them. Or of course, to avoid being Ignored so that you can continue to prod and poke people.
It's a shame that some folk like goading others ... I suppose like most form of bullying it's a 'power thing' ... usually done by pathetic scared individuals, more to be pitied than feared. On a bad day I hang onto that ........ and keep remembering that Lionel Richie said he thought I was cool.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Some people have a private profile by accident, but by far the commonest reason, is people who don't want you to see what you have previously posted, because it is rude, provoking etc.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hello!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.