The whys and hows in handy FAQ format:
Why?
Three main reasons: In some discussions, there were too many people using the default "anon" as a "name," leading to confusion. As UH has gained more participants, we've picked up more nasty hit-and-run trolls. And we've picked up a new breed of spammers who took advantage of the anonymous posting ability to craft comments that manage to evade the site spam filters (mainly by limiting the number of links in their posts to one or two).
Yep, I'm finally getting around to it. I think all the technical issues are solved, and I'm back from vacation, with plenty of time on my hands, so:
Sometime tomorrow evening, I'll flip the switch on requiring a login to post here. Reasons in a nutshell: Too many anonymi, too many cheap, third-grade insults, etc., etc. I realize that not all anon users are quick on the insult draw and most of you have interesting things to say, but I'd hate to see other folks driven off by the minority who do get out of hand. This is NOT an attempt to identify users (you can be as anonymous as you like - get a HotMail account, register some name, then delete the HotMail account).
Last update: 5/13/23. Adds information about Google ads.
At Universal Hub, we value your privacy. What follows is a description of how we collect information about you and what we do (or don't do) with it:
You do not need to register to read posts or replies on Universal Hub, or to post replies on the site. However, if you wish to post an article yourself, or if you wish to have the system keep track of messages for you - you will need to create a free account. To do so, you'll be asked for a user name and an e-mail address. Optionally, you can also add additional information that will be displayed to other users who click on your user name at the top of a posting or comment you make. Once you create an account, you can have the system send you e-mail notifications when people reply to your posts or when people post new messages in specific forums.
Universal Hub never makes your address public - although you can let other users contact you, it is done through a "proxy" system on our site - another user fills out a form, which our server then mails to you without revealing your address to the other person.
We do not sell or give out our user names and addresses to anybody. If somebody e-mails us seeking to contact you, we will forward the message to you, leaving it up to you whether to reply.
Universal Hub, Boston Online and Boston Blogs currently use cookies in a couple of different ways:
If you post an article or comment on Universal Hub, or sign up for notification of replies in specific discussions, the software will attempt to put a cookie on your hard drive. This cookie will identify you to the system the next time you connect to it, so that it can tell you which messages are new (i.e., posted since the last time you logged in) and to display them in your preferred form. We do not do anything else with this information.
Universal Hub, Boston Online and Boston Blogs have banner advertising. Some of the advertisers may attempt to write a cookie to your hard drive when you visit their sites.
Similarly, Universal Hub, Boston Online and Boston Blogs employ tracking software from Google Analytics (Universal Hub also has tracking software from Quantcast). These create aggregate reports on the numbers and types of site visitors, but do not track individual users.
If you do not wish to receive a cookie, you can disable them via your browser (each browser has a different way to do this) or with add-on security software. Caveat: Without cookies enabled, you will not be able to have the sites remember your preferences or new-message settings from session to session, i.e., you will have to log in each time.
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
In addition to the above, our servers collect certain standard "log" information on each visit - the time of the visit, pages seen, type of Web browser, which site, if any, you came to our sites from and your IP address. We do not attempt to create individual user profiles from this information, but do use the data in the aggregate to help determine our audience's interests, popular pages and the like.
If you have any questions about our privacy and cookie polices, please contact Adam Gaffin at [email protected].
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