Posted by spoc on July 2, 2004, at 17:47:41
In reply to Re: Open and email addresses, posted by Dr. Bob on July 1, 2004, at 17:44:47
> It turns out there is now an option:
>
> > Allow members to hide their email address from the group.
> > Your group will not be able to use the Polls feature.
> > Members who hide their email address will not be able to post messages via email.
>
> Is "posting messages via email" important?
>
> Bob<<<<< (This is probably a "Duh," but "Posting messages via email" is just sending an email through the Yahoo members list... I found that out after being terrified for awhile, when I had sent someone an email by clicking on their address there and I received a confirmation saying "Your message has been posted..." I thought it had indeed been posted-posted somewhere!)
Dr. Bob, another confidentiality option that doesn't seem to be operational (though this one claims it is) is the option to be "Hidden" in Open. I tried that twice, just to see what Open was like but not having any intention of participating yet. But sure enough, I wasn't hidden (and I'm very sure I did it right). Just an FYI, because you might want to either turn the feature on or remove it. I'd think many people may be shy or unfamiliar with chat, and may try to get their feet wet that way and be surprised. (Myself, I can't even type and I spend enough time online as it is, so I probably won't follow through on Open.)
Terrics, another option for giving out your email address is the free addy encrypting service sneakemail.com (or others like it). It forwards email to your real address, and you can generate and delete the encrypted addresses at will. You could even give a different one out to each person, then delete it immediately as soon as they've contacted you and you have their address. I posted a big hairy description of sneakemail.com on Admin a couple months ago, and Lonely Girl very recently linked someone to it here on Admin too. Let me know if you want me to find it.
poster:spoc
thread:362238
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20040527/msgs/362664.html