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Over the holiday weekend, I am BETA TESTING a new widget that adds some member privacy options.

On your profile page when logged in, you'll see a new option called 'Make Profile Private'. When you select this, it will make your profile INVISIBLE to all logged in users EXCEPT your friends. They will only see a blank page that tells them that they need to be your friend to see the profile, and an option to friend request you. The default option is for your profile to be totally public.

We'll see what the impact is...once you make your profile private you are likely to get an influx of friend requests ... but essentially its the same as MySpace, where you can make your profile private.

Additionally, for the time being, I've locked down profiles to the general public. If you are not a member, you cannot view profiles. Likewise for full view of submitted photos, you have to be logged in.

I'm testing this to see:

a) Do more people sign up with accounts to be able to view profiles and photos, and if they do are they the 'right' kind of members appropriate to the site. There are lots of people browsing out there without joining.

b) What the impact is to letting folks turn their profiles private, not just to individuals but also to search engines ... since Google and other search engines can find you on your profiles. But they can't if its marked private.

Please post any feedback and comments here.

Again this is ONLY a BETA TEST over the Holiday Weekend. I MAY or MAY NOT remove ALL or SOME of the privacy options explained above.

Thanks for the feedback as usual!

Web Chief

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I think thats will be great idea. thanks for improven this site for us. keep up the good work Chief
Thanks. We'll see the impact. I need to be sure it doesn't impact site speed and other things, besides what i mention above.

Also tonight there's a new scroll of who is online on the members list page.

A brand new, more permanent chat site also goes up over night.

Thanks!
yes Chief, I think it'll be a great add on, and it'll make people think weather or not they want to join FNN when they cant just look at what ever they want to.........keep up the great work:)
I like the new privacy feature. I hope it stays.
I like the idea of the privacy option and you doing a great job with the site Dave. Thanks for all the great work that you are doing to keep the site up to date and making it better for the members...
How do I get rid of the Google - Adds across the top of my page?
I believe that Dave had to come up with some way to pay the bills here... : )
As much as I don't like them from a user perspective, I better grow to like them as my buisness advertises on them!!!
Dave, this is a nice addition to the site. Having privacy is always a good option and giving the control to the members will be a nice touch. I did find out today that a close friend, during the major fires this summer in Santa Barbara where I live, used Google to access FFN to find out what firefighters were saying about the Gap Incident (+10,000 acres / wildland urban interface).

Any large incident in the world has a pretty good chance of showing up on the FFN now with the membership growing everyday. It wouldn't surprise me to hear someone quoted through the media from a FFN site. Another confirmation that we need to be responsible when we write things. You never know where it will show up.
LOL. Yes, thanks folks.....I'm 'phasing' in some ads .. and testing different positions. Right now its just the Google Ads. Then once I figure out where the best positions are -- both for advertisers and limiting user impact as much as I can -- I'll start rolling out paying advertisers. The only way for the site to continue to grow where I want it to be is to start bringing in some cash :)

That may include having them on member profiles or not, just testing basically what I can for now. The platform isn't quite as flexible as I'd like in terms of targeting and positioning ads, but its improving all the time.

Dave
The privacy idea is a good idea. I have another question for you why do i have to click on show me non-secured areas? I never had to before is this something with the site or my comp? Other than that great job with the improvements to the site. Keep it up!
What are you referring? Can you post an example URL? Not sure what non secured areas means..

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