Here's looking at you, kid...

Don't know if this is possible or if it has ever been discussed..... But is there any functionality that will let a member be notified or see who is viewing their profile?

Call me paranoid (okay, on a conspiracy site, that's rather par for the course...right?), but I would love to see a list of which members (or just "anonymous guest" if unknown) is or has viewed my profile.

I just checked it...just because you metionned it...

reply to post by CIAGypsy


Thats a good point, I never considered that. Mind you, my profile is fairly sparse, and really, one could learn more about me from my post history than my profile or anything on it.

I was deliberately spartan with my profile.

I don't understand what the issue is. If your concerned someone might know to much about you, take off the content. It is your profile, you decide how much to reveal. I often view people's profile page. If I see them in a thread and I like what they have to say, I will go and look at other posts or threads they have made, see if I want to friend them in order to follow other threads they might write in the future. I like to see if we have friends in common, what interests they have if they have filled that part out, etc. I also check out my friends sometimes to see what threads they are commenting on, as they hang out in different parts of the boards, frequently I find good threads that way.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


No such function that I am aware of. To be honest, I don't even look at my own profile more than a handful of times per year - and then only if anybody posts a comment to it.

My advice, sanitize it as necessary so that there is nothing there that makes you feel compromised or nervous.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by CIAGypsy

My advice, sanitize it as necessary so that there is nothing there that makes you feel compromised or nervous.

On that note OP, I looked at your profile, what part of your profile makes you paranoid that someone would look at if I may inquire. Personally, I didn't see anything that you should be concerned with, but I know squat about you so...

Looks like my point isn't really coming across by the responses I'm getting...

It's not that I am worried about WHAT people will see on my profile or in my posts. It's that I want to know WHO is looking. There are a myriad of reasons why I feel this is good to know...

reply to post by CIAGypsy


Well the general problem is this:

We are conspiracy theorists, who mostly, above all else, value our anonymity.

I mean even places like Facebook don't give you a 'creeper' option to see whose been visiting your profile.

Personally I never read profiles, I use those pages exclusively for staff related stuff mostly.

But yeah, I would not want you knowing that I was reading your profile. Not because I'm doing anything wrong or nefarious, it's because you put it all out there in a public space for anyone to see, I don't think that really entitles you to then request they show themselves.

~Tenth

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by CIAGypsy

 

Well the general problem is this:

We are conspiracy theorists, who mostly, above all else, value our anonymity.

I mean even places like Facebook don't give you a 'creeper' option to see whose been visiting your profile.

Personally I never read profiles, I use those pages exclusively for staff related stuff mostly.

But yeah, I would not want you knowing that I was reading your profile. Not because I'm doing anything wrong or nefarious, it's because you put it all out there in a public space for anyone to see, I don't think that really entitles you to then request they show themselves.

~Tenth

Tenth,

I respect your opinion.... But as someone who has dealt with several stalkers in my lifetime, I would like to know who is looking. You are correct that anonymity is important...and whether it truly exists is a topic for another thread and day. I am not asking to get the individuals real name, social security number, blood type, and names of their natural born children. But if "Regular Joe X" (a made up name for purposes of illustration) visits my profile 5 times in one day, I would like to know because it would put me on guard to keep an eye out for "Regular Joe X" on the boards and in chat. While I also try to be very very careful about what I say on the boards and how much personal or identifying information I put out there, sometimes things may slip inadvertently. I feel the ability to know who is looking at your profile gives you some element of knowledge to know whose interest you may have raised or whose radar you have popped up on.

Like I said...call me paranoid...but there are reasons why I feel it could be important to know.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


I completely understand where you are coming from and please don't think I consider a differing opinion disrespectful .

The other problem I failed to really mention is that if you did have something like that, it would not be accurate, at least to my knowledge.

A google bot could visit your profile 5000 times a month and you'd be none the wiser. I'm sure there are ways that could be done away with, but I believe a massive coding effort would be involved as well.

Perhaps it's something that will come with the upcoming re-design of ATS. I don't know what SO has brewing in his head, but knowing him, it's going to be pretty damn awesome.

Lastly, the only way that anybody could ever find out information about your personal self, is what you've posted in these forums. Even if ATS got hacked, all we have is an email address. We do that on purpose as to give solace to our members who are worried about privacy.

But I do understand your fears, especially if you've been in that situation before, of course you'd like to take steps to prevent that in the future.

I'll make sure your suggestion goes through the proper channels.

~Tenth

reply to post by CIAGypsy

Don't know if this is possible or if it has ever been discussed..... But is there any functionality that will let a member be notified or see who is viewing their profile?

Call me paranoid (okay, on a conspiracy site, that's rather par for the course...right?), but I would love to see a list of which members (or just "anonymous guest" if unknown) is or has viewed my profile.

CiA i cant speak for anyone else but i generally only ever look at the profiles of the members who have done an OP that i found interesting. Sometimes i will look at the profile of a poster who is trolling a thread just to see if i can find a weakness to exploit. This is first time i have ever seen you post a thread, you really do operate covertly as a CiA operative.

Originally posted by CIAGypsy

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by CIAGypsy

 

Well the general problem is this:

We are conspiracy theorists, who mostly, above all else, value our anonymity.

I mean even places like Facebook don't give you a 'creeper' option to see whose been visiting your profile.

Personally I never read profiles, I use those pages exclusively for staff related stuff mostly.

But yeah, I would not want you knowing that I was reading your profile. Not because I'm doing anything wrong or nefarious, it's because you put it all out there in a public space for anyone to see, I don't think that really entitles you to then request they show themselves.

~Tenth

Tenth,

I respect your opinion.... But as someone who has dealt with several stalkers in my lifetime, I would like to know who is looking. You are correct that anonymity is important...and whether it truly exists is a topic for another thread and day. I am not asking to get the individuals real name, social security number, blood type, and names of their natural born children. But if "Regular Joe X" (a made up name for purposes of illustration) visits my profile 5 times in one day, I would like to know because it would put me on guard to keep an eye out for "Regular Joe X" on the boards and in chat. While I also try to be very very careful about what I say on the boards and how much personal or identifying information I put out there, sometimes things may slip inadvertently. I feel the ability to know who is looking at your profile gives you some element of knowledge to know whose interest you may have raised or whose radar you have popped up on.

Like I said...call me paranoid...but there are reasons why I feel it could be important to know.

okay. just want to say here. as one who has been stalked, also, we are on an INTERNET FORUM.....
We are writing, and signing our "handle" to it. I believe there is a way to be an anonymous poster here, or maybe they ended that..... My point being, either don't write, have a skeletal profile, or we all get over it. Anyway, if you are paying attention to surveillance and computers, it's not like you are anonymous in any way, anyway.
Wasn't it Gates who said a few years ago, "there is no longer any possibility of anonymity?" Perhaps I was the only one paying attention. It's not about anonymity any longer, but about pointing the finger in an accepted direction. This is part of the divide and conquer thing, as well as punishing the weakest link military tried and true concept.......

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Tenth,

Thanks for being open to the suggestion. Like I said, I don't even know if it is possible on this type of website forum. I know it is available on sites like LinkedIn. I would think the premise would be the same, even though on LI you are giving your real name, it is still tied to a profile/email address.

Also, I realize that our personal information (such as name, address, etc...) is not housed in any ATS database, etc... However, there are ways to track people on forums. Intel agencies and law enforcement do it all the time, my friend.... But I digress...I'm not worried about hacking data. I just want to know who is looking.... I know it may seem unreasonable or silly to others who haven't stepped in my shoes.

reply to post by CIAGypsy


When you explain it like you have, then the context of your request doesn't seem that silly.

The problem with ATS changing things is that as far as I know this is all custom legacy code that SO made from scratch.

Nothing is impossible though, just hard in most cases.

~Tenth

reply to post by tetra50


You completely missed the point or didn't read very thoroughly. I'm not worried about people seeing the content of my posts or my profile. There are other reasons why I want to know who is looking...

And I did not intend this to be a discussion about real anonymity on the web. I am not worried about my ip address or other info being tracked or hacked.

Originally posted by AthlonSavage

CiA i cant speak for anyone else but i generally only ever look at the profiles of the members who have done an OP that i found interesting. Sometimes i will look at the profile of a poster who is trolling a thread just to see if i can find a weakness to exploit. This is first time i have ever seen you post a thread, you really do operate covertly as a CiA operative.

Bonjour AS!

You must not get around the boards very often if this is the first post you've seen from me!

reply to post by CIAGypsy


all right. having read your response to tenthpower, clarifying the interest as about who might be "pinging" your profile over and over, I get it.

Don't get me wrong....I think just posting here may be a risk for at least some of us, perhaps all of us. I allude to that in my response, vis a vis surveillance, and triggering. And I definitely feel that I, personally, am taking a risk every time I write what I think here. But I feel it is an inherent risk, affording me the opportunity to state what I believe and live for.....

Having said that, I do agree, as a "stalkee," having felt like Goldilocks many times in my life, that to know who has observed my profile many times, fixated on it, so to speak, would be important....

That being said, I look at a profile when I am captivated by the responder, when their response to something or the thread they wrote really stikes a chord in me.... I don't go looking for anyone, just interested in like minded or opposite minded peoples......

Originally posted by tetra50
reply to post by CIAGypsy

 

all right. having read your response to tenthpower, clarifying the interest as about who might be "pinging" your profile over and over, I get it.

Thanks for making an effort to understand my perspective...

I'm sure it would come as no surprise to anyone on ATS, but given the types of discussions that take place here, there is a slew of OSINT that takes place on this site.

reply to post by CIAGypsy

Bonjour AS!

You must not get around the boards very often if this is the first post you've seen from me!

Thats probably the actual reality of the situation however one member sees me as a kind of terror of sorts on the boards see last posts in linked thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
reply to post by CIAGypsy

 

Bonjour AS!

You must not get around the boards very often if this is the first post you've seen from me!

Thats probably the actual reality of the situation however one member sees me as a kind of terror of sorts on the boards see last posts in linked thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

heh heh. are you stalking me? I see you everywhere I go.....
Just a joke