Regarding Private Topics

[pawtucket]

This is the body of an email sent recently to a GS poster.

I addressed this in a post last week, but felt that it should be given it's own thread. This was written by one of the moderators.

quote:

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* You are receiving a notification from www.gscafe.com that you have a new message in your private topics.

* You can elect to be notified by email, or you can elect (in your "preferences") to not receive notifications

* You can view the Private Topic message by opening the email, you will be linked directly to the Private Topic that you received the message on

* If you want to reply to the Private Topic message, you must hit the "Reply" button at the bottom of the last post on the Private Topic itself, just as if you are replying to a post on a regular thread.

* Do not hit the "reply" button on your email

* Since the email is coming from gscafe.com, and not the person you are having a Private Topic with, hitting the email "Reply" button will cause moderator@gscafe.com to come up in the "TO" field

* You have two options: one is that you can go to the Private message thread itself, and click on the "Reply" button at the bottom of all the posts. A message box will pop up, just like the ones that come up when you reply to a regular post on a regular thread, when you have typed what you want, hit the "Post" button and your message will be posted in the Private Topic thread - only you and the other person can see this

* The other option, if you want to use the email, is when moderator@gscafe.com pops up in your email's "TO" field, delete it and type in the address of the person you want to send to. If you do not know their address, you are limited to option one.

You are doing this to yourself, you can see for yourself that moderator@gscafe.com is coming up in the "TO" field...why are you still sending it. This message, and a previous one did not go to ******* as you intended, but came to our email address, because you sent it there.

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Edited July 13, 2004 by moddishwasher

[excathedra]

perhaps you can fix the last paragraph to not name names in order to try to keep it private, here in the open forum, unless you are trying to reveal something

i think you are just trying to explain how this thing works

[pawtucket]

Thanks

[waterbuffalo]

I figured that out pretty early on, Paw, so it hasn't bothered me. But, it's always nice to read directions regarding those things.

Thanks,

WB

[Grizzy]

Oh.........ever so complicated!!!!!! :D-->

Perhaps when it gets e-mailed to the moderators it can then be considered *open* and placed for all to see

Except for any I sent by mistake that is.......... :P-->

[Oakspear]

Anybody can make a mistake. We've all done it. But it's one thing to accidently click on the wrong button...oops; it's quite another to see conspiracy in others, when it's merely one's own ineptitude that's the cause of the problem.

[excathedra]

i think people have their reasons (plural)

**

i've also noticed after having been in "the way" i can be pretty damn paranoid. sometimes i'm right and sometimes i'm nuts

[Belle]

I've called the help desk soo many times for things that have turned out to be user error that now I automatically assume I'm the one missing something.

However, when it comes to personal matters and matters of the heart, it is hard to shake that Waybrained paranoia we were taught so well.

Thanks for the clarification, Paw!

[Mister P-Mosh]

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle:

I've called the help desk soo many times for things that have turned out to be _user error_ that now I automatically assume I'm the one missing something.

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I'm the opposite. I've had so many problems with helpdesks and support that I tend to blame the company rather than myself, and even when I do something wrong it's often because of a problem with them anyway. :D-->

In this case though, even if pawtucket doesn't read the private topics, someone else potentially could. For example, TWI could plan a lawsuit which would result in a subpoena of the server information that gscafe resides on such as a database dump or whatnot. Since it wouldn't be a criminal investigation, pawtucket would probably find out, but still it's safe to be paranoid just in case and not put anything too private on the internet at all if you can help it.

[Tom Strange]

You're right about that MasterP, but then I've always followed the "don't type it if you don't want it read" theory... because once it's out there, it's out there...

...but I'm not really paranoid (or self-important) enough to think that that the mods sit around waiting to read what I've posted to someone in a PT...

[Mister P-Mosh]

quote:

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Originally posted by Tom Strange:

You're right about that MasterP, but then I've always followed the "don't type it if you don't want it read" theory... because once it's out there, it's out there...

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That's true, there's always a way someone can get something that you post on the internet if they really wanted to. It's not likely, but it's good to err towards the side of caution anyway.

quote:

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Originally posted by Tom Strange:

...but I'm not really paranoid (or self-important) enough to think that that the mods sit around waiting to read what I've posted to someone in a PT...

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Maybe not, but I should probably take my laptop to a Panera or another place that has free wireless internet access and record a log from a sniffer. If you install the WinPCap driver and Ethereal on your computer, you can easily see all sots of things being transferred over the internet.

[Tom Strange]

--> Huh??? -->

Maybe that's something you could explain for me down in the geek section...

[Zixar]

Tom: In a nutshell, the network card in your computer can see every data packet that flies across the cable, it only catches those addressed to it. Usually. Some cards can be put into "promiscuous mode" and capture every single packet, regardless of the intended destination computer.

Now, since Wi-Fi access is just like Ethernet without the wires, if you go to a public hotspot, every other computer in the restaurant/hotel/airport is on the same network as you are, so you can "sniff" their packets right out of the air, too.

Now, the Wi-Fi connection should be encrypted so no one else but you can read your packets, but many places don't have the encryption protocol turned on because of the tech support headaches in trying to give every customer the right encryption key for the network. Most sites encrypt passwords, but many don't, and if you use the same username and password for many sites, all a sniffer has to do is catch you using it one place and simply snoop around until he finds some interesting site you visit.

That's one way how you wind up on the Citibank identity fraud commercials.

[Mister P-Mosh]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zixar:

Most sites encrypt passwords, but many don't, and if you use the same username and password for many sites, all a sniffer has to do is catch you using it one place and simply snoop around until he finds some interesting site you visit.

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I agree with everything Zixar said, and would like to add a bit too. Not only do you have to worry about the web, but if you use something like Outlook, Eudora or Thunderbird for your email, your email username and password are sent over the internet as well with no encryption. Using a sniffer, one can also easily reconstruct instant messenger conversations. I don't think you use telnet or IRC, but both of those are easily read as well.

The only fairly "safe" things are websites that use https:// at the beginning, ssh rather than telnet, and things like VNC. By default though, there is no encryption for most things on the internet that you would connect to.

As a side note, when I worked at an ISP, I know that we had Carnivore boxes on at least one of our networks. If you think what someone with the knowledge I discussed is bad, Carnivore can do more and has much greater access than you or I would to more networks.

[Oakspear]

bump

[excathedra]

i don't know if you can bump something that stays at the top ;)-->

[pawtucket]

It wasn't at the top when he did that

[excathedra]

oops sowwy

[jen-o]

well, i have a question.

the few times i have used the private topic feature, i have always just hit the reply button on my e-mail...i assumed it got to the person because the person wrote me back.

hitting reply on the e-mail is just so easy... and besides, how on earth am i suppose to find the original private topic??

[krys]

jen-o

It the very top of this page - and all the others here too....you'll see a series of blue tabs...go - new - find - notify - etc.

Click on "go" then on "my space" thin on "rivate messaging" and you get to all the private topics you've been invited to....and you can start some of your own.

It took me a while to figure it out!

mrys

[Tom Strange]

OR you can hit "reply to post" at the bottom of the message that you're reading in your email... it will then ask you to "log in" (like you're logging in to GS) and you can post the reply there.

[jen-o]

krysilis.

aha...now i see it....thanks so much for the info and clear directions...

peace, jen-o

and tom strange...i guess that's what i've been doing all along...hitting the reply to post button on my e-mail...because my communications have all gone through and are listed where krys said i would find them....and it's so much easier to just hit the reply to post button on the e-mail....especially since i'm working with web tv for the most part...and can't reply to anything unless i come up here on the computer.

thanks for all the info guys!

peace,

jen-o

[jen-o]

p.s.

so i see there is a third option...namely, the one i have been using...that is: hit the reply to post button on the e-mail.

[Tom Strange]

--> :D-->