Please rethink your Pricescope privacy options

[mrs-b]

Since the latest upgrade, I've noticed that more and more people are making their profiles fully private. The effect of that is that it's not possible to easily locate those people's previous threads.

One of the best functions of PS in the past, in my opinion, and one of its greatest joys, has been looking up a favorite poster and seeing all their threads. For people with incredible collections, it's an opportunity to see all their pieces in one easy step, and for convenience sake it's a very easy way of tracking down specific posts that "I vaguely remember included info about (fill in the gap with some random piece of jewelry or info)"

For example, I recently asked a member for info about their gorgeous pendant. I can't remember where I asked the question, tho I *can* remember who the poster is. I wanted to revisit their answer, so looked up their profile and...profile blocked. So I have no way of re-accessing the info they shared with me unless I do...what? Start trawling my way through any thread I've commented on in SMTB? And - since I'm not sure this even WAS in SMTB, do I need to go through Rocky Talky as well to find it? Probably.

Another poster has a beautiful new ring. She shared it on PS a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to take another look and went to her profile. Blocked. So to find it I need to start ploughing through pages and pages of the SMTB forum - which I'm simply not going to do.

Surely a lot of the joy of PS is being able to use each other's knowledge, experiences and collections to expand our own enjoyment of jewelry? But to do that, one needs to be able to access that info in a timely and convenient manner. And having an open profile has one other benefit....

People often ask me for photos of pieces I've previously posted. Taking photos of jewelry is, as we all know, very time consuming. People say "photos, pls!" as tho it's the easiest thing in the world, when, in fact, it can represent hours of time to get photos that accurately reflect these beautiful chameleons. I will often say - "There are photos in a thread about this piece which you can find if you look at my profile." So it's convenient for *me*, as well as others.

It's possible to block others from seeing when you were last online, or what thread you've been viewing, without blocking all your own threads. For all those people who have blocked access to the history of their threads and posts, can you please rethink? Just a thought - and thank you!

 

[dk168]

TBH, I did not realise I had an option to switch to completely private until now.

Nothing has changed on my part since the upgrade as far as I am aware.

DK

 

[the_mother_thing]

It's possible to block others from seeing when you were last online, or what thread you've been viewing, without blocking all your own threads. For all those people who have blocked access to the history of their threads and posts, can you please rethink? Just a thought - and thank you!

I get it, and don’t disagree with the value of being able to search through one’s older threads to find a particular piece they made some time back, pictures, etc. But there’s not a lot of information on the settings to advise members what each option does/does not reveal, so I think a lot of folks - myself included - err on the side of caution and just make everything private.

If admin can provide some guidance about what each Privacy option does/does not reveal to others, it might help people feel more comfortable opening up some of those options.

ETA: For example, the first and fourth options here are pretty vague IMO. What details? Identities?

 

[Rfisher]

I agree with your reasons @mrs-b
But I also agree with @the_mother_thing
It’s not a workaround, but it is easier to trawl through content/attachments through my own profile to narrow down its location, than scanning the numerous or huge threads I think may have contained it.
I’m going to have to actually comment more than just using the like button for this to work well, though.

There’s also more posters deleting their photos, for reasons that are the same.
Been trying to find a certain necklace chain for a while and thinking the poster deleted it.
Privacy (personal safety and their jewelry designs) vs sharing with stranger danger is a fine line? Because this isnt an issue with the folks that share off this board. :shrug:

 

[mrs-b]

@the_mother_thing -

Interestingly enough - the second example I gave of thering I wanted to hunt down was yours. I found it in the end by going through the threads on SMTB and I was lucky because it was more recent than I had thought and was still on the first page of SMTB. But it really was pure luck, and I'd settled down to trawl through numerous pages looking for it.

My settings allow people to see a list of my posts and threads (privacy settings) but not to see when I'm online or what I'm viewing (preferences). That combo looks like this:





I've never seen the point of erasing photos, and I don't believe most people do it either. My name, my DOB, my address - none of my contact info is on my profile, so showing photos won't do much harm. And PS would be a pretty sad place without the massive catalogue of bling it holds!

As far as 'viewing identities' goes - I only have one, so I don't care about that at all. In fact, I think we all only have one, so I'm not sure what that does either. I don't want to get a lot of email notifications, so I have all of those turned off. I never really check my profile page, so I have the ability to post on that by others switched off.

I think it's 'viewing the details on your profile page' that allows others to see your past content and threads. Mine isn't open to the public at large, but that's the one that I think we should allow others to see. I'm also happy for others to see my news feed (an emailed list of what I post, I gather, which can be seen by a member who 'follows' me), so that's no drama and makes no difference, since anyone can read what I post anyway, given that it's a public forum.

And that's about it. Pretty straight forward, tho some explanation re 'identities' would be helpful. I hope that helps!

 

[the_mother_thing]

@mrs-b I appreciate your sharing that, but it doesn’t answer my question about what those things actually are/show/mean. I don’t know what other pieces of my profile are/are not visible, and what ‘identities’ are/are not shown (how many ‘identities’ does one user have, is that past user names or their actual email address/e, etc.)?

What I think might be a good ‘temp’ solution that allows those who share the same concerns is what I’ve just done in my signature (hopefully someone here can test it to make sure it works for them). You’d have to copy/paste it though because - for some reason - there isn’t an option to add a hyperlink in our signatures, which I’ll post about in the Forum Upgrade thread to see if that can be added/fixed. But at least - by users posting the link in their siggy - it will help those who might want to search their threads for past topics.

If admin can chime in with an explanation of the various privacy settings and what those do/don’t show - both members and non-members - I might be open to adjusting them.

 

[marymm]

^ fyi, when I click on your sig link, this is what comes up for me:

 

[marymm]

mrs-b, I've ran into the same situation as you, trying to locate prior threads or photos and being blocked from seeing a member's prior threads ... I also used that tool quite a bit. Since the update I find I am spending much less time on PS ... not a bad thing really for me but I am a bit sad at realizing the site is not as functionally enjoyable to me as it used to be.

 

[the_mother_thing]

Well crap ... I thought that would be a potential interim solution, but I guess it won’t let anyone but the member view the link.

I posted about this in the Forum Update thread to bring it to Admin’s attention. I really think if they/someone can clearly outline what the various privacy settings do/do not show when selected, it would help others feel more comfortable adjusting them to more ‘open’ visibility into their forum activity/presence.

In the mean time, I’m more than happy to be tagged in a post and asked to link to a past thread of mine by any member.

 

[Slickk]

mrs-b, I've ran into the same situation as you, trying to locate prior threads or photos and being blocked from seeing a member's prior threads ... I also used that tool quite a bit. Since the update I find I am spending much less time on PS ... not a bad thing really for me but I am a bit sad at realizing the site is not as functionally enjoyable to me as it used to be.

Because I also like to be able to see favorite poster’s previous threads, I am interested in this topic.
I was able to find @mrs-b threads by clicking on her name and then in the small pop up box click her name again. Then you’ll see the screen cap below. Click on find and you can find her threads there. Hope that’s helps!
Good topic @mrs-b

 

[mrs-b]

@Slick1 -

Yes, that 'find' button is what others can see when you allow 'View details on your profile page'. If you don't, it doesn't come up and people can't search your previous content. If you click it, as I have, as 'members only', only PS members can see it, not the general public.

 

[the_mother_thing]

@Slick1 Her settings aren’t locked down.

Try doing the same with my threads, and I don’t believe you’ll have the same result.

 

[mrs-b]

@mrs-b I appreciate your sharing that, but it doesn’t answer my question about what those things actually are/show/mean. I don’t know what other pieces of my profile are/are not visible, and what ‘identities’ are/are not shown (how many ‘identities’ does one user have, is that past user names or their actual email address/e, etc.)?

What I think might be a good ‘temp’ solution that allows those who share the same concerns is what I’ve just done in my signature (hopefully someone here can test it to make sure it works for them). You’d have to copy/paste it though because - for some reason - there isn’t an option to add a hyperlink in our signatures, which I’ll post about in the Forum Upgrade thread to see if that can be added/fixed. But at least - by users posting the link in their siggy - it will help those who might want to search their threads for past topics.

If admin can chime in with an explanation of the various privacy settings and what those do/don’t show - both members and non-members - I might be open to adjusting them.

@the_mother_thing -

I think you responded before I edited my post. I went back and explained what they do. Except for the identities one. I have no idea what that is, so I have it blocked. And see my post above to Slick1 - it explains it also.

 

[mrs-b]

@Slick1 Her settings aren’t locked down.

Try doing the same with my threads, and I don’t believe you’ll have the same result.

Exactly. That's the whole point. Look at my security settings and my explanations and you'll see what I have vs what you have, and what they do.

 

[the_mother_thing]

@mrs-b I just changed that first option to ‘members-only’. Would you mind terribly trying it with mine, but also posting a screenshot showing what you can see on my profile when you do?

As ‘the’ member, I see everything but cannot see what/how others see my information, which is why I’ve been apprehensive about doing it.

 

[mrs-b]

@mrs-b I just changed that first option to ‘members-only’. Would you mind terribly trying it with mine, but also posting a screenshot showing what you can see on my profile when you do?

As ‘the’ member, I see everything but cannot see what/how others see my information, which is why I’ve been apprehensive about doing it.

There you go! Below is your entire profile page. The only thing that's different to what you had before you changed it is there's now a 'find' button for previous threads - same as we used to have before the latest upgrade. Thank you so much! You know how much I love your pieces and it would be such a shame if they just disappeared into the ether!



And just to add - only members, not the whole public, can now see this. Non PS members can't see any past content search feature and the find button is missing when they look at your profile.

 

[sarahb]

Thank you @mrs-b for bringing this issue up. I guess my natural inclination--when dealing with anything on the net, is to select the highest security option available. Thus, I also had my settings on complete lockdown. It makes complete sense for us to allow member access to old content, I go & look for things all the time. I didn't realize my choices prevented member access...thank you for pointing this out!

And while we're discussing 'tech' issues, @the_mother_thing, I love your avatar! What kind of file did you upload? I wondered if the image was a 'live' photo...the movement is cool!

 

[the_mother_thing]

And while we're discussing 'tech' issues, @the_mother_thing, I love your avatar! What kind of file did you upload? I wondered if the image was a 'live' photo...the movement is cool!

Thank you! I just downloaded an app to my iPad that converts videos to gifs with some editing capability; not sure what the file type/format is, as the iPad doesn’t show me that info; just thumbnails of pics.

 

[Jambalaya]

How do we delete our photos? I would love to do that. Terrified that someone I know in real life might recognize me here by my jewelry. My photos have bene up for a couple of years so I'm sure people have seen all they want to see of them. Could you please let me know how to delete photos? I can't see any way to do that.

 

[Ariadne_Theia]

I think you have to ask admin to remove your photos. I don't think there is anyway to do it yourself.

 

[KristinTech]

Since the latest upgrade, I've noticed that more and more people are making their profiles fully private. The effect of that is that it's not possible to easily locate those people's previous threads.

One of the best functions of PS in the past, in my opinion, and one of its greatest joys, has been looking up a favorite poster and seeing all their threads. For people with incredible collections, it's an opportunity to see all their pieces in one easy step, and for convenience sake it's a very easy way of tracking down specific posts that "I vaguely remember included info about (fill in the gap with some random piece of jewelry or info)"

For example, I recently asked a member for info about their gorgeous pendant. I can't remember where I asked the question, tho I *can* remember who the poster is. I wanted to revisit their answer, so looked up their profile and...profile blocked. So I have no way of re-accessing the info they shared with me unless I do...what? Start trawling my way through any thread I've commented on in SMTB? And - since I'm not sure this even WAS in SMTB, do I need to go through Rocky Talky as well to find it? Probably.

Another poster has a beautiful new ring. She shared it on PS a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to take another look and went to her profile. Blocked. So to find it I need to start ploughing through pages and pages of the SMTB forum - which I'm simply not going to do.

Surely a lot of the joy of PS is being able to use each other's knowledge, experiences and collections to expand our own enjoyment of jewelry? But to do that, one needs to be able to access that info in a timely and convenient manner. And having an open profile has one other benefit....

People often ask me for photos of pieces I've previously posted. Taking photos of jewelry is, as we all know, very time consuming. People say "photos, pls!" as tho it's the easiest thing in the world, when, in fact, it can represent hours of time to get photos that accurately reflect these beautiful chameleons. I will often say - "There are photos in a thread about this piece which you can find if you look at my profile." So it's convenient for *me*, as well as others.

It's possible to block others from seeing when you were last online, or what thread you've been viewing, without blocking all your own threads. For all those people who have blocked access to the history of their threads and posts, can you please rethink? Just a thought - and thank you!

I actually was at my fave B&M store locally when this came up! (I’ve talked about this store before—the current AGS President is its owner!). Anyway, I was sitting with my favorite salesperson there, working out a couple of small projects. I wanted to go back and search for the Adwar setting that @msop04 had suggested earlier this year, but I couldn’t find the post. I knew it was in a thread that *I* had started, but I couldn’t utilize the new search functions! I fumbled around for a bit, then just gave up.

 

[JPie]

@KristinTech were you looking for either of these?

Diamond Setting - Solitaire

Hi, I’ve picked my diamond and feel happy with that but I can’t quite decide on the setting. I’ve had a local jeweller design some settings and would appreciate anyone’s opinions on them. Thank you

www.pricescope.com

Is a eye clean 2ct within my budget?

I've messaged the seller on LT and on pricescope, fingers crossed at this point. Do you have a link to the site and setting, I'd really appreciate it! The original stone was set in a 4 prong but I 've always liked how 6 prong made the stone seem rounder. That and platinum vs white gold will be...

www.pricescope.com

I find that the easiest way to search is via Google. If you type in "Pricescope:" then add a phrase after the colon, then it will limit your search results to Pricescope.

Example: to get the two results above, I searched "pricescope: Adwar setting msop04"

 

[Calliecake]

@the_mother_thing , Your new ring is gorgeous! WOW!!!

 

[missy]

@KristinTech were you looking for either of these?

Diamond Setting - Solitaire

Hi, I’ve picked my diamond and feel happy with that but I can’t quite decide on the setting. I’ve had a local jeweller design some settings and would appreciate anyone’s opinions on them. Thank you

www.pricescope.com

Is a eye clean 2ct within my budget?

I've messaged the seller on LT and on pricescope, fingers crossed at this point. Do you have a link to the site and setting, I'd really appreciate it! The original stone was set in a 4 prong but I 've always liked how 6 prong made the stone seem rounder. That and platinum vs white gold will be...

www.pricescope.com

I find that the easiest way to search is via Google. If you type in "Pricescope:" then add a phrase after the colon, then it will limit your search results to Pricescope.

Example: to get the two results above, I searched "pricescope: Adwar setting msop04"

Exactly how I search also. Works pretty well to find old threads.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

It would be impossible to help people many times if we can't access a member's threads. We show examples of settings, diamond sizes, diamond types. etc. all the time. I hadn't even looked at the new privacy settings. All I can say is that I think it needs to be super easy. I think posts and threads ought to be a tab on that profile page rather than having to use the drop down.

 

[msop04]

I find that the easiest way to search is via Google. If you type in "Pricescope:" then add a phrase after the colon, then it will limit your search results to Pricescope.

Example: to get the two results above, I searched "pricescope: Adwar setting msop04"

Same... I've never been able to find anything using the PS search function, only google.

 

[the_mother_thing]

Same... I've never been able to find anything using the PS search function, only google.

Ditto

 

[mrs-b]

@Gussie -

Could you pls take a look at this thread, then consider changing your settings on your privacy page? So people can see your previous threads, you need togo to Privacy - then 'Allow users to' - then 'View details on your profile page'. You can make it either members only, public, or nobody. The only thing it adds, if you allow other people to see it, is your threads / posts - which was available to everyone before the latest upgrade.

I tried to read about your PS journey to your latest diamond, and found you have all your old threads blocked. And I'm sure I'm not the only person here who would like to look at all your pieces from time to time! Pleeeease?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Question from the technically illiterate... So I just changed my settings to "members only." If I understand correctly that means any registered PS member can see my old threads, etc., but not the general public. Is that right?

 

[mrs-b]

Question from the technically illiterate... So I just changed my settings to "members only." If I understand correctly that means any registered PS member can see my old threads, etc., but not the general public. Is that right?

Correct.

...qualified by - 'as I understand it'.