I have to keep warning people not to put publicly visible emails in their posts as the site is open to Google indexing and other bots. This is because I was requested by people to open the site. Why people do not want to login with a free account and password I still do not understand. I guess some people have their reasons. We don’t need Google as Discourse has a very powerful and very capable search engine inbuilt [the magnifying glass icon up top.]
But a user today wrote to me to ask if I would consider returning this site to private due to privacy concerns, especially for EU users. I am happy to do this, in fact, desirous of so doing.
You can comment on this topic so I can get a handle on what to do. Thanks.
Dear Andrew, thank you for all your work for this forum, we really appreciate and need it.
In my opinion, providing a mail adress, and making an account is a really low price to get access to this valuable forum. So I am in favor of going back to private. Having said that, we should do everything to attract interested people. If there would be a way to show at least an inviting, positive text about the qualities of the jackrail forum visible to the general public, it could help.
Andrew:
………But a user today wrote to me to ask if I would consider returning this site to private due to privacy concerns, especially for EU users. I am happy to do this, in fact, desirous of so doing.
I am sorry, but I do not know what "returning this site to private” means for me, if anything. If it requires too much of text to explain, you may forget it.
After discussion with the moderators, the preference is to keep the site open to the public, that is, anonymous browsing. So we will maintain the status quo.
People seem to prefer the idea that you can browse the posts and get an idea of what the site is about before signing up for an account.
Note that you do need a user account to post and reply.
I will stop warning about email signatures. People do that at their own risk, and I disclaim any responsibility for the consequences.