PRIVACY!

So, I stumbled on the website and was thrilled (at first). All the features were exactly what I was looking for in an online log. The problem and question is: HOW DO I KEEP MY LOG PRIVATE? I’m one of those guys who does NOT wanna share his log.
Thinking the site was “the bomb,” I told a friend to join. He in turn, saw all my sample entries without me telling him where to look. He said, “did you post such and such?” I said, “yes, how do you know?” He said, “I’m looking at it!” DUH!
HELP!!!

Hi MatthewPaul,
Welcome to the site! When entering your “trips” make sure that the “only me” button is checked and only you will be able to see the trip. Do not put your trips into the forums otherwise anyone will be able to see them.
I happen to share my trips with a select group of people and it works great! By the way I cannot see any of your trips so you must be doing it right. I can see your pictures which may be an issue for you.I would bet your friend was looking at them. I will talk to the site owner and see if making those private is an option.
Good luck and let me know if this helps.
Tim

MatthewPaul,
The logs are private. You can verify that by logging out, and you wouldn’t be able to see the entries. Every log can be private, shared with friends, shared with groups, or public. By default, if you didn’t do anything, they should all be private. I just clicked on your profile and see on the right you have 4 trips, and under the shared trips header, there isn’t any, so they should be private.
Can your friend clarify where he’s seeing them?
Paul

Thanks guys! Here’s the question: how did my buddy, after he joined find my posts without me adding him as a friend or to a group? I could have sworn that I followed the directions for privacy. Did I miss something? IS there a bug?

Actually, if you go to “HOTSPOTS” you’ll see my SAMPLE post for WE2 even though it say PRIVATE.

One last post guys: My entries should not be listed in the “Hotspots” with a host of others unless they are being shared. I must be missing something. Each entry I made says PRIVATE but still shows up in the Hotspots with everyone else’s posts. Can you point me to the parameter adjustment for PRIVACY?

MatthewPaul,
I looked in the HotSpots section and could not see any of your entries. If you logout as earlybird suggests then you should not see them either. It appears to me that your parameters for privacy are working. Also I noticed that while I can see a couple of your pictures I cannot access the album as they are private as well. Try logging out and then accessing your trip as a guest.
Tim

MatthewPaul,
The post is definitely private. The way it works is that when someone hits the hotspots page, we show all entries that are visible to that person. So you will see all posts that are:
your private
publicly shared by others
shared by your friends to you
If you look at the hotspots page, you’ll see that the post has a line under it that says “private”. We can’t see that post listed at all. I sincerely doubt there’s a bug since that is something I take pretty seriously too. If your friend can really see it, can you find out which one he’s seeing and on which page?
Paul

Guys,
Thanks again for your responses. Here’s the problem as I see it. The most important piece of PRIVATE information is the google map. When someone sees my spot with the balloon on the map, the spot is NO LONGER PRIVATE. I don’t care if someone see that I caught 10 bass. I do care, however, that they can zoom into my google map (under terrain view) and plant their feet exactly where I fish. If the site cannot eliminate the google map from the Hotspots view, I unfortunately won’t be able to use the site. Quite honestly, I would prefer that all my PRIVATE info stay off the Hotspots listing and stay COMPLETELY PRIVATE unless I decide to share it with a friend, group or the site. As the site is set up now, a “private” setting is NOT fully and actually PRIVATE!
Matthew

I see.
The idea behind hotspots wasn’t to mark the actual spot. It was meant to locate the body of water, bay, river, lake, etc – it wasn’t a big deal for bays, lakes, etc when fishing from a boat since you move everywhere, but I can see how if you marked the actual hole, you’d want to keep it private.
For your exact fishing spot, there’s a private field to punch in your GPS coordinate on each catch – the idea is that each catch is at a specific location.
I’ll think of some way to make the spot you put on the map private, or to make it so that when you’re entering locations, it lets you specify the body of water + a private marker of exactly where you fished.
What do you think?
Paul

Thanks Earlybird. I take it you’re an owner, builder, etc.
As a “surf rat,” I think you (this site) will be hard pressed to get and keep the surf fishing community if the google map is not private. As I said in my last post, I would REALLY prefer that “private” actually meant PRIVATE! That is, no one able to see anything; not somethings; not google maps; not nuttin’. If I choose to share my spots, that’s another story, but if I choose “privacy,” you or anyone else can’t see anything.
The great thing about this site for surf casters is the google map. If I scout a spot out I can mark it on the map on their terrain tab down to my footprints. Because of certain sandbars, structure, etc. that always remain, I can find and mark exact locations.
So, again, I would prefer “private” to mean PRIVATE with NO sharing, not even what I name a given spot.
Until you decide (if you decide) to make these kinds of changes, I cannot upload my latest scouting reports, photos and I sure as heck can’t mark a google map. I hope this works out.
Just my 2 cents,

SEE MY LAST POST FIRST, THEN-LAST QUESTION: Is making the site fully private something you’d consider?

My goal is to provide this for people who wants to keep everything private to those willing to share, and for everything you put in to be controllable.
So yes, when we get a chance, we’ll give you the ability to keep your spot private. There’s lots of other things we need to improve first. We’ll make sure to email our members when we make these improvements so you’ll be informed.
Paul

Thanks Paul! I’ll be back after that happens. Sorry I have to wait until then (and others I referred to the site). I’m looking forward to utilizing the site then…

Any chance that the changes related to “absolute privacy” will be done before striper seasons open in NY on April 15th?

Bump to the top: So, where do we stand on this? Are the logs fully private yet? Thanks…

I’m actually doing last bit of testing… It will be soon, promise :)

I’M GONNA CHECK IT OUT WITH A FEW FRIENDS AND SEE IF IT WORKS FOR US

Earlybird,
I understand his point, I thought the same thing.. However, let it be known reguardless this website is awesome and was the main reason I joined your chapter. That being said and after meeting the group, it’s not the main reason anymore. You and the rest of the group have a great club.
thanks