Skip to content

Privacy

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Your Privacy Is Important to Me!

I hate spam. You hate spam. We all hate spam.
The last thing I want to do is send you something you will hate, so I won’t send you spam.

Use of Your E-mail Address

Let’s be clear on what I mean by that. Some sites claim they don’t spam, yet they send lots of e-mails each week, and you cannot seem to get them to stop. That won’t happen here. If you provide your e-mail address during registration, you will typically receive 1-3 e-mails simply to confirm your address and let you know your account status. After that, additional e-mails are rare. In fact, if you receive more than one each month, I’d be very surprised. In fact, one per month might be stretching it. I barely have enough time to blog, so I have even less time to write and send you e-mails.

I do not think this blogging software has a way for you to opt-out of mass e-mails (maybe it does; I haven’t really checked), but if you do not wish to receive any e-mails at all (other than those related to your membership account) drop me a note, and I will do my best to figure out a way to opt you out of all mailings.

E-mail in Comments

Now, if you post your e-mail address in the content of a message, then you might get spammed. The blog software attempts to make it difficult for e-mail harvesting spam-bots to find e-mails in message content, but I wouldn’t count on it 100%. Let’s put it this way, even I avoid placing e-mail addresses inside of message content.

This is different from the e-mail address you are required to provide to post a comment to the blog. That e-mail address does not appear in the message content. It is recorded in our message tracking database to help us track comment spammers and others who would abuse the system. It is also used to link to your gravatar image (the little picture icon next to your comment) if you have one (though only an encrypted version of your e-mail address is sent, not the actual address).

Your Profile Information

The information you provide in your member account profile is public, except where it indicates otherwise. If you do not want the world to know your AIM or other instant messenger ID (which is often a valid e-mail address), then don’t put one in. I won’t be upset or disappointed. I don’t use/like IM very much, and it’s very unlikely I’d ever IM you, so why put it in? Likewise, be careful of what you put in the comments section. Google and every other search engine reads those things, and anything you put in there is likely to be on the Internet forever. Of course, this is true on EVERY site you visit, not just mine.

I’d really rather that you provide your real information (at least for the parts that are not displayed publicly), because I like to know a bit about the people who read my stuff. Think of it as coming by my house to visit. Would you really give your host a bunch of bogus information? Of course not. On the other hand, the Internet being full of scammers, spammers, and phishers, I can understand if you are cautious (bordering on paranoid), and you choose not to give out your personal info. I’m not going to delete your account because of that. If your account looks totally bogus and you use it in a questionable manner (like promoting a questionable website in the comments), don’t be surprised if the account is deleted without warning. That’s my right as the owner, and you just being a guest.

Any Other Questions?

Do you have a question about privacy that I didn’t cover here? Let me know, but the general theme is this: you are my guest, and I will respect your privacy. That’s what a good host does for his guests. 🙂

Leave a Comment

%d bloggers like this: