Privacy matters

[kumfumbled]

Title
Privacy matters

Short, concise description of the idea
I hope there was a way I could hide the 'Date Created' and 'Last Updated' information in my Profile page.

Full description of the ideaIt's basically just being able to have the option of not having others know when you last updated your journal. Even though you set your posts to Private, it

Comments

[azurelunatic]

This revisits two suggestions from 2007

[gerg]

Going to have to say no to both of these for the reasons you listed.

[lied_ohne_worte]

I can see the "last updated" part going through in spite of the argument against it you quote, as it would be the user's responsibility to make sure the maintainers see that their journal is used, for example by temporarily making that information visible, so I'd be tentatively in support of that. In a moderated comm, the maintainers could always reject a user's membership request, so only the user themselves would be affected. If a user joined an open community, no one would likely be interested in that part of their profile afterwards

[trixieleitz]

I would make an analogy with age information for community membership. The community maintainers get to demand some sort of verification of age, such as making one's birth date visible, and the applicant gets to decide if they want to comply with these conditions in order to be admitted to the community.

Similarly, if it's possible to hide the date of last update, but membership of a particular community requires it for membership, that's between the community maintainers and the applicants.

[trempnvt]

I think it makes sense for the "last updated" information to display the last update that the person looking at it can see. Assuming "last updated" is the latest post as opposed to latest LJ activity whatsoever.

[charliemc]

This makes sense. Agreed.

[azurelunatic]

Last updated is latest entry.

I'd be OK with this as long as people with a legit troubleshooting need to know would be able to see the actual time, although it would be inconvenient for is-this-a-real-person-do-I-let-them-into-my-community sorts of applications.

I think there would be a non-trivial social adjustment period if this were implemented.

[lady_angelina]

This.

[ldymusyc]

Dislike. "Date created" is used by many community moderators to determine if the journal is puppetry in motion. Only the really dedicated trolls create and hang onto journals for months just in case they need one to join a comm that has a 'thirty days old' policy or whatnot.

Automatically assuming everyone's going to look at the 'last updated' and think OH NO AN ENTRY I CAN'T SEE and panic, bit on the egotistical side, really. I make private entries all the time that are insane little things. My 'last updated' may be something as silly as "keep this link" or "harvest strawberries at 6". Anyone panicking that I was making entries they couldn't view can go back to being zen. And fertilize my plots

[kumfumbled]

Yup, I take back the 'Date Created' thing, it's just the 'Last Updated' part I wish I/we had the option of not showing. : P

Hmm.. I didn't mean to come across egotistic nor have I assumed that people would panic or whatnot if they realized they couldn't see an entry I posted. But I have been asked about it.. and I can't exactly say I haven't posted anything since the 'Last Updated' indicates otherwise. But people shouldn't be making such a big deal out of that, you were right in that sense. Just that I want to still be able to keep writing my journal minus the hounding of prying people. : P

No

[halo_of_thorns]

I would rather them be kept on the user page.

For reasons already discussed. Plus even when searching for new LJ friends with common interests, I usually take a look at how recently they updated before I add them to check if their journal is still active. So many people have friends only journals that it can be difficult to tell if it is still in use otherwise.

Re: No

[kayt_arminta]

Me too. This idea gets a -1 from me. Too many reasons and ways this could be used for the wrong reasons. I am failing to come up with a legitimate reason, other than trying to hide from someone, and I can't.

Re: No

[mordyn4]

This.

I use these stats all the time when I'm thinking about friending someone.

[cos]

I extremely strongly oppose hiding "date created".

I somewhat less strongly oppose hiding "last updated".

I extremely strongly oppose changing "last updated" to make it deliberately misleading (such as only being the date of the last visible post). If it's going to be false information then it might as well not be there at all.