Just a thought, a google map of member locations

[Swarfing]

Great idea and also a bad one. A site i used to follow did this then a number of members got broken into........

[GEOFFREY]

Oh dear. G.

[martin54]

Great idea and also a bad one. A site i used to follow did this then a number of members got broken into........

Can only see that being a problem if an actual address were used but would have thought it would be alright if just done by town much the same as the info on each post. A map would just be an easier way to see how many people were in that area.

[dazza]

no thanks, certain info should be voluntary.
edited to say id be all for it if members were able to opt in or out of it individualy.

[D.C.]

Great idea and also a bad one. A site i used to follow did this then a number of members got broken into........

Which sounds like complete anecdotal bullshit, all ISP's use dynamic addressing and attempts at resolving a person's IP address from the internet will only ever result in the attacker getting the ISP's processing node.

My current address should resolve to Wednesbury in the West Midlands, it usually does unless there is a problem with virgin media's routers there and I get kicked over to somewhere else.

So there you go, I'm on Virgin Media, I'm not in Wednesbury, I'm not in a town next to Wednesbury and the only way you can resolve my physical address is by hacking into the account records of Virgin Media or by getting a court order to release those records. Having done that you will now be staring at my (and a few million other people's) bank account records that are used to process DD payments so why the feck would you bother getting off your butt to come rob me when your elite hacker skills mean that you are now in a position to siphon off millions of pounds per month from us unsuspecting dupes?

You may disagree with this, but unless you can actually pin a note on my front door saying "you got Clarkson'd bitch" I still have to call total bullshit on this story.

<hugz>

[m_c]

D.C. how's that tin foil cap of yours doing, as nobody mentioned anything about IP addresses....

It's not unknown for criminals to gain peoples actual addresses via the internet, that's why you should always consider where you share your full address.

[D.C.]

D.C. how's that tin foil cap of yours doing, as nobody mentioned anything about IP addresses....

It's not unknown for criminals to gain peoples actual addresses via the internet, that's why you should always consider where you share your full address.

Tin foil hat is fine ta, so is my grasp on how networks 'work'. In order to have an automatic map of where are our members all that is needed is the vague area which can be had from IP trace. If someone is publicly asking you for real address for no good reason on a public forum they are either a scammer, pervert or about to be hacked by the first scammy perv that realises they have a cache of potentially useful information.

I was kind of assuming that because they teach small children this stuff before they can walk that nobody would actually be stupid enough in the 21st century to knowingly give out their full address for a 'map'.

Do a google search for hack vbulletin, that is how secure your data really is on here. If you would like a fitting for a tin foil my mad hatter is available on Tuesdays ;)

[Jonathan]

nobody would actually be stupid enough in the 21st century to knowingly give out their full address for a 'map'.

Nobody is suggesting that you should - perhaps you didn't read the thread before posting? It certainly looks like it as posts #1,5,7,8,9,12 all suggest using only the town. Then Lee suggested using the location people have already entered, so in your case Birmingham.

[Lee Roberts]

In order to have an automatic map of where are our members all that is needed is the vague area which can be had from IP trace.

Do a google search for hack vbulletin, that is how secure your data really is on here. If you would like a fitting for a tin foil my mad hatter is available on Tuesdays ;)

No, that is just one way it could* be done, given (as you know) that the location from an IP trace is vague what would be the point in doing it this way?, i live in Wigan but my IP trace's back to the exchange in Leigh i believe, so would it not be better to allow members to input what they want people to know as their location?

Cant see anything on a google search for the version of the forum that we use here

.Me

[D.C.]

No, that is just one way it could* be done, given (as you know) that the location from an IP trace is vague what would be the point in doing it this way?, i live in Wigan but my IP trace's back to the exchange in Leigh i believe, so would it not be better to allow members to input what they want people to know as their location?

Cant see anything on a google search for the version of the forum that we use here

.Me

Perhaps this is me misreading the anecdote about members on another site being broken into because of auto mapping software, I wasn't trying to disparage this site so apologies if anything I've typed has come across like that.

I was trying to point out:

That you can't get a real address from auto mapping software.
If someone is asking a whole group of people to put their full address into a site for no good reason, just don't do it. If you have done that sort of thing before then I have a friend who is a Nigerian prince and he has an investment opportunity you might be interested in...

It would be useful to know vague locations, so that we could say have a Birmingham area meetup perhaps and things of that ilk, personally I like the automated IP systems precisely because it is vague and obfuscated, as soon as you deal with human input you have to manage stupid users (like people that will put a map pin right on top of their house on a photo sharing site while advertising how much expensive photography equipment they have at home in their sig and also providing a helpful link to their twitter feed so you know when they are 24 hours a day).

PS, there are certainly exploitable holes in this version of the forum software, there always are. something to ponder, if hackers can take over North Korea's twttier and flickr sites, companies like google can't secure gmail and 'cloud storage' is getting killed in the enterprise because the wonderful cloud keeps on leaking all your data like it's monsoon season just how secure do you really think a teeny tiny forum is?

Given that multi billion dollar companies with more money than the catholic church and more post docs on payroll than the Manhattan project can't do it?