I just discovered that comments posted to classmates listed in the In Memory section are visible to the general public, one need not be signed in with a profile to view them. Not only that, but someone without a profile can also post a comment! I have promised classmates that since they must create a profile and sign in to view other classmates' information, anything they put on the site (except for photos in the galleries) will be visible only to the profiled users.

It's not appropriate to allow the public to view comments from this section. And it's wholly inappropriate to not warn us that our comments about our deceased classmates will be available to anyone. What about this is acceptable to the site designers? In Memory comments should be visible only to those with a site profile, in keeping with the security available elsewhere. Or, at least give the class site manager a button to conceal the comments as a choice...and please do that soon!
Dave Stone, Northfield Mount Hermon 1965 administrator

Just password (lock) the page.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your comments. Trust me if we mandated the lockdown of the In Memory area, we would only get a slew of complaints asking us to open it back up. It really depends on the class and their needs, where they're from, etc. that factor into this decision. There really are plenty of sites who want this information open to all.

In any case, as Jack stated, the solution is to go into Edit Site Pages and click Edit Link and restrict your In Memory section to only logged in classmates. I actually just went in and did that for you. You have the ability to lock down all parts of your web site in this same fashion if desired.

Brad Switzer

Dave,

As the others point out, I have had my In Memory Password Protected for many years. Things can happen with hackers for even the deceased, and In Memory is not an area that my class wants a bunch of others accessing.

All the screens are very secure, but we need to make the decision which screens need password protected. I don't even show my Scanned Yearbooks for instance.

There are exceptions on screens to NOT Password Protect however, like Profiles access so you can welcome new members. Even that though, you can't access unless signed in.

Thank you everyone, I have run through the site, found the security to be strong, and added some comments to specific entries. That's how we want our site to work, comments only from those who are signed in.
Might it eventually be possible to make the names visible, as they have been in the past prior to the "comment" upgrade, so those visiting the site could see who has died? Being able to check out the entries, even to just see the list, has been discussed by our class reunion team as a valuable tool to get classmates to develop their own profiles. The list of classmates still with us is visible to visitors, after all. If this isn't practical, or if we are off base in your experience with many hundreds of web sites, please let me know.
Dave Stone

Dave,

For the non-logged in person, all they need to do is click on Classmate Profiles and then click on In Memory. They will then see the names but not any comments.

The rose indicates they have content to read on their In Memory page. The ** means the classmate is deceased. Seconding what Barbara said, you can filter the list by these items, thus if you wish you can easily see ONLY deceased classmates. Or only deceased classmates who have In Memory content available to read.

OK, thanks Barbara and Brad. Not perfect, but with a few extra clicks visitors can see who's on the In Memory list, deceased, whatever we call it, and sort if they wish. Getting my sea legs back after the latest update. We've had a great percentage response, about 1/3 of the surviving classmates, getting several new profiles a week, and we're 18 months from our reunion. Probably the best possible outcome for our first web site ever!
Dave Stone

Awesome. (yes I still use that word, we came out of the 80s and we're stuck with it)

Dave, We've chosen to leave In Memory unlocked for several reasons.
First, the information there is usually an obit or announcement from publicly available news sources.
Second, search engines can (and do) find it and family or friends can search for the name and view it. And when view access of additional posts was allowed for 'outsiders' it was well received and appreciated by both friends and family.
Third, I haven't seen any example of additional posts by classmates which would have been useful to hackers or contained any information that was not appropriate for public view.
And last, I just tested here and if not logged in, posting a comment is blocked - as it should be.