I uploaded an Excel spreadsheet with our classmates' names, emails, phone numbers and mailing addresses. I noticed that when I am logged in as Administrator, I can view that information from “Classmates Profiles”. However, when I am not logged into the site as any verified member (anyone in the world), while I can see a list of classmate names, I cannot see their contact information, even when clicking on “Join Here”. I assume that is for security reasons and the way it is supposed to work? Is it OK to see Classmates name but no info? I assume you cannot lock “Classmates Profiles” for verified users only since how can they set up their profile in the first place?

If you restrict the class profiles page, then only logged in members can see all the names of those who have (and have not) joined. But the "Missing" list needs to still be unrestricted, so the system can send people there to find their name when they click on "Join". Unfortunately, until most classmates have joined, many names will still be on that missing list and still be visible to the world.

There is a way around that too, but... it's more work and not as simple/easy... If you restrict both the class profile page AND the missing page, the system will ask you to create a "System Password" - which would be the only way non-joined classmates could log in and then find their name to join. You would have to send instructions to log in using the system password to all your classmates who have not joined so they use that and log in and then see the class profile or missing page (but not profile details) to click on their name and join.

Are you saying I should lock the profiles page but unlock the Missing page? This way a non-logged in person cannot look at the profile page but when a new classmate clicks on the Missing page, they can go from here to create their own profile? Sounds OK to me.

I do not recommend locking the Classmate Profiles page. In my opinion, classmates who have not joined need to be able to see that page. My guess is far less than one per cent of classes have their Classmate Profiles page locked.

Quote:

John Perdue wrote:

While others may not agree, the way the system works, when someone clicks on "Join Here" on the home page, it takes them to the class profile page - if it's unlocked. But when the class profiles page is locked, it takes them to the Missing page - which is actually more appropriate for someone wanting to join - to find their name. If both pages are locked, it asks them to log in using a system password.

Not long after I took over as root, I got an email from a company claiming to be associated with our Allumni Association, and offering (for $100) to allow me to join their web site for our year. When I looked there, they had a copy of our entire class profile list - complete with military and In Memory icons. Of course, the Allumni Association had never heard of them - and sent them a 'Cease & Desist" warning letter. And I sent an email-the-class to everyone we had an email address for to warn them. I also locked our class profile list page - which was, I suppose, locking the barn door after the horses had been stolen.

I also strongly recommend turning on New Classmate Verification option in Preferences. Someone can still see and join as any non-joined classmate on your Missing page, but they can't see any restricted pages or post anything until you verify them and turn them loose.

I agree with John Ralph. I like the way it requires login to see both Classmate Profiles & In Memory, with a way for valid members to log in right away. And similar to your situation with the third party, in the hour it took me to add 40 some people to the unlocked (at that time) In Memory page, Google had already indexed many of them!

It's just a personal choice. Most of us don't care as Scott noted. I like the simpler choice.

That Google had indexed them is pretty much a non-issue since there's nothing else besides the name available to anyone who would click the link.

If you try one of the many people finder apps on the Web, there is way more -real- information (address, phone, police records, besides the name) available.

Type in "some person's name" using the search bar and you will see what I mean.

So if one is so worried about "names" being indexed, then ALL the pages need to be locked since many will contain NAMES. Those are also looked at by the crawlers.

Some people lock ALL the pages. And some do not lock any. We are a mix. One page I will not unlock because of some data I have stored on my own private Web storage where the cost is related to data bandwidth access. But that's the only reason.

Some others because one of the admins wanted it that way.

Having some unlocked in the beginning is a way to entice someone to join. However, as time goes by, there's less reason to lock pages since pretty much all the users that want to join have.