Question regarding posts posted on Twitter by PHO

[ibangle]

I've noticed that quite a few posts made here at PHO are being tweeted on Twitter.

I know this is a public forum but I've always thought that members could discuss anything, however embarrassing, here with fellow sufferers and it kinda felt private.

Who decides what gets tweeted? Does the person making the post get a say?

~ concerned.  

[HertsRob]

Hmm that's slightly worrying. I've always wondered if most forums being public is a good thing anyway, but re-posting to Twitter - that's another step up altogether.

Love to hear what the admin / mods say.

Rob

[Michael]

Hello,

Yes, a random selection of posts are automatically published on Facebook and Twitter. The posts on this forum can in no way be considered private with all posts on the main Psoriasis Boards being open for anyone to view. It is not necessary to be a member of the forum to read the posts on these boards and the site has been specifically designed to be open i.e. to provide an open forum is the main purpose of the site.

The forum gets hundreds of thousands of page views per month, sometimes over a million, some from real people and also search engines like Google. Search engines like Google “crawl” this and every over website to index the content on them. This means that when someone searches for psoriasis using Google or another search engine, there is a potential that posts in the forum will be listed.

A forum by definition is: a public meeting or assembly for open discussion

Making some posts from the forum available to Facebook and Twitter helps publicise the forum and extend its reach. The lifeblood of this forum is its members, the more members we can attract the better the forum becomes as it is based on people sharing experience and knowledge. Sharing this knowledge and experience via the Forum, Facebook or Twitter helps provide support to psoriasis sufferers which is why the site was set-up.

When you register for the forum you sign up to terms of use that includes this statement:

Facebook & Twitter
Some of the messages posted in the public areas of the PHO web site are automatically published to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

This is statement, amongst others, is also linked from every page of the forum. If you click on the link “Using this site means you accept its terms”

We would welcome ideas of how to make it clearer if you have any.


Thanks
Michael

[HertsRob]

Accepting the current conditions are what they are, will the admins / mods allow a debate on how open or otherwise the conditions *should* be?

Rob

[Michael]

Accepting the current conditions are what they are, will the admins / mods allow a debate on how open or otherwise the conditions *should* be?

Rob

Rob

Always happy to discuss.

Thanks
Michael

[LittlePinkPuss]

Some of the messages posted in the public areas of the PHO web site are automatically published to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Wow. I did not know this.

I didn’t even know you had a Facebook and Twitter site.

Personally I would have thought that you would need permission from the posters/postees involved in the discussion, before re-posting it elsewhere.

I know this is a public forum but I feel extremely uncomfortable with this sort of cross-over posting going on. 

Thanks for the warning though. I will be careful what and where I post from now on. May have to delete some of my forum memberships elsewhere too, if this sort of thing is general practice that goes on across the internet.

I would not mind if permission was asked first, but obviously that is not the case.

[the singing detective]

As you say, a publicly accessible forum available to all to read, captured in all the major search engines and covered in the site acceptance and forum disclaimer when you sign up.

At the bottom of every page:

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Facebook & Twitter
Some of the messages posted in the public areas of the PHO web site are automatically published to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

[LittlePinkPuss]

At the bottom of every page: Using this site means you accept its terms. Some of the messages posted in the public areas of the PHO web site are automatically published to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

I am pretty sure the Facebook and Twitter sites are fairly new (i.e.) they came into effect after I had first signed up.

So if this is the case, I didn't really agree to them, as they didn’t exist when I signed up.

I thought terms & conditions were set, I didn't realise they changed at will.

No matter.  I will remember this in future.

 

[Roger]

At the bottom of every page: Using this site means you accept its terms. Some of the messages posted in the public areas of the PHO web site are automatically published to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

I am pretty sure the Facebook and Twitter sites are fairly new (i.e.) they came into effect after I had first signed up.

So if this is the case, I didn't really agree to them, as they didn’t exist when I signed up.

I thought terms & conditions were set, I didn't realise they changed at will.

No matter.  I will remember this in future.

 

The additional feeds were running before you joined so you would have accepted the terms when you joined.