This is a reposting a a blog post from almost to this day in 2010.

With the amusing posts of Pink Panther getting a lot of attention, perhaps sometimes a little over the top/ over sharing I would like to post this again as a reminder of the standards this site has, it's terms and conditions of use and online privacy and a balance with in real life. Please treat each other with respect and as you would if you were meeting in real life.

Friends, privacy and all that stuff

It's been one of those weeks when the media has been dominated by stories of privacy and social networking, in particular Facebook. I always refer to this website as a community. We might not all know each other like neighbours but we do all share a common interest.. passion for cycling. Despite this; it is a social media website and I want to highlight the privacy functions of this site.

Firstly, because this site is run on a platform (website) called Ning, as the administrator I do not have access to passwords. As a member you have some controls on what other members can see and how members and this site (emails etc) interact.

Members can become friends with other members. Perhaps you do know each other or you know from discussions you share a similar interest. By inviting someone to be a friend is inviting/ accepting them to be able to send you messages. If someone invites you to be a friend you don't have to accept but if you want to you can check out their page to see the sort of posting they have engaged in.

There are some ways to can change the way your profile works. You can go to 'My Page' and click on your photo>select change photo and follow the links to privacy etc to see these features.

You can choose to make your profile page, blog posts, photos, videos & events visible to the public, or to just my friends or just me.

You can moderate comments on your profile page, blog posts, photos & videos. You can approve comments on your profile page & blog posts before they appear.

And you can choose what activity you want to appear on the recent activity column.

When it comes to messages a member cannot send a message to another unless they are friends. This is to protect privacy and harassment. By becoming 'friends' you can send messages (site emails). Members can post comments on other members walls. This sends an alert to their personal email. You can choose what emails you recieve from this community. Go to 'My Page' , click on your photo and select Manage My Page then Email and make your selection. I must stress that the default is what makes this website work so well. Members who are not that active get emails when one of their old posts gets a comment and so they return to see new content.

So that's about it except to say in the unlikely event another member gives your grief you can block members from them and in a serious situation they can can suspended or banned.

Angus