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New Forum Issue: Accounts linked with Gravitar — Parallax Forums

New Forum Issue: Accounts linked with Gravitar

DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
in General Discussion
One person has complained about this that I've seen. Any others? Perhaps this is a rare issue that isn't worth solving?

Comments

  • BumpBump Posts: 592
    Vanilla Forums have a feature to use Gravatar instead of other methods of user-photo/avatar or default anonymous; we enabled this feature.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    But Bump. If I understand correctly Gravatar = Globally Recognized Avatar.

    More over someone suggested it was derived from email addresses.

    Can you see why that is a violation of trust?


  • BumpBump Posts: 592
    It uses an MD5 hash and Gravatar has an outstanding privacy policy. I'd put this as a very low security concern, as in I'm pretty sure a person would have an easier time getting to the data on our server directly. Also, if you add an avatar on these forums it should remove your Gravatar.
    As for a violation of trust, I understand the concerns about email privacy.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    Personally I like Gravatar integration, although it might be better to have the option to enable it on a new account page.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2015-07-01 23:29
    @Bump,
    An MD5 hash of what exactly?
    If it is a has hash of my email address that means it can be used to track every site I'm visiting with that same email address.
    Security paranoia aside, why bother with it when a simple nondescript avatar image would do. Who cares if they are all the same?  And why burden users bandwidth and load times with round trips to gravatar? 
    @SRLM 
    What? Is there something to like about those grinning idiot colour coordination challenged images?  
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-07-02 00:45
     Also, if you add an avatar on these forums it should remove your Gravatar.


    .. but you have given no justification for why choose a Gravatar in the first place ? It just looks like someone's failed idea, that belongs in the mindless fluff basket.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    What makes me nervous is finding this in the forum pages source code:
    <div class="MeBox"><a title="Heater." href="/profile/60469/Heater." class="PhotoWrap"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=6e6682a995ec27fd343c1696e40d1a91

    I now have www.gravatar.com pointing to local host in my hosts file and it at least has the nice effect of getting rid of all the grinning monkeys on the page :)
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    What makes me nervous is finding this in the forum pages source code:
    <div class="MeBox"><a title="Heater." href="/profile/60469/Heater." class="PhotoWrap"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=6e6682a995ec27fd343c1696e40d1a91

    I now have www.gravatar.com pointing to local host in my hosts file and it at least has the nice effect of getting rid of all the grinning monkeys on the page :)

    why even do any of this wasteful fluff ?I've caught 'waiting on gravatar.com' messages, and now facebook.connect has gotten into the mix too ?!
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    I really have ambivalent feelings about all these things that hook up with the likes of facebook.com.  And I am a bit gobsmacked by the idea of some sort of world-wide tracking of avatars.

    I guess that is why the intellectual property warning on the avatar change over from the obviously generic ones assigned.

    It seems more intellectual property right contention, more lawyers, less fun with avatars.

    ++++++++++
    I explicitly do not put my own photo in an avatar or participate in Facebook as is seems facial recognition software has progressed quite a bit.  China has even announce it will attempt online banking with facial recognition software for personal identification.

    That seems to indicate that the trend is toward world-wide use of facial recognition for all sorts of governmental purposes.  The USA issues passports now with facial recognition data to verify identity.

    I am not so much paranoid as conservative about leading edge security features ending up having some serious misuses along the way to proper development.  And Facebook always seemed to me like an NSA honey pot to tie photos to users that were previously just email identities.

    We live in a rapidly changing world where invasive technologies in the hands of a few powerful people with intentions that I don't agree with can pretty much do as they please.

    ++++++++++++++++
    Conclusion ?  My avatar will be shifted over to a blank white.  I suggest if anyone doesn't like or has doubts about all this fancy linking should do the same.  If fact, if we all shared the same blank white jpeg -- maybe someone would stop trying to data mine our every nuance.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2015-07-02 15:51
    Attached is the blank white jpeg that I switched over to.

    Feel free to use it if you desire to be as private as possible.

    +++++++++++++++++
    Arrgh......... I can't seem to make the attach file work properly. 

    Vanilla, you are not playing nice at all!  It seems to have inserted the white.jpg into the text file and since it is white and white... youall see nothing and can't borrow the file.
    white.jpeg
    640 x 400 - 3K
    white.jpeg
    640 x 400 - 3K
    white.jpeg
    640 x 400 - 3K
    white.jpeg
    640 x 400 - 3K
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-07-02 07:10
    Attached is the blank white jpeg that I switched over to.

    ...
    Arrgh......... I can't seem to make the attach file work properly. 

    Vanilla, you are not playing nice at all!  It seems to have inserted the white.jpg into the text file and since it is white and white... youall see nothing and can't borrow the fileYou seem to have attached 4 copies, the first of which has this url

    http://forums.parallax.com/uploads/FileUpload/a5/42778008c4e40caba5574eeef9dd70.jpeg

    Edit Counter Test 6
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    Well, I couldn't see anything to clean it up and it seems that I only get one shot at editing.

    So the mess stayed as is.... a lot of extra white space between the end of text  and my signature.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    Well, I couldn't see anything to clean it up and it seems that I only get one shot at editing.



    ? - I can edit multiple times - just incremented that counter to 6, with 6 edits.
    So the mess stayed as is.... a lot of extra white space between the end of text  and my signature.


    You could try Show Source editing mode, if you are feeling brave...
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    jmg,
    Oh my God. I missed that facebook thing. I never  imagined things  could get so bad around here.
  • tritoniumtritonium Posts: 543
    Quote "
    Loopy Byteloose
    7:28AM edited 7:32AM Posts: 0FlagVote Up0Vote Down         Attached is the blank white jpeg that I switched over to.
    Feel free to use it if you desire to be as private as possible.
    " End Quote

    Just right click to left of name and save picture as... etc
    thanks worked for me
    Dave
  • Courtney JacobsCourtney Jacobs Posts: 903
    Editing restrictions should have been removed yesterday.

    If you continue to have editing restriction issues please report them to webmaster@parallax.com.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    Okay, I tried fixing it and removed a lot of white space.

    It isn't 100%, but I am not here to spend all my time trying to figure out how to undo messes due to the lack of any instructions or guidance about what to do.

    So I really want to stay away from the Forums until things get under reasonable control.
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