119 current users

[Bryan B]

Has anyone noticed that right now we have 102 guests viewing the site?

 

[LUVMyBirman]

I know many have mentioned that it would nice for long time 'lurkers' to register. Personally, I tend to hold back on some of my thoughts because you never know who is reading the forum.

It would be nice if when a new user surfed on in...grace period of 30 days to check out the site before requiring registration. Not fees here. Just a registration. There are many many sites I frequent that registration is required to access the message board.

 

[Bryan B]

I was more shocked at the sheer volume, it blew away the old record of 69 set about a week ago (and it topped out at 129). I guess the word is spreading on how great this place is!

 

[Raverlaw]

Bryan and Gina,

Based upon Ross' previous comments, I would suspect that those "guests" are not lurkers, but web crawlers indexing every word of our posts.

Gives one pause, eh?

 

[Nancy]

In Google searches, I have been able to pull up individual posts from this site, even from years back. Try it, you will be surprised. My searches have focused on key cardiac words, but I bet you could even pull up posts using a member name as a search focus.

So this is a PUBLIC forum and so are most other sites.

It's easy to forget this fact. We are so comfortable here in our little world. But it's sort of an emperor's new clothes thing.

The world is watching.

 

[Sherry]

Great points made by all. I tend to forget how public this forum is and probably need to be mindful of that when I post.

Bill, forgive my ignorance, but what is a webcrawler?

Gina, I really like your idea about a grace period for non-registered visitors. I would be more inclined to make it less than 30 days, 10 perhaps?

Ross, is this an option?

 

[Ross]

As I've said before, I've got this sites security tightened as tight as it will get without hindering further membership. If your not a member, you can do nothing but look. I for one, would not join anything that I could not see and get a feel for before hand. We want to keep the site moving forward and helping others and in order to do just that, this is the way it has to be.

A webcrawler is a robot from various search engines that come to the site and catalog the content of the site, so that when a search term is used, such as valvereplacement or whatever, it will lead the searcher to this site.

 

[Yaps]

Hey..

Hey..

a websearch is how I found everyone here... and after reading only a few posts I knew everyone was feeling what Id been feeling since my surgery. I thought..Ive found KINSHIP... And all of you have HELPED me.. if locked out what would I have done??? Just how I feel on this..Love the Yapper

 

[Karlynn]

I found VR through Googling "Coumadin, low INR". So while knowing that our posts can be searched and pulled up by anyone, I also hope that they are accessed by those truly in need of information. I know I was and finding VR after 12 years of going it alone, was a true blessing.

 

[Mary]

I know two people who have been watching the forum: my mom and my best girlfriend who lives in Michigan. She is going to register when she gets back from a trip out west and one later in the month to North Carolina.

My girlfriend's mother died from cardiomyopathy, so she is well versed in heart issues. Actually she has pushed me for several years to quit burying my head in the sand and see a surgeon.

My best guess is when I have the surgery, if she doesn't accompany us, she will be the one who relays information and does the postsurgery posting.

So I know that not all lurkers are nefarious strangers. Some are nefarious friends!
Mary