Now You, too, can check out your Gather Pings, Comments, Friend Requests and other Gather activities on Google (as of the writing of this article)

Not mine, Jane. I just disemboweled all them Pingy Thingies. :)

t y

All of your Gather activities have always been accessible through Google, as well as the name of every group you belong to and every comment or anything you do.. the same as if you write on Squidoo or hubpages or AC.. it ALL gets indexed and can be found by anyone searching .. one of my articles has had 8000+ views, because people search and find it on Google. So, you're idea of SEO optimization and writing keyword rich, niche focused articles to pump up your points is actually what you should be doing.. but, you're right about the dangers of writing here, or anywhere online, under your own name if you are worried it might be seen by the wrong eyes.

Wow, thanks for telling me!

I could sure have fun with this.

Are you all familiar with Google Bombs?

Suze- Yes, I understand the benefits of this, too, but I'm not sure everyone who types a comment here understand that Pings are now fed to Google and are not just seen by Gather members.

a good thing to be aware of

the google thing is the reason I have 2 Gather accounts.... the one in my real name includes only those things I don't mind if my students/profs/whoever finds easily ... not that they couldn't get from there to here with a bit of thought... people DO keep addressing me as flit over there in the comments... but I figure if they are that interested, they can take what they get...

J,

Comments and pings are not indexed by Google or any other search engine (or at least they weren't at one time). However, your username and your display name are, and are both quite accessible on the net ...leading others to your comments and all other activities you engage in within the community. Of course the new profile page now makes it easier to check up on you and see the good, the bad and the ugly with just a click or two.

There are ways you can display your real name in the community without having it indexed though, and perhaps this might be a good addition to my upcoming article on this subject (Gather and SEO). Thanks!

I just flushed my pings down the toilet!

I already know about searches on google. I googled my name and found out how famous I am. lol

I sentcha an email Jane.

Just googled myself and was surprised to see that one of my 4 "pings" did show up on the first google page, under the name of the person whose ping I responded to? Does that make sense? Anyway, I dumped the pings...gonna find my other 2 and dump them. I'm also dumping articles as fast as time allows. I will still post articles about how I "feel" about things, but they won't stay up long. I don't want the page views that come from Google...don't care about getting lots of hits...I just share with those here that might care. It took so long to dump 2 pages of articles and I have 14 more to go. I do this on occasion anyway, but I'm going to work at it now.

aww...I am so much famous:) Really!!! I will check this.Yes, I must pullmy article and all those pics and videos too.

Thanks for everyone's responses so far. Here is my concern:

There are some people here who like to keep a lower profile than others. When you can literally trace a heated exchange between not only members of Gather but heads of staff, etc..by Ping, perhaps that is a good thing (accountability, thinking twice about such comments) or perhaps it is a mash-up of social communities and work life that isn't so great.

I do internet searches for research all the time on various subjects. On one hand, I think it is exciting to think that articles here on Gather could actually be Dugg or put on some social bookmarking site and get more exposure. On the other hand, I'd like to be able to choose when and how to do that, to some degree and promote those things myself.

I admit I'm WAY out of the loop on understanding the benefit of Pings and Google.

Kevin - If you put your name into Google (or if anybody here does), they now show up attached to every person you've Pinged and some unrelated person who may have Pinged you shows up for pages and pages on Google. It IS different. I"m trying to figure out how to explain how but I"m not doing such a great job of it.

Just check it out and you'll see differences between the old way and this new Gather, with feed.

Sue - Exactly! There is no rhyme or reason to how you show up with the new feed...on Google. At many of my other feed sites, there is some order on Google by relevance. Relevance, THAT is the word I was trying to find! It is all random and wouldn't be so appealing to someone checking on my work - or relevant. I'm may have to change my Gather name and I don't want to. Wait till you get porn jacked and if you don't know what that is, trust me, you will.

J Corn,

Thank you for letting me know. I was unaware that our profile feed is being indexed!

I find this very disturbing. Not for myself, but for other members. I was able to search under several names and quickly view their pings and comments on the first page of search results in Google and other search engines. With the current glitch in the profile feed (showing deleted comments and pings), this could create more of a problem for some members.

I wonder if Gather is aware of this situation? Was this a conscious decision?

Wow, that's crazy!

I am wondering why anyone would want to Google my name. It is a little scary to think that there is someone who would even care what I am up to on Gather or anywhere else. When I just googled my name I also got my Epinions account and a reunion.com account that I don't even remember making.

Thank you for this information. If I wanted to be on google I'd put myself on google.

Kevin - Feed often promotes traffic to a site. Consider also how many people trustingly (and perhaps naively) put details about their lives on Gather in their profiles - real facts, including churches attended, universities, home towns...and how many have photos of their children here. I don't have photos of my kids here. I have one mask, given to me by a relative, a relative's baby but no name or identifying features, etc.

As noted, it was nice to have my articles fed to Google. Pings? Not so much. I turned them off.

J,

I have no problem with feeds of content. I think most members wouldn't. Prior to Hawthorne, that is all we had, and all was well in the land of orange.

However, pings, comments, profile changes, status line changes are now all visible on the net....FOR ALL TIME. I think THAT will be a problem for some.

Here is the question I posed to Gather:


I have a question concerning member privacy.

Prior to the implementation of Hawthorne, member pings and comments were not indexed (available) in Google or other search engines. However, the new profile feed is being indexed and the activities displayed therein.

Thus, anyone is now able to conduct a search on Google (or other search sites) and easily see when members have pinged, commented, received a ping, etc.

Is this intentional?

...and if not, can you please advise as to when and how it will addressed?

Thank You!

Kevin - All feeds of this type are indexed. I can't speak to the decision aspect of it but all feeds on Google potentially can grab a reader's interest. However, people may not know HOW they are being indexed now. I would suggest people check that out and decide if you want to be a part of a Ping index or not.

Yes, I know. But Gather can prevent this. They can control what gets indexed and what doesn't via the coding on the page (and other triggers).

But, it's not just pings.

It's profile changes, status changes, groups you join, even updating your 'mood' text on Gather will potentially be seen by anyone and never go away. I'm glad that you noticed this because I think it will be a big concern for members, or they should at least be made aware of the change if it isn't an oversight.

Search engine optimization and keyword promotion are something I know how to do and I've used it to help make people out there aware of Gather, people on Gather whose articles and books I read, etc. It can be a great asset for writers and others who (heaven knows) have a hard enough time making a living.

But I do it when I want to do it, not at random, as this new feed seems to operate and I try to limit security risks. For instance, if I would accidentally use a popular keyword or term in a Ping, that Ping - or series of Pings - may make it to the top of Google's search rating for the day....and then a disgruntled searcher on Google could be turned off of Gather when directed to a Ping or comment. This is why I think some new Spam bots opened accounts on Gather yesterday, routinely spamming comments. If you clicked on the member's name, there was NO content here on Gather, just comments being fed to the feed machines.

The reason someone would do this? To get a high rating on Google. in those instances, pings and comments start taking precedence over content. That is a tipping point that is not a good one. I write for some sites besides Gather and when there are plenty of comments on articles that are also indexed on Google, the bots come out in droves. In absolute herds. Then the porn jackers arrive.

In the "old days" most Google results led back to an actual article, bringing people to Gather and keeping them here. That is my take anyway. It was better. It may not have brought enough people here (hence the change?) but it worked better, IMO, and I'm speaking as an SEO person who came to Gather to play and escape all that when I could.

To see how well the old system worked, check out comments on book reviews or articles I wrote about people here on Gather. They got NOTICED, sometimes with as many as 100 or more comments, for a book someone was desperately trying to get noticed - or a cause - or anything else.

I'd write about topics and issues that I considered important, as well as purely whimsical ones. I'm proud to say that an article about how a store provided misleading ads got tons of people here to comment and that Marianne and Ms. Meacham and other I liked here were part of a feature article (I botched the links but that became a bit of the fun, too, even though it was accidental).

If I did an article like any of those today, it'd be harder for people to find. Is this what is good for Gather?

Oh my who are all thiose fools with the cameras in my front yard ??? LOL

Probably explains the new "feeds" system that it seems many people dislike..I know from Blogging, and Facebook, that RSS feeds increase the likelihood others will find Gather content on the internet and come to the site, and maybe sign up...

In response to the comment above about Gather addressing this, I definitely agree. There's no reason Gather can't offer a "Public" or "Private (for Gather friends only)" setting on our profiles and content.

Vivian - Lol!

I'd rather that personal communication be private. Articles and comments are public. I know that and act accordingly. I don't want to live in a Caesar's wife type of environment.

One of the first things that struck me on the feed was that you could see who became friends with whom and who pinged whom. It's a great way to foster a clique dominated social structure. It's going to happen regardless but why encourage it?

All I could think of was the resentment some people might feel when they aren't getting the pings and connections others are. Yup. It really helps create an atmosphere where people exchange ideas.

Do I dare leave a comment anymore? *looking over shoulder*

I just tried it and if I search for "Victoria H." it does (on down the list of results) call up my Gather page. (Fourth one down.) If I search for "Victoria H." AND "Gather" then it calls up every single thing I have done on Gather - pings, comments, each and every group I submit something to, even my other connections and their Gather homepages!!!!!

HOWEVER, if I do a search for "Victoria H*********" (my last name) it doesn't find anything on me having to do with Gather or anything else for that matter.

I think this is mainly a concern for those who use their real last names and not just the first letter. Those who know me already know I'm on Gather and have access to my page (and thus anything I do on Gather through the feed); those who may (for reasons known only to them!) be searching for me on the internet won't find anything because chances are pretty slim that they'll be searching for only my last name initial. I would imagine they would search for my full name. Those who are on Gather and know me and may want to "stalk me" (LOL) can just go to my namespace and go through my feed to see everything I do anyway. No need to Google it I would imagine.

All that being said, I'm glad you let us all know about this, Jane. I think it is a concern, especially for those who are using their full names and may not want to be so easily tracked. Honestly, it doesn't really concern me all that much. There are psychos out there, and I already know that. The internet already makes it easier for a person to be found. I actually know that firsthand through the fact that many, many former acquaintances and friends have found my husband's phone number on the internet, some after having lost touch with him for over ten years. Add to that the fact that a person here on Gather has already found my home telephone number on the internet using my husband's name (which was discovered through my posts) and called me! I refuse to spend my life worrying and wondering who out there might be stalking me on the internet and through my Gather activity. There are already too many things on my mind (my daughter stars kindergarten next year - boo hoo!!! - and I have to take her tomorrow to register her for school). And if any of those psychos actually show up here, I do have a GUN (actually multiple guns) and I DO know how to use all of them! : )

Wow! What a comment!! Look at that! LOL

Actually, in reply to Ann's comment and question above: I think this was possible before the upgrade too. I know I had read another article long ago about how our Gather activity showed up on Google if we searched for our Gather name. As I recall, this article was mainly concerned with the fact that YOUR CONNECTIONS also showed up.

I don't remember it showing each and every group I post to though. Hmmmm.............

I'll have to keep up with this article to see what everyone has to say.

It's easier for your stalker now to online stalking you, whew!!!! So J, don' put your pin number in your ping, Ok.

Interesting. Thanks for the article.

Note:

Some items contained in the new profile feed were indexed prior to Hawthorne. However, it appears that a more diverse range of data is now available.

Oh wow!! LOL... I had something kind of cool happen thanks to this article!!

I left you a thank you article!!

Click here for the Thank You!

Luckily my name is not an unusual one. There was actually another girl a year younger than me with the exact same name (first, middle, and last) who lived like four blocks from me.... One benefit to having a common name, I guess, lol!

. . .uh, I nearly forget. I am more that a little upset. . .thank you ever so much, J Corn.

:=)

and you too, Kevin.

J Corn, thanks for the article and discussion.

This has been a concern for some time by us who use our real names. One published author I know uses an alter on this site. I used one at one point but have curtailed many of my social interactions on gather...which I'll continue to do unless gather goes back to being a site about content and articles and moves away from the direction of useless pinging and social reporting.

In the past, it was my understanding that this information could be found on us but perhaps it wasn't highlighted as much. I get "google alerts" on myself and no gather information has ever come up....but an actual search would allow ANYONE to look through my posted information, articles, comments etc.

It's a good thing to remain aware of, especially for those of us using our real names.

I wonder if Gather is aware of this situation? Was this a conscious decision?
Kevin (sitewizard.gather.com) V., Apr 16, 2008, 1:17pm EDT

Kevin, I brought this up with Gather during the chats. I was told that as long as you publish to only friends, it won't be viewable by outside public. Something that I'm finding out isn't necessarily true.

This is why we should be allowed to approve what we want shown on our profile pages just like we can on sites like Myspace since they seem to so want to go that "chat" type route.

I fortunately don't have to worry about getting fired from a job, however I can see many members leaving for this very reason.

and what good does making your own works private if your comments can still be accessed on another's profile feed? we have really lost a lot of privacy with this upgrade and made it so much easier for stalkers.

J Corn,

You clever little raccoon, you. If I could I should give you the greatest HUG!

As you can see, I have corrected the situation, and in a second I shall remove the comment that houses my true and legal name. I was so upset that I was not thinking when I made that comment, stating what is below the line. Lloyd (the Doc) will tell you, because he knows of one, that there are people who stalk me on the Internet. He knows of one, but there have been others. The last thing I need is for them to locate me here on Gather. What a mess that would be. Gather would certainly NOT assist me in getting rid of them, if the past is any indication, so I would be stuck with either leaving here or loosing my mind

So, thank you again, J Corn!
________________________________________________________________

"Oh hell! __________ IS my REAL name. I saw no reason to be phony about anything.

Okay, fine. If Gather wants to compromise my privacy, I'll change the name. Neeetah is a nickname. This is so totally messed up.

Thank you very much, Gather.

See, this is the very reason I did NOT fill out the survey you sent to me. You said it would be "private", but could I trust that?

A resounding NO!!!!

I have work to do. . . "

One benefit to having a common name, I guess, lol!
Michelle M., Apr 16, 2008, 3:45pm EDT

that just means that people will think that it's you doing the things she is. you will then have to prove it wasn't you acting that way and may lose a job or potential job over it or other worse things dependant on what your life's situations may involve.

I dont like this at all. I am a bit . . . . no I am VERY concerned about this.

OH MY GOSH! I am now reading things that other gather members have said about me. AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW
I dont like this at all.

I am more concerned over this than the "upgrade" and I was pretty upset about that!! Why weren't we made aware of this when we joined Gather?

A few members have raised concerns over information that is accessible on Google. I thought it important to make clear that we have made absolutely no changes that would alter what information is indexed by Google. Public information can be indexed and displayed by search engines. The public information available on the site today is the same information that was public on the site last week. Information that is not made public, such as private profile elements, content shared just to certain friend sets, or items published in private groups for instance, cannot be indexed and is not searchable.

Google changes its search algorithms from time to time, which may bring new web pages to the top of Google searches. When web pages are restructured, public information search engines (including Google) may also re-rank pages, making them more or less visible depending on the placement of information on the page. Since Google does not reveal exact page ranking algorithms, we cannot be sure whether the "Googlability" of Gather content may have changed due to either of these things. Rest assured, however, your private content remains private; only what you choose to share publicly will appear in Google search results.

MaryAnne, I take that to mean that pings are public because they have always been public.

(I turned mine off anyway, but I wantd to make sure I understood.)

Oh my!!! I checked and all those buttons that said private on my profile are out there for everyone to see how did that happen? I am dumping my stats and pings and may stop commenting. have not decided.

Maryanne,

a) This issue stems from, and is exacerbated by, the new public profile feed. Prior to Hawthorne, Google and other search engines did not have access to information such as:

"______ pinged ______" or

"______ has joined Manic Depressives", or

"_______ is now friends with _______".

This information is now indexed, and the level of detail may be a concern for some members.

b) When I had asked Gather last year if comments were indexed, I received confirmation that they were not. However, it appears that this information was faulty, or some changes have been made since that time.

c) Gather has the ability to ensure that some information is not indexed. Thus, perhaps the need for the indexing of pings, comments, and other sensitive activities could be reviewed?

MaryAnne - If you google your own name WITHOUT putting the word "Gather "into the search engine, you will see that a member name and home page appears the FIRST page of relevant information that supposedly relates to you.

Why that member name? Why not others? This is what baffles me. What is the rhyme and reason of this? I am not listing the member name here so as not to violate anyone's privacy. As a person with background in SEO, I am confused as to how that relates to any relevant search algorithms or why that particular member has high visibility on pages of yours.

It wasn't this way before and I do think it benefited Gather better. I've loved Gather - you know that - and have been an avid supporter and promoter of the site. It felt like a community, in spite of various squabbles. I'm still hopeful that Gather will find a way to change things so that Bots don't suddenly proliferate and members feel like this is a user friendly site - and also in a way that Gather can flourish and make money.

Just remember anything you put on line can be access. Sad but true.

Chick - Yes, but at least people had to search to find the info. ;)

big brother is watching!

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o(

Well,-- maybe George Clooney will find me now!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL at Phyllis. I hope George does find you!

I can't understand why the comments are out there for all to see. Shouldn't they be for Gather only?

Ann - No, comments linked to RSS feed and Google appear on Google search engines. That is a reality. However, privacy options should be....private and not indexed on Google. Apparently, some people note that they aren't so private.

My Gather page is the sixth listing on what comes up if you Google me

Check it out

It also turns up my myspace, livejournal, facebook, imeem, author website ( lauracushing.com which I so need to actually put a page up on!), and personal site (labarc.com)

This makes me glad I took my last name off the site and just became the *Goddess of Shoes*.

I am about to drop a little bomb of my own.
For an entire year I have been watching supposedly "happily married" men and women, especially women hit on tons of men on gather.
It sickens me to watch them risk their spouses and children merely for the sake of cheap thrills.

While I don't condone any of our text being made public outside of gather (in fact it OFFENDS me) I would like to think these cheating, or at least flirting married people will stop now.

One night I made a comment and after I pushed "post", I found a man and woman conversing via comments on that same page. I almost felt as if I had walked into their motel room. I am not a prude by any means but that woman was supposedly happily married, to someone else. I have never told anyone the names of those two people but I sure hope her husband doesn't find out where she's been reaching for attention.

And gather want revenues, I understand that, but what I see is them ruining a good thing by going too far too fast.

I will always want to read you J.

my gather name is one of two pen names I use so no big deal for me I guess

Laura- Try the Google Experimental (By page rank) model.

I use a pen name too so that's good.

I have a made up name and when I google it, my gather site came up and it is not a long stretch for anyone for find out who I am ...
This is not a good thing.

I used a pretty generic name so if anything shows up it doesnt till the twentieth page or so....

This is becoming extremely annoying. How do we go about getting a pseudonym?

I have a made up name and when I google it, my gather site came up and it is not a long stretch for anyone for find out who I am ...
This is not a good thing.
GREMS V., Apr 16, 2008, 7:58pm EDT


GREMS, are you saying that even with a pseudonym, they can trace it back to you?

Carl "not ready for prime time" Lee

Does that mean I'm famous now?

I did not do enough to protect, There are some things that if someone who knew me in the rest of the world they could put together from the into that is available

Oh Brother. I may as well stick with my real name. Most of the ones in there sound like they are running some sort of dating service or something similar to an XXX thingy. Anybody want to think it's me, have at it.

Kevin, I believe the feed before was only content related: articles, images, videos and the like. Now the feed has been expanded to include profile information, pings, etc. So literally everything you do on Gather is now search engine fodder.

Including this comment. Hi Google!

I changed mine. Here is what shows under JCorn And Gather: "Gather is a place to connect with people who share your passions. ... We'll even compensate you with Gather PointsTM. ... jcorn.gather.com ..."

I did NOT write that ad under my Gather home page and it wasn't there before! Who did? Also one of my Gather articles now goes to a golfing blog! Huh?!

I hope so, I'll get more exposure for my book. hehehe

This is crap! I dont like this either.. Sounds like its because of the "feeds" now.. Was this not happeneing before the upgrade??

I think gather needs to get it stopped real quick! I dont like that..

Maryanne sounds like to me its more than "PINGS"

It's time to move to that island, I think. Leave civilization behind.
Enough of this.

This has always been the case. That is why I opt to set articles to private wherever possible and am careful not to post or comment on something I wouldn't want others to see. Part of a writers existence is trying to get name recognition, so I made a conscious decision to use my real name.
When I can't use private settings, example, when posting a challenge to a public group, I leave the piece up till the challenge is over and then set it to private.
It's a complicated issue isn't it?

Finding ALL your past comments (not just pings) on Google is not a recent thing...and it was more than just items from your profile. Back in January I googled myself and pages and pages of my comments came up (I've been here since Nov 2006)...I almost dropped out of Gather then. When I tried it a month ago only a few things came up. was wondering back in January why no one else mentioned it. I was shocked.

J Corn | Gather
Gather is a place to connect with people who share your passions. ... We'll even compensate you with Gather PointsTM. ... jcorn.gather.com ...
jcorn.gather.com/ - 71k -

That shows up under Google, now. WHO wrote that copy? "Gather is a place to connect with people..." etc

and I really love (not) the one that goes to a golfing site: Do a search under my old name and you'll find: "Jane gather - Gather Bloggers | Gather
books in Gather Essentials: Writing | Gather. August 10, 2007 12:17 PM EDT -- This is an interactive article because I hope "

Okay, the line "This is an interactive article...." comes from an article I wrote here on Gather but the link goes here: http://gofttips.org/content/jane-gather/

I've been Blog-jacked! That is NOT my Blog but Gather feed and MY ARTICLE here was used to direct someone to a GOLF blog! Yep!

Mine is Bhawana( which is real) and rest of my pen names.


;(

The above comment reflect REAL Google search results. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you, too!

J. that's a site description. When you add a site to google's index, you can add a little blurb rather than have it pull up the latest text.

I searched my name tiffanyd and found hardly nothing.. STill though.. I probably just searched wrong..

Do a search for CNN (or just click the link). It doesn't include the text from the top story on the site, but a blurb about CNN. Gather's done the same thing.

I found all my pings and stupid Private LOLS

To a golf blog!???? Now that is crazy, like I said above, I will continue to use my real name for the resons staed, but obviously something has gone seriously haywire when ads for irrelevant blogs (why are ads attached in the first place!?) are accompanying profiles found by google searches.

Chris - I can? But...I didn't add the blurb and I certainly never wrote my interactive article for a golf blog. :0

I have known for a very long time that I could google myself, and see all my Gather content, but I never saw the pings or comments I made. I did it earlier today just to check it out, I find there are several other Elsie Duggans out there, so that relieves me, some are well known and well off according to what I read, maybe they will consider me a long lost relative and leave me something in their will, joking J, I don't like this either but not going to change my name, a bit late for that. but good for you, I will know who you are, a rose by any other name, etc.,

Chris - So how do you feel about this? Is your icon an accurate representation of your feelings :)

Wait, Bhawana, you found your private articles? what the heck! Okay J, now I'm concerned!

even I type my first name, any pen names...directly it goes to gather ..

Elsie- well, if you show up on a porn site, you might feel differently - or not ;)
I'm a bit offended I didn't rate a porn site, just a golf blog.