@donkjr No offense taken. I appreciate the feedback. I do want to make the forum experience as painless as possible to everyone. That’s why your feedback is essential. I will see what I can do to make the mobile experience better. Thanks again for the feedback.
Got on WeMe, it has a phone app. Cannot find the K40 Laser Cutter group.
So far is doesn’t look to bad…
@Nedman why do you think it is harder to search?
I created a group here is the link: see if you can find it and request access: https://mewe.com/join/k40lasercuttingengravingmachine
Seems a lot like FB.
@HalfNormal It is not entirely true. The web tries to read the browser fingerprint to identify it in a unique way and that is a form of tracking. When you block that operation, the page appears blank. I use an advertising blocker and it is not who blocks access to me, but if I activate the canvas blocker, the page appears blank.
No matter how fashionable this tactic is, and no matter how WordPress is doing it, it still seems like another form of tracking to avoid.
@Fernando_Bueno I use a widely respected app called Privacy Badger.
It does not detect any tracking, including cookies for my site. I do agree that there are nefarious tracking going on by the big companies but the EU regulations are making everyone aware if the site is tracking you. A lot of browser ad blockers go overboard and I too have had problems but at some point you have to believe that some people are not trying to do harm. Here is a screen shot of what privacy badger found on my site and another site.
@HalfNormal Possibly, your Privacy badger settings ignore the fingerprint readings, either because you have a rule for it or because you have it incorrectly configured. When I access the web using Tor, I get all kinds of alarms, whereas when I access the Firefox with which I usually browse, I get 2 tracking alarms in Canvas Blocker and the blank page appears.
@Fernando_Bueno can you please let me know what these trackers are so that I can find out how to rectify the blank page issue.
@HalfNormal You can see this page (https://panopticlick.eff.org), from which you can analyze if your browser is vulnerable. It also explains what the fingerprint is and how to avoid tracking. One way is to use Privacy Badger and configure it well, as Tor does and another is to use Canvas Blocker, which allows you to block the fingerprint reading or trick the server, giving you one random each time.
WordPress uses this technique since a few versions and it does not seem like a very elegant way of working, because it does not report it and the average user can not protect itself, since browsers, by default, do not block this tracking although you configure them to avoid it (In fact, only a blank page will block the reading of the fingerprint). But the problem is that the owner of the web can know who visits the web and much more information, even if the visitor has configured his browser to not be tracked.
I installed PrivacyBadger (from http://eff.org, yay!) and it looks like the only tracker is from Google. I suspect you have the google analytics file installed. That’s probably it. That being said, it worked fine for me in Chrome, with PB installed.
Unfortunately the saying " no such thing as a free lunch " is true if you’re using a WordPress product.
I will also join http://www.everythinglasers.com
And here my Twitter Account for any how is interested. https://twitter.com/BEN3D1
Earlier in this thread I started a closed WEME group. So far I think it is a viable alternative as it has a modern UI and well integrated mobile
and web apps.
I don’t know if this alternative is better than a private FB group though.
In fact WEME looks like a FB clone with no data sharing on their part. At least that is what they say.
I am skeptical of their business model as their operating revenue seems to come from apps purchased by users.
Best I can tell they are funded mostly by angels out of calif.
@Nedman has also been playing with WEME and I am interested in his summary of the platform.
My learning is that all the information that I create will be done in my blogs not on social networks. Social network posts will link to that content. Of course they could kill the blogs also :(!
@donkjr There are reports that postings on WEME are not accessible by web searches. As of now, the searches of WEME are not very useful either.
@donkjr I find MeWe to be interesting. It’s like a facebook clone, but the UI is definitely less polished. I’m sure it will improve with time. The separate chat and posts are nice and the ability to do some picture editing is nice as well. As well as having a file section. I’m also somewhat skeptical on their revenue model.
So with MeWe you get a “Cloud” storage with a free 8GB for photos and files. The big downside I just figured out is that everything you upload to a group remains tied to your cloud. So if you delete a file or photo from your cloud it deletes it, post and all, everywhere you have shared it. Also means that if someone deletes their account it deletes everything they ever shared.
@HalfNormal yes MeWe is a closed network and isn’t indexed by search engines as far as I can tell. Also searching across MeWe is limited for groups you are not apart of. Really depends on how open the settings are for a group.
Also, GDPR “Right to be forgotten”. If you deleted your account, wouldn’t you want your posts and comments deleted?
@SirGeekALot the downside to that is we potentially lose valuable knowledge/info for the group. It’s a bit of a double edged sword.
@Nedman FYI pretty sure that if you attach a photo from your google photos in G+ and then delete it they are deleted from posts.@SirGeekALot I think GDPR only applies in Europe?