Want to see who is using DTRPG?

[Cergorach]

*shrugs*
I find this just typical paranoid behavior of the uninformed internet user.
99.9999999% of the internet community doesn't care an effing bit about you and your 'personal' information. That 'other' 0.0000001% knows how to get your personal information and he doesn't get it from a web forum, he get's it from the registration database from your city/county.

I find this just another excuse to 'blacken' DTRPG, a bit pathetic if you ask me...

Need an example?
Rasyr (Tim Dugger)
Charlottesville, Va
System Editor
Iron Crown Enterprises
tim at ironcrown dot com
rasyr at dugger dot dynu dot com
rasyr at wavegate dot com
rasyr at bellsouth dot net
possible provider: dot intelos dot net

Tim Dugger is 37 years old and living in Charlottesville, Virginia. He began role-playing with AD&D in the early 80’s and is now the System Editor for Rolemaster (RM) – working full time for Ironcrown Enterprises (ICE) since mid-June of 2003. Before he held various computer-related jobs, and was also involved in the foundation of the website The Guild Companion (TGC). He’s married to Lori Dugger who also works for ICE and together they’ve a 10 year old boy.

All through information you left lying around on the internet and only a 5 min. google away, that's more info then DTRPG ever gave...

Personally i don't give a rats ass, and as long as there's no financial information made available (like cc numbers), i s no problem ith people knowing who i am or where i life.

ps. i appologise for posting any personal information, but it illustrates a point i'm trying to illustrate.

 

[BSF]

With all due respect Cergorach, not really.

Rasyr really isn't all that "low profile". For that matter, nor are you, or me. There are people out there that vigorously avoid giving out any personal information. But if you want to make a purchase, you do have to give out some information. When the company then turns around and uses that information in an unexpected manner, there might be cause for alarm.

But really, the biggest concern is that unknown. Are they using a single database that has your CC information stored with your name? Could you figure out how to post a DB query through their forums to display that information? I would hope not, but it is hard to tell.

 

[Flyspeck23]

*shrugs*
I find this just typical paranoid behavior of the uninformed internet user.

There's no word in any language for healthy paranoia, is there?

99.9999999% of the internet community doesn't care an effing bit about you and your 'personal' information. That 'other' 0.0000001% knows how to get your personal information and he doesn't get it from a web forum, he get's it from the registration database from your city/county.

Some people don't want their names (or the adress, or their telephone number...) out there. Can you blame them?
AFAIK, acquiring personal information from your city's database for commercial use isn't legal in many countries. And information on the internet is so much easier acquired (as you've shown) and can be automatized on top of that.

I find this just another excuse to 'blacken' DTRPG, a bit pathetic if you ask me...

DTRPG or not, showing full names and adresses of your customers if definetly not cool. It was obviously an error, and they tried to fix it, and that's good.
If any website would make such an error it's more than justified to point out that blatant error. Easy as that.
This isn't an esoteric argument about the pros and cons of security measures, so you can hardly call it an excuse (or pathetic, for that matter).

 

[ruemere]

To me this sounds a little unfair, to be honest - they just worked to correct the problem, with an eye toward fixing it for real later.

I've got to call the original mistake kind of careless on their part, but I can't fault them for trying to make amends.

Agreed. However, they, meaning DTRPG, earned this spanking session. This and a few others... No privacy statement, no way to remove your account (it's like signing a pact, eh?) [*] and a few other, less significant issues.

The fact they did not think about these things in the first place speak volumes to me. Who know, maybe the "customers-are-only-numbers" statement is a correct metaphor of their attitude. After all, it all looks like one beta-testing session with responsibility for customer welfare shovelled on the shoulders of concerned customers.

*sigh*
The saddest thing is that there are professionals out there who do not make such mistakes. Why could not a company, who called their site "professional",
take some professional advice? I know from personal experience that learning curve is high. I know that there is always a lot of both implementation and maintenance to do. And so I know that it takes a lot of courage (or skill) to call oneself a professional.
Hence, profound disappointment.

Regards,
Ruemere, professional amateur

[*] It's been some time though since I gave them a chance. It could have been corrected.

 

[Umbran]

Personally i don't give a rats ass, and as long as there's no financial information made available (like cc numbers), i s no problem ith people knowing who i am or where i life.

It's all very nice that you don't care. But policy regarding the privacy of personal infrmation should not be based upon the feelings of those who care the least about privacy.

In addition, there's a big difference between someone leaving their own information out and about (either willfully or by their own carelessness) and having that information left lying around by another party, without the person's knowledge or permission.

It may not be a catastrophe, but it was certainly thoughtless poor form on their part.

 

[Rasyr]

*shrugs*
I find this just typical paranoid behavior of the uninformed internet user.
---snip----
ps. i appologise for posting any personal information, but it illustrates a point i'm trying to illustrate.

Well, I am not quite uninformed, though I am no expert either. However, what was more irritating to me was not that they posted MY name, but that they posted the names of their customers, without any sort of advance notice, nor any sort of option to that customer. And that this violated their Privacy statement from when you created an account with them in the first place.

They added an automatic script to the main log-in page which automatically registered folks on the forums. They could have just as easily added a couple of extra form elements to that page, including a radio button to allow the user to decide if they want to be automatically registered or not, and even to provide a screen name for them as well.

As for the information you dug up on me, well that is information that I voluntarily posted to the internet at one time or another. The point is that there is a difference between voluntarily posting information and having somebody else do it without your consent.

 

[Turanil]

I am not happy about this at all. What is your opinion??

Oh well, I am even not trying to get the free stuff from DTRPG, reading this I am even less entitled to give it a try. Well, lets see if DTRPG still exists in, say, 2006, and also I am sure RPGnow will still be there. I am ready to bet: one 3.0 D&D or d20 book (which may be beginning to be a collector in 2006) that DTRP has disappeared, while RPGnow still exist in 2006.

 

[Henry]

Cergorach,

Can you do that with same thing with even those names on DTRPG's database who DON'T have a professional internet presence? Not all of those customers are so well-known, and while the name and location by themselves are not impossible to find, as I said previously, why put the fish in the barrel and hand out the guns in the first place? I am glad they took quick action to fix it, but the perception that they can be careless about private customer information is now made, correct or not.

Having been on ENWorld for years, it's not like I would personally mind, but there ARE people who do, and it wasn't cool for that reason.

 

[Cergorach]

Cergorach,

Can you do that with same thing with even those names on DTRPG's database who DON'T have a professional internet presence? Not all of those customers are so well-known, and while the name and location by themselves are not impossible to find, as I said previously, why put the fish in the barrel and hand out the guns in the first place? I am glad they took quick action to fix it, but the perception that they can be careless about private customer information is now made, correct or not.

Having been on ENWorld for years, it's not like I would personally mind, but there ARE people who do, and it wasn't cool for that reason.

Rasyr was easy. Could i dig up the same kind of information on anyone on that list? Probably, just not through a 5 min. google search. I just find it strange that people are so paranoid, they seem to forget that the internet is a very public place, just like any public place, personal info isn't private. I highly doubt that there's anyone walking through a mall with a paperbag over his head so that he can keep his privacy.

Being paranoid doesn't help a thing to prevent that. People who told me to prove them wrong got a satellite photo of their dorm and their roommate got an e-mail asking them if they approved of their roommates paranoid behavior. Obviously that freaked someone out *grins evily* but that is possible and it didn't even require me to hack anything. If your not prepared to share your 'personal' inormation, go life on an island and never leave your hut, because in this society there's no other alternative...

 

[Staffan]

There's no word in any language for healthy paranoia, is there?

I think the word you're looking for is "caution".