Is Boardreader Cannibalizing Physics Forums?

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The discussion centers around the website Boardreader, which archives forum discussions, including content from Physics Forums (PF). Concerns are raised about the site's ability to link user avatars and interactions, prompting questions about whether the content mining process is automated or requires human oversight. Members express mixed feelings about the implications of their posts being accessible on multiple platforms, with some feeling a loss of privacy and control over their content. Despite these concerns, some participants acknowledge that Boardreader's practices are similar to how Google operates, and it may even drive traffic back to PF. The conversation also touches on broader themes of online privacy and the permanence of digital footprints, with participants reflecting on their comfort levels with sharing personal information in forums. Overall, while there is curiosity about Boardreader's operations, there is also a strong sentiment regarding the need for privacy and awareness of how online interactions can be archived and shared.
rhody
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I ran across http://boardreader.com/thread/uh_I_need_a_runway_really_let_me_explain_3mqyX9n41.html" today from a google search. "physics forums rhody", it's almost like this site is cannibalizing PF, even Evo's avatar appears, under "Thread Members". try googling it yourself. I left this open ended to see where it would lead. General comments, opinions from members, moderators, admins, and Greg are most welcomed.

Rhody...
 
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There are ton's of sites like this that archive forum discussions. I'm really surprised that this is the only one that comes up when you searched.
 
I've known about it for several years. It's an interesting site. I don't see much cause for concern. It's no different than what Google does. Boardreader clearly displays that the content is not their own and links everything back to PF. In the end they send PF maybe 500 visitors a day.
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
I've known about it for several years. It's an interesting site. I don't see much cause for concern. It's no different than what Google does. Boardreader clearly displays that the content is not their own and links everything back to PF. In the end they send PF maybe 500 visitors a day.
I understand, thanks Greg, but the creepy thing to me is that they can somehow link Evo's avatar (No offense Evo) to me. Are these Board readers totally automated, or do they require human intervention to organize and vet content, etc... ?

Rhody... :redface:
 
rhody said:
I understand, thanks Greg, but the creepy thing to me is that they can somehow link Evo's avatar (No offense Evo) to me. Are these Board readers totally automated, or do they require human intervention to organize and vet content, etc... ?

Rhody... :redface:

The bots are certainly automated for indexing, but they're a big player in the social media community, not some shady underground organization. I'm actually attending a conference next week and one of the speakers is from BoardReader.
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
The bots are certainly automated for indexing, but it's a big player in the community development community, not some shady underground organization. I'm actually attending a conference next week and one of the speakers is from BoardReader.
If you get a change to speak to him/her, maybe you could address my question to him/her then, thanks. I didn't mean the site was creepy, I guess it could have crawled my profile and seen I was friend's with Evo, something like that.

Rhody...
 
rhody said:
If you get a change to speak to him/her, maybe you could address my question to him/her then, thanks.

Rhody...

What is your exact question? :)
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
What is your exact question? :)

As I gave it a closer look, it is obvious that Boardreader picked up on a popular recent post with a high number of responses, and was able to find the users I have corresponded with which would explain the Avatar list. One thing I do like about the way things are presented is the brief post history before each post, and affiliated searches using keywords from the title to other links, that is quite slick. We have a thread search feature that pretty much can do the same thing, but I like the way you can briefly review each post in Boardreader.

One question would then be: is a Boardreader Admin required to oversee the mining and recreation of PF's content ? Is the process entirely automated ? If not, what part does the Admin person play, if any, in creating content mined from PF.

Rhody...
 
Greg Bernhardt said:
The bots are certainly automated for indexing, but they're a big player in the social media community, not some shady underground organization. I'm actually attending a conference next week and one of the speakers is from BoardReader.

well... i don't know that i'd place too much stock in the mainstream players either.

http://www.businessinsider.com/well...s-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/09/20/100920fa_fact_vargas?currentPage=all
 
  • #10
Makes me feel violated. :frown:
 
  • #11
Evo said:
Makes me feel violated. :frown:
In what way, the fact that boardreader was able to see that I am friend's with 16 or members here on PF, and then further to figure out that you and I are participants in similar threads ? I am guessing, but I would like to know what criteria it uses to put up the four avatar's it choose (including Evo's), and mugaliens (who is now banned).

Or, in scenario B, Evo, is just pulling my leg, and has no issue with it, so which is it going to be Evo, are you really offended, or just pulling my leg ?

Rhody... :rolleyes:
 
  • #12
rhody said:
In what way, the fact that boardreader was able to see that I am friend's with 16 or members here on PF, and then further to figure out that you and I are participants in similar threads ? I am guessing, but I would like to know what criteria it uses to put up the four avatar's it choose (including Evo's), and mugaliens (who is now banned).

Or, in scenario B, Evo, is just pulling my leg, and has no issue with it, so which is it going to be Evo, are you really offended, or just pulling my leg ?

Rhody... :rolleyes:
The fact that I post here at PF and end up on hundreds of unrelated websites. Makes me want to stop posting anywhere. I want to choose who sees my dirty laundry. :eek:
 
  • #13
This is yet another example of how I feel everyday life does not map well to the internet. We consider what we say here to be semi-private but in actual fact we might as well be publishing in a national newspaper.

On the brighter side don't say anything mental and you will be ok. On the brighterer side in several hundred years there may be archaeological digital digs into old data archives and this rhody character may end up some sort of historical figure :-p
 
  • #14
Evo said:
The fact that I post here at PF and end up on hundreds of unrelated websites. Makes me want to stop posting anywhere. I want to choose who sees my dirty laundry. :eek:
Isn't that called being a victim of your own success ? If PF's, hit rate were in the tank so to speak, you wouldn't have to worry about being picked up by other websites, no ? Like ryan just said, "don't say anything mental and you will be ok" is good advice.

Rhody... o:)
 
  • #15
rhody said:
Isn't that called being a victim of your own success ? If PF's, hit rate were in the tank so to speak, you wouldn't have to worry about being picked up by other websites, no ? Like ryan just said, "don't say anything mental and you will be ok" is good advice.

Rhody... o:)
I used to tell kids here not to brag about their illegal activities and they would say "no one that matters is going to see this", meaning coming to PF.

I've known that posts here get re-posted elsewhere, but that doesn't stop me from disliking it. I feel that PF is my home, and that the people that browse or post here are, for the most part, a bit above the average, but when you start thinking about your posts ending up who knows where, yuk.
 
  • #16
Evo said:
The fact that I post here at PF and end up on hundreds of unrelated websites. Makes me want to stop posting anywhere. I want to choose who sees my dirty laundry. :eek:

How is this different than what Google does?
 
  • #17
Greg Bernhardt said:
How is this different than what Google does?
It's not knowing where my posts are. I know I can google my posts, and people googling a subject might come across my posts that lead them here. But to just have them posted at who knows how many other sites feels weird.

That's just me. I'm a control freak.
 
  • #18
Evo said:
It's not knowing where my posts are. I know I can google my posts, and people googling a subject might come across my posts that lead them here. But to just have them posted at who knows how many other sites feels weird.

That's just me. I'm a control freak.

There are more search engines than google you know. Your posts have been accessible in thousands of different places for years :wink:
 
  • #19
Greg Bernhardt said:
There are more search engines than google you know. Your posts have been accessible in thousands of different places for years :wink:
Yes, I know.

Years ago I found out that there were websites made about me. They were nice, kind of "shrines", but I try not to think about it.

I've also found a site where a disgruntled ex member complained about me. he was angry that I banned him, but what was really funny was that I wasn't the one that banned him. :-p
 
  • #20
Evo said:
Yes, I know.

Years ago I found out that there were websites made about me. They were nice, kind of "shrines", but I try not to think about it.

Tell me about it! This one seems to be all about you;
http://www.evo.co.uk/
Though the fans aren't very good. All they seem to do is take pictures of cars that you own or discuss the merits of your favourite cars (or something like that).
 
  • #21
Evo said:
Years ago I found out that there were websites made about me.

Really? Wow, that's creepy...

Then again, I wouldn't mind having a fanpage about me o:)
 
  • #22
micromass said:
Really? Wow, that's creepy...

Then again, I wouldn't mind having a fanpage about me o:)

There nearly is! Micro http://bit.ly/aOVMt3" has a record of some of your posts and has the function for people to rate them.
 
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  • #23
Ryan_m_b said:
There nearly is! Micro http://bit.ly/aOVMt3" has a record of some of your posts and has the function for people to rate them.

rawr
 
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  • #24
micromass said:
rawr
:smile:
 
  • #25
micromass said:
rawr

Tricking the trickster, allllllright :cool:
 
  • #26
Ryan_m_b said:
Tricking the trickster, allllllright :cool:

Cute, but the ad gave it away before the rickrolling started. I bowed out before the main event.

Rhody... sigh... wishes rickrolling would become an artifact of history.
 
  • #27
rhody said:
Cute, but the ad gave it away before the rickrolling started. I bowed out before the main event.

Rhody... sigh... wishes rickrolling would become an artifact of history.
At least it's decent music, be careful what you wish for, the replacement is usually worse.
 
  • #28
Evo said:
At least it's decent music, be careful what you wish for, the replacement is usually worse.

I know psychology 101 states that the more you make a big deal out of something and are aggravated, the more people will continue to inflict it (in this case rickrolling) on you. Ok, I'll embrace the horror, I love it and I hope this form of prank continues into the distant http://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...1l9l0l0l0l0l391l1812l0.1.2.3l6l0&safe=active".

Rhody... o:)
 
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  • #29
Back to the topic then, how can Boardreader compile and repeatedly scan PF without having an ID to login, and be smart enough to show four member's avatars who I have interacted with on the forums, and through PM's ?

Rhody... :confused:
 
  • #30
rhody said:
Back to the topic then, how can Boardreader compile and repeatedly scan PF without having an ID to login, and be smart enough to show four member's avatars who I have interacted with on the forums, and through PM's ?

Rhody... :confused:
I thought that the avatars were randomly picked from members that posted it that particular thread?
 
  • #31
I'm still fuzzy on the purpose of archiving perhaps thousands of message forums, each of which has hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of posts.

And greg, while it may be sending 500 visitors a day this way, consider what might happen if it didn't exist in the first place. Wouldn't those 500 visitors' Google searchs that took them to boardreader simply deposit them here in the first place?

Seems like an unnecessary step to me.

Besides, there are ads out there, so... Oh! That's why they do it.
 
  • #32
Evo said:
I thought that the avatars were randomly picked from members that posted it that particular thread?
That is a possibility Evo, but three out of four who I regularly touch base with led me to wonder. I just want to know the nuts and bolts of what they data mine and how they do it. I don't worry about being stalked as you do, but I find it amazing that they can do this so effortlessly, that's all.

Rhody...
 
  • #33
rhody said:
That is a possibility Evo, but three out of four who I regularly touch base with led me to wonder. I just want to know the nuts and bolts of what they data mine and how they do it. I don't worry about being stalked as you do, but I find it amazing that they can do this so effortlessly, that's all.

Rhody...
I'm not worried about being stalked. I just don't like not knowing where my posts are. :-p
 
  • #34
Ok, I just blew my own mind, I went into google images: and searched on Rhody PhysicsForums, and I swear almost every image I posted since being a member came up ! Try it with your ID's. I started with a friend of mine, just his name, guess what came up on the first page, his son's picture, click it and where he worked and went to school came up in his work profile. There is NO privacy folks, none, if you are clever with search tools, it takes mere minutes to find you and your likes and dislikes. Google is cataloging and referencing everything on the internet, now in near real time.

From my ID and forum name it is pretty easy to see my likes and dislikes.

Rhody... :bugeye:
 
  • #35
Anybody googling my name will see a lot of lolcats :biggrin:
 
  • #36
micromass said:
anybody googling my name will see a lot of lolcats :biggrin:
lol.
 
  • #37
Oh, and BTW, all your facebook pictures come up too. I guess all google needs for a match is your Facebook ID, I don't have one, but I would appreciate someone who does, running a little experiment and reporting back, thanks... If this is true Facebook privacy is a joke as well with that critical bit of info, the FB user's ID. Let me know if anything you have posted private shows up.

Rhody...

Micro,

Check this out: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=is...62l0l22775l33l33l0l24l0l0l286l2000l0.4.5l9l0". Note your pic at the bottom right of the page.
 
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  • #38
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  • #39
googlecache is fun. especially if you're looking for info about what happened in threads that disappear.
 
  • #40
If your friends, relatives have a FacePlant account, you can see some public profile pictures by google image: Facebook person@emailaddress.com

Rhody...
 
  • #41
This is even more intriguing, type in the email address of your primary account minus the @ symbol and the .com or other extension into google. What comes back will amaze you, I guarantee you. My advice, don't give your primary e-mail name to strangers.

Rhody... :rolleyes:
 
  • #42
rhody said:
This is even more intriguing, type in the email address of your primary account minus the @ symbol and the .com or other extension into google. What comes back will amaze you, I guarantee you. My advice, don't give your primary e-mail name to strangers.

Rhody... :rolleyes:
You mean like evohotmail ?
 
  • #43
Evo said:
You mean like evohotmail ?

Are you messing with me, are you ?! Yep... 1,220,000 hits in 0.6 seconds...

On a serious note, if you post stuff on uTube or in my case PF and it gets lots of hits, it comes up right away... You may be buried 1,000,000 images deep, but I not digging for you.

Rhody... :-p
 
  • #44
rhody said:
Are you messing with me, are you ?! Yep... 1,220,000 hits in 0.6 seconds...

On a serious note, if you post stuff on uTube or in my case PF and it gets lots of hits, it comes up right away... You may be buried 1,000,000 images deep, but I not digging for you.

Rhody... :-p
I don't have a hotmail account. :smile:
 
  • #45
Ever do a google search on "hot evo"? If not, check out the first hit. :smile:
 
  • #46
Evo said:
You mean like evohotmail ?

rhody said:
Are you messing with me, are you ?! Yep... 1,220,000 hits in 0.6 seconds...

On a serious note, if you post stuff on uTube or in my case PF and it gets lots of hits, it comes up right away... You may be buried 1,000,000 images deep, but I not digging for you.

Rhody... :-p

Evo said:
I don't have a hotmail account. :smile:

I knew that from the start, I know how you value your privacy, you have to be more clever than that Evo...

Rhody... :rolleyes:
 
  • #47
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-...e49d561ad75bea3&biw=1024&bih=578&safe=active"

The article now over three years old is disturbing, at least to me.

Yang's new algorithm, which was created with the help of a team of researchers at UIUC, could mark a quantum leap in face-recognition technology. Current feature-based systems have accuracy that tops out at 65 percent when some form of occlusion is introduced. They also require relatively high-resolution images, and can easily be fooled by changing small details such as adding a mustache, donning a hood or changing one's expression.

The secret sauce in Yang's new method is a mathematical technique for solving linear equations with sparse entries called, appropriately enough, sparse representation (.pdf). While all other facial-recognition algorithms tend to compare a given feature set against all others in a database (generating percentages of likeliness along the way), Yang's algorithm ignores all but the most compelling match from one subject -- basically, its most confident choice.
and
Yang says he's already been approached by one startup (which he wouldn't name) interested in adopting this technique for what he calls "preannotation." For instance, this technology could automatically add family members' names to each image in a massive photo library, Yang says, saving you the trouble of flipping through thousands of photos to find that one of Uncle Bill.

It's also easy to imagine search engines like Google being interested in automatically recognizing the faces of the humans portrayed in publicly available photos, adding the image data to the textual information surrounding those photos to produce yet another dimension for targeting advertisements. Looking at a party photo of Johnny Depp on a fan site? Google could display advertisements for Sweeney Todd.

This new technique is also bound to raise a series of red flags for privacy advocates, since what Yang has developed is a highly accurate way of recognizing people even with occlusion or distortion.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is headed.

Once your picture disguised or not, becomes a virtual entity captured in cyberspace, and google finds and catalogs you, it is game over.

Rhody...
 
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  • #48
rhody said:
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is headed.

Amidala makeup
 
  • #49
This is funny... PF members beware... hehe... of what your spouse, BF, GF loads on your iPhone:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...-my-friends-feature-found-his-cheating-wife/"
An unnamed New Yorker claims Apple's new "Find My Friends" app -- which uses GPS to locate any of your friends that have allowed you access to their location -- led to a stunning revelation: His wife has been cheating on him.

"I got my wife a new 4S and loaded up Find My Friends without her knowing. She told me she was at her friend's house in the East Village. I've had suspicions about her meeting this guy who lives uptown. Lo and behold, Find my Friends has her right there."

The user claims his wife told him she was going to the Meat Packing District, a location in the lower West Side of Manhattan. Instead, the Find My Friends feature indicates the woman was on 2nd and 65th St. -- a far different neighborhood that would be difficult to confuse.

"She said she is in meat packing district which is on 12th street. I don't think so," the user wrote, uploading screen shots to the website that appear to corroborate his story.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011...eature-found-his-cheating-wife/#ixzz1bSuSHgKl
The story is uncorroborated, and may be a hoax, but the technology isn't. The stories shelf life starts Oct 16 on the MacRumors Forum, and is reported the next day. Word travels fast, huh ?

Rhody...
 
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  • #50
Sigh... It just gets better and better, doesn't it ? FYI.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/241187/how_to_stop_facebook_google_and_twitter_from_tracking_you.html?tk=out"
The common solution to this is ornery, but functional: Use a different browser. I relegate Chrome to this task and use it exclusively for social networking and anything tied to common cookies, like Google. The kind and trustworthy folks at Facebook, Google, and Twitter must think that all I do is go to Google, Facebook, Twitter, and this page, because that's all that browser does. Is that a waste of local resources? Sure. Chrome is chewing on a vsize of 950MB right now and consuming some CPU cycles. Is the trade-off worth it? Most definitely.
As the TV show's star House is fond you saying, "You are all morons..."

Rhody...
 
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