Default Hide Email set to 1 (ie hide)

[celadore]

My users do not register directly into SMF.  They register on Joomla 1.0.11 and are registered into SMF at the same time using the JoomlaHacks bridge.  Unforunately, this means that their e-mails are publically seen by all other members in the forum memberlist (yikes!).

So I chaged the default hideEmail setting in smf_members from 0 to 1 - now everytime a new member is registered, their email is hidden by default and it is up to them to unhide it.


I am shocked that in the age of spam that we live in that is not already the default setting of SMF.  I know that when a new user registers directly through SMF, they can set their e-mail to be hidden.  But this really should be the other way around.  They should be forced to choose to show their e-mail if they want to, not the other way around. 

Agreeing to have your e-mail displayed publically by not unchecking a box is not a PR way to run a forum (having trouble finding the right words to express myself here - but I am sure there is a legal term for this).

So I am sure that most people that run forums would agree that it would be best to have this setting set to hide right from the get go, rather than the current setting.  I personally know that everytime I register at a forum (and I have registered at nearly a hundred), I only enter username and password and ignore the other items.  I know that it is my responsibility to check all other settings, but a lot of people don't.

Hope to see this implemented in the next release!

[vbgamer45]

I agree since it will make it harder for spam bots to find email addresses. I have an email form mod that replaces email links with a button that links to an email form.

[Terrell Smith]

So I chaged the default hideEmail setting in smf_members from 0 to 1 - now everytime a new member is registered, their email is hidden by default and it is up to them to unhide it.

Thanks for that great suggestion. It works to make "hide" the default for people who do not check to hide their email when registering, and they have to change it if they wish to unhide it.

But the checkbox is still unchecked on the register page. I tried several suggestions from other threads to make the checkbox checked by default, but nothing worked. Where do I change that?

[Terrell Smith]

Ah, I needed to do this in Register.template.php

change

Code Select Expand

<label for="hideEmail"><input type="checkbox" name="hideEmail" id="hideEmail" class="check" check="checked" />
to

Code Select Expand

<label for="hideEmail"><input type="checkbox" name="hideEmail" id="hideEmail" class="check" checked="checked" />

Thanks for the help here!

[Hot Rides]

I hate to bring up an old topic but this makes a lot of sense. I modified my new board this way, it should be included in the next update.