Online buddy versus friend.

Some of you will be aware that there has been a whole load of discussion going on regarding relationship status and how it may affect what people are able to view on your blog.  Some people are getting upset over the issue of online buddy versus friend.  Even more of us have been confused over the whole issue!

So today I thought I would try to get it sorted once and for all. I have contacted the help desk and also done my own investigation by using my dog’s blog where I am linked as an online buddy.  That showed some very surprising things....more of that in a minute.

First off the response that I have had from the help desk shows that Dixie is absolutely correct....Multiply do not control who sees what, we do.  Via our privacy settings and the option we choose each time we publish a blog.  There is no difference between an online buddy and a friend with regard to blogs. These terms, be they, mother, neighbour, friend online buddy or whatever are just options that we have to help us put the people on our list into meaningful categories.

There is just one exception with online buddy..... YOU have the option to exclude someone you have assigned as an online buddy from seeing your primary, personal details, from your profile EG: date of birth, email address and last name.  You can also set things so an online buddy cannot see your contacts and your guest book.  You can find these setting under my account- privacy settings. Online buddy is no different in any other way regarding viewing of blogs and friends of friends blogs etc...

 Well and good. Except.... (Dixie you may be interested to test this for yourself as I have done this morning.)  If you have chosen those settings to exclude an online buddy from seeing your contacts then you would expect that to be the case.  IT IS NOT.

My doggies have their own blog as many of you know.  I am connected to them as an online buddy.  So I logged on to their website and from there went into their contacts and chose myself....now remember I am an online buddy so once I click on myself it should not be allowing me to see all those contact details...It does. Further more from myself I was able to go to Dixie’s site and view absolutely everything!  My Dogs are not linked to Dixie! 

This is worrying and I have contacted the help desk again to let them know that it seems even if we set our settings to prevent others getting in then they still can regardless if they are a friend an online buddy or an alien.

I post everything for everyone anyway so that my family can view it.  Some of them have no wish to have Multiply accounts.  However it is still very worrying that the settings don’t appear to work.

I also tested something else this morning.  Whenever I post photos I check the box to say do not allow anyone to down load original image.  You still can...tested it on my dog’s site.  Going to take this up with Multiply too.

So to recap......... online buddy is the same as friend as far as blog entries go.  It depends on what you choose at the time of posting.  Everything else is set by you in your privacy settings but  they don’t seem to work!  I guess all these social network sites have potential security issues and it is our job to check things out for ourselves and to watch what we are posting.

I have posted  this for information only.  Do not take my word for it, do your own checks.  Feel frre to comment here but please can all the whingers and moaners keep well away.  There is no place for them here.

Jilly