murphy,

I've got the same concerns. I changed my Preferences page on GW to remove my email address. It's sad but it's no longer worth the risk with FB & Pinterest now part of GW.

Just click on "Preferences" at the bottom of the main page and you can remove your email.

/tricia

This post was edited by triciae on Thu, Jan 24, 13 at 6:17

But they said they were listening to us! Did I miss something? The long thread in which we protested this idea ended with Tamara saying they were shelving the plan for now.

I'm not sure why this makes you want to leave the forums, our garden web threads have been popping up in google searches for the longest time ever, even before pinterest, if your email address is activated on your garden web preferences, it's always been available.

I have a hotmail address I use for purposes like this and all the sites that make you register; it does get tons of spam, I delete them every few days in a few seconds.

As Mitch mentions, this isn't anything new. I have my preferences set so that I can be emailed through GW and have never had a problem.

~Ann

I don't get it. I click on Pinterest, then on a photo, then on the photo again (why does Pinterst require this??), then it goes to the thread. If I click on the poster's name it takes me to the poster's Member Page. I don't see the email. I know we can email each other via Gardenweb, but I don't see anyone's email address.

What am I doing wrong?

I did the same thing as dedtired and just get the member's page, also. Please clarify.

Go to a Member's Page, just below that you'll see "See My Clippings", "See My Journal", "See My Trade List", and then "Send Me An Email".

If nothing shows to the right of "See My Trade List" then that particular member has excluded their email address. I've removed my email address recently so use my Member Page as a comparison to Ann T.'s.

/tricia

Thanks Tricia. I think my brain is on holiday! I had just done that and saw my e-mail address, but because it is one I set up just for these kind of things, it didn't register.

That does bring up another question: do you know if it is possible for a person to find out your name, etc. with just a no-info type e-mail? Or is that a question best addressed on the computer forum?

I just changed my member page to eliminate emails. The address that was there was hijacked about 6 months ago. Someone took it over but the Earthlink folks knew how to get it back. I've always wondered how that happened and now I think I know. That email address has been largely unused for the last couple of years so it hasn't been shared extensively at all. The only place it showed up was here.

Thanks all. I was just supremely annoyed when I saw the Pinterest link yesterday....was hasty in saying I was leaving the forum. At any rate, this is what is posted at the bottom of my preferences page:
---------------------------------------------------
These fields set various preferences affecting GardenWeb features. None of this information, or any information you provide at this site, will be shared with third parties.
Show my email address to: NONE
Allow other users to send you email via forms at our site.
If you want to be a part of GardenWeb's zone buddies network this needs to be "checked".What's this?

No, please do not display my birthday on my profile page viewable to other users.

Yes, please send me special offers, promotions, coupons, and free samples from Gardenweb and its sponsors.
I would like to receive monthly email messages listing garden-related events in my area, garden-related merchant specials and related topics.
---------------------------------------

The box plainly says share my email with NONE and I had none of the blocks checked. Even more annoying is the phrase stating that the information on this page will not be shared with third parties. I must have misunderstood what that meant. Also, I joined back in 2006 and didn't know my email was out there. Will take responsibility for my own ignorance about the validity of statements by sites that say they don't share info.
Hope I have blocked personal information now.
Good Grief......I am such a non-geek! But I can cook!
Thanks to all who responded and helped me out. I do appreciate it.
Murphy

I chose NO to "Send me e-mail" in my GardenWeb profile. There's a way for Gardenweb members to send e-mails to you, by creating free "gmail" account just to accept junk mail.

Another way is to set up Your Garden Profile in HMF (HelpmeFind). For someone to send e-mail to you in HMF, they would need to know your Garden profile name, and send private-message regarding plants only. Some Forums have their own private e-mails, when you log-on, you'll get a message to check your mailbox INSIDE THAT FORUM. Unfortunately Gardenweb doesn't have its built-in mailboxes for that many users.

My preferences are set so that
I can receive emails through GW.
It's an address that I use only for certain sites,
That you have to register for.

I've never had a problem of any kind.
That email address never gets any SPAM, either.
Of course, I try to be very careful
about any sites I register for, too.

As for Pinterest,
Can't say as I've been impressed.
I've only surfed it a time or two,
Mainly because friends mentioned
How much they like it.
It just doesn't make sense to me.

Maybe I just need to get more familiar with it.

Or maybe not.

Rusty

I have a special email address mostly for this forum. I got banned by GW many years ago when I accidentally posted a four letter word beginning with f when I meant to say duck or tuck or luck. So, in order to reregister I had to use a different email address. It has come in handy when I don't want to disclose my usual email address or for one-time use.

Oddly, I get far more spam in my regular email than my back-up email. I like to have my friends from GW get in touch, so I am leaving it so that I can be emailed. I've been here for 10 years and have never had a problem. Well, I got one annoying email via GW, but Tamara dealt with that interloper very quickly.

Hi dedtired: You are the nicest person I know (since I joined this Jan) .... It's a shame that you got banned for one typing mistake. There's a lawyer in the Rose Forum who chose a user name of "poorbutrichrose", she tried to post a link using that name, but it flagged her username as profanity. I made a joke in my post about "ready to strangle someone" in my own family, and got flagged as profane & violent. I never get banned, since I cut the joke out to get the message through.

There are many sarcastic jabs in the Roses Forum that hurt far more than an innocent typing mistake. These never get banned. I suffered more from put-down bullies with sarcastic jabs in other forums than what I went through in grade-school. The Cooking Forum is VERY NICE compared to other forums, that's why it's the most popular.