silverthunder | For those who don't know already

LiveJournal has released a feature that allows users to track journals and posts without listing the journal among your friends. Basically, you click a button and BOOM! All posts on the journal or all comments on the post (depending on which you're tracking) are sent to your email.

Sound harmless? Well, maybe.

I think it's creepy. I'm already about 90% friends-only; only the fluff posts and memes are left un-friends-locked, and those who don't comment to me and let me know they want to know the boring details of my daily life don't get added as friends. But still.

Suppose I make a public post - for whatever reason; I have friends who don't have LJs and I link them to certain posts sometimes - and someone wishes to make a comment on it that's really only meant for me. The easiest way to do this has always been to comment and then quickly delete it. That way I get it in my email but no one else sees it. Well, now someone COULD see it, because if you're watching a post, you get those comments in your email as well.

Not to mention the fact that I'm sure we've all had those moments when we post something and then think 'oops' and delete it because it's not necessarily something we want everyone seeing. 'Oops' isn't going to cut it if someone's already watching you, is it?

At the very least, I think we should be informed when someone is stalking our journals or our posts, and who those people are. Paranoia could sink in pretty fast otherwise.

anax provided a nice handy link to the release post for those who would like to express their concerns. I've already expressed mine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

but as many people have already pointed out--the stuff that's trackable is stuff that's already public anyways (or available to you, in case of friends only that you have access to). if someone really wanted to stalk you online? they'd be doing it anyways.

if you have friends without lj, why not just have them email you if they don't want the rest of the world seeing what they say?

*shrugs* I think it's a wonderful feature, one LJ has really needed for awhile, and I don't understand all this paranoia over it. Because if someone wants to stalk you, they're going to be doing it anyways, with or without LJ's little notification system. The notification system merely makes it easier, assuming they have a livejournal.

Though I do agree I'd like to see who's subscribing to my stuff. Just because I'm curious, not because I have any stalker concerns :D

But not everyone feels the way you do, right? I mean, I feel differently about it. I don't like the thought that I can't control this system and have no knowledge of who's getting email updates about my LJ. And I don't think I should have to make separate arrangements if I don't like it.

I find it a bit offensive that my discomfort - and the discomfort of others - is being treated as "silly". Sure, there are some people who think it's great. They're the lucky ones, because there it is for them to use.

For those of us who don't like it? I think we should be provided with the option of blocking it. It's only fair.

I never said that everyone was going to feel the same way about it xD Nor did I ever call it silly. I'm not saying that you should like it, I'm just not really understanding the concerns about being watched, because it's all stuff that people can watch already anyways. The notification system just makes it less work. I mean, if I really wanted to follow your online movements, I could refresh your journal a lot for new posts, I could watch all your comms to see your posts/comments in them, I could watch your friends and check for your comments in there, I could check out your userpics every day to see if you've uploaded anything new... yes, it's more work, but it's the exact same thing the notification system is doing. So, I guess I'm just not really seeing the difference here?

But I do agree that there should be an opt-out for those who don't want it. There are a lot of features on LJ that I don't like that have opt-out, so this one needs it as well.

I'm not really that paranoid about being stalked - I just feel uncomfortable about the idea that people I don't know are being emailed the content of comments and such made in my journal posts. Sure, they could just check and find them - but if they ARE creepy, why make it easy for them?

Also, suppose I make a mistake and comment something I didn't want the general public to see? I've done it before. Then I delete it.

I don't like the fact that this means any number of people (who I don't even know) could see it despite the fact that I've deleted it. It's not just because I'm worried that some obsessive stalker (which is pretty much the only kind of person who would refresh every five seconds on a LJ post for hours on end) will see it. I don't want ANYONE to see it. It's bad enough that the person I'm replying to will see it; do we have to add to that? It basically means I don't have the luxury of making those kinds of mistakes.

I don't know if you see this as rational or irrational. Personally, it doesn't matter to me. Whether the uncomfortable feeling is irrational or not, it's there and I don't like it. That's reason enough to want the opt-out available.

If it's so harmless, and stuff that everyone can already see anyway ... then why do we even have/need this "feature"? I mean, you can already see everything that could possibly be emailed to you, so why is LJ bothering?

...I have already said, it has made it more convenient. Why do we have half the features we have? Because they're convenient. Why else?

People are all running around screaming about being stalked and their privacy being violated, when it hasn't at all. LJ limited it to things that are already public for that reason. And again, if someone was going to stalk someone else online, they'd be doing it with or without LJ's little comment notification system.

And they'd need to go about it with more effort. Since it's so easy to do anyway, there seems to be little point to making it effortless, except to facilitate stalking.

Mmmk. Well, you can be in your little paranoid corner worried about getting stalked and your public privacy violated, and I'll be in my little total-lazy-ass corner glad I don't have to bookmark a million and one posts just to keep up with interesting public discussions, and we'll go our separate ways and agree to disagree :D

As you like. I wish I were like you - you obviously have no experience with being on the wrong end of a stalker. I do. It isn't paranoia.

No, I can't say as I've had much experience with being stalked. But it doesn't mean I haven't had other bad things happen to me. I just prefer not to let them get the best of me and dictate my future. *shrug*

So that's whut those pins are for? o_O; Weird. Very very weird.

I care not for it. XD But I guess my opinion isn't very important in the grand scheme of things here...

For those who don't know already

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