Unpersoning

What you describe is the result of Host actions against SPAMmers -

• posts go POOF
• thread is "bumped" because of activity
• "SPAMmer" is banned (this should not affect their Profile page but likely will have their "online visibility" set to OFF so that People search returns no result)

  " asfahan " is an infamous banned user name around here -

  • the Profile page is visible > https://discussions.apple.com/profile/asfahan
  • that name is not found in the People search

If you want us to reproduce your observations, you will need to "publish" the username

- wouldn't be " worldbygeorge " would it?

Diana.McCall wrote:

1. Thanks.
2. Since you ask, it's scott091. And when I clicked on his handle in the email, it opened his profile, just as you suggest.
3. So he's not gone, just not searchable, which made me think he was gone.
4. He only joined in April so I doubt that he's a major contributor. I guess posting the same (almost, each differed slightly) reply in over 10 threads, mostly long OBE, was taken as spamming. Probably just trying to be very helpful.

1. You're welcome
2. Yep. MAY be banned, maybe not - no way for us to know
3. The user may have set his own preference (see setting location in image below)
4. That'll do it every time. Some folks "try too hard"?

As with many "labels" is AppleJiveWare, they retain their original "name" from JiveSoftware but have a much different "function" than it would appear... in many forum software, there is a "list" displayed of users "who are *ONLINE* in the same place as you are", forum or thread - here it means merely that you are not searchable. You can test this about yourself, as I just did

I have seen the message to which you refer RARELY, and think it is a "glitch" - it would be normal in JiveSoftware, but AppleJiveWare is all about "no explanation - it just IS"

Diana.McCall wrote:

Thanks. Since you ask, it's scott091. And when I clicked on his handle in the email, it opened his profile, just as you suggest. So he's not gone, just not searchable, which made me think he was gone. He only joined in April so I doubt that he's a major contributor. I guess posting the same (almost, each differed slightly) reply in over 10 threads, mostly long OBE, was taken as spamming. Probably just trying to be very helpful.

Looking in his profile, several threads are identified, with the note "There was a reply here but it was deleted by its author". Perhaps not exactly true.

That sounds very much as if his account has been deactivated. We will never really know why.

FWIW, I won't be found with a search because I have my preferences set not to show the date I joined. That is the (or at least one of the) reasons you can't find someone.

babowa wrote:

FWIW, I won't be found with a search because I have my preferences set not to show the date I joined. That is the (or at least one of the) reasons you can't find someone.

You can still be searched for.

More likely it is online visibility > off.

Or would be! 😉

tt2

I was unable to reproduce your online-visible result by merely changing MY Join Date to [Yourself] > [Save]

I think if you check your Preferences page, near the bottom, you may find the "Online Visibility" switch is

Aren't you the clever girl!

I wonder how many search engines are running around here?

Needs to be off if you want to hide. I suspect right now it is on.

tt2

I know, amigo... I "tested" both 😉 before posting as the ToU mandates 😎

• Switch ON + [Yourself] show date joined = found in People page search
• Switch OFF + [Everyone] show date joined = NOT found in People page search

Testing on yourself might be inconclusive. Right now I cannot find you with people search, but I think it is online visibility, not date joined visibility, which controls that.

CCC wrote:

I think if you check your Preferences page, near the bottom, you may find the "Online Visibility" switch is

And I think that if our colleague checks right now they will find that it is

😉

tt2

true... but that is the only thing one can test without "collaborating"

As it happens, in testing, I turned the Switch OFF and closed the TAB WITHOUT saving - yet the OFF attribute was set as the Preference - it is now back ON - try me again - BTW, I did NOT hit the [Save] twanger on the Prefs page

Why have a save button if merely flipping the switch does the job?

This is Jive, why have one way to do something when you can have three? 😝

tt2