Online Security

ChangingPlaces

Well-known member
Hi,
Could Heartland consider having the froum information, posts and photos only assesible to loged on members? Currently anyone can acess the information without being a member, meaning all photos, personal details, VIN numbers, email addresses and phone numbers etc can be viewed by everyone, not members only.

This should be made more secure, as forums should be for members only.

Although we have entered this under Heartland, Big Country, we think the entire Forum are should be secure for members only.

Great site and very useful information but feel it should be more secure for members only.

Look forward to your reply.
Cheers
Amanda & Paul
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Amanda and Paul,

Only logged on members have access to VIN, phone, email etc. And then, they can only see their own - no one else'.

When not logged in, anyone can read the forum.

When not logged in, anyone can see only public information from a forum members profile (rig info but not the VIN, username but not real name, no phone numbers, no email addresses.).

Thank you,

Jim Beletti
Forum Admin
 

ChangingPlaces

Well-known member
Hi


Thanks for reply but maybe I am making making my concerns clear.
When you "write to the factory" you have to load in your VIN number and details in order for the factory to reply. This is open to everyone to read!
I have just gone into the Forum without logging in and anyone can read anything, all the posts, photos, etc.

This should not be the case, you should have to be a member to read the posts and view the photos.
Why should anyone just be able to gleen all the information and see eveyone's photos etc withiout being members??? Forums should be secure for those who are members ONLY.

We joined this Forum thinking we were joining the Heartland owners group that was for Heartland owners only or members happy to join.
That it was a privilege to be part of the Heartland Group as an owner, and not for everyone and anyone to view all our shared information, photos and stories.
Most Forums are closed to members only.

Can Heartland Owners Group be a Closed Forum too please?

Otheriwse there is no point really apart from being able to post.
If you wait long enough and not join, but view all the time, your question will probably be answered, and by being more exclusive to members only, you will get more members.

Look forward to your reply.
Cheers
Amanda
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
Sorry but I disagree. I just looked at the list of users. 35 members 350 guests. That tells me that a lot of people are intrested in the Heartland Brand. This gives them an idea of what we are like and also gives them information about the Heartland trailers, good and bad.

This seems to me that would tell people we are snobs and we are not going to let people that don't own a Heartland trailer learn good information about friendship, RVing, rallys and just how much fun RVing is. We spread our laundry out for everyone to see and also see how we like our brand and that the Mfgr is active in our activities.

I do agree that maybe the ATF might be closed because of some personal information such as Vin. I really don't care. You can walk up to any RV in a campground and read the Vin off the nameplate. I don't put my email address, phone number, address and such personal information in a post. I do that with an email or PM. However many on this forum knows my email address, phone number and name.

If you put your personal information anywhere on the internet you should expect some problems.

No I think the more the merrier. Just think if everyone reading this forum initially buys a Heartland Unit we could have more Rallys...

That's my opinion for FWIW...

BC
 

ncc1701e

Well-known member
I’m going to side more with “BC” on this issue I think. Being a member should carry with it certain privileges but I do not believe the reason we paid membership dues was to have a “snob” only club. Each of us bring different experiences and ideas to the group. Sharing those experiences and ideas is what makes the community as a whole stronger. Those experiences are not always positive and sometimes I’m not sure we share enough of our good stories on the forum which might help to get more owners to join. I’ve certainly been guilty of being critical of Heartland warranty issues in the past. That does not mean we do not love our trailer.

I really don’t care who can see the pictures I post or the general information about my trailer. With that said, the other personal information provide to the forum should be limited. I would like to see “guest” to be able to read the individual threads but not be able to post or reply to threads.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Hi Amanda,

When you post something in the ATF (ask the factory) forum, you are correct in that personally identifying and coach information is required. However, that information DOES NOT appear on the resulting forum post. That information is sent to the factory personnel that monitor that specific ATF in order to make your post more actionable. When you decide to post in an ATF, you have made the decision that you want the factory to respond to you and to do so in public. In this case, you must provide VIN and contact information to the factory. VIN so that your coach and its history can be reviewed and contact information so you can be contacted directly if it's determined that doing so instead of a public response is more appropriate. This all said, most ATF posts are first answered by retail customers and require no further response from the factory. By making the ATFs public (though not your personal information), you are always subject to retail answering your question.

For everyone,

The Forum and the Club are separate things.

Heartland Owners Forum
An online community where customer and prospective customers alike, meet to learn and share information about Heartland, Heartland products and related RV experiences. There is no charge for joining the forum and you do not need to be a product owner to join it. It's a huge resource that is freely shared with the world. As has been stated by others, you do not even need to join the forum to read it. In order to engage however, you must be a member of the forum. The forum was started by me and a partner in October 2004. The forum has over 13,000 registered members and grows at a rate of 5 to 10 members a day.

Heartland Owners Club
A fee based, opt-in club for Heartland product owners. The club exists for the benefit of its members. The primary activity of the club is RV rallies. The club is run by volunteer chapter leaders and regional directors. The club was started by me at Heartland's request in October of 2008. The club has just over 1,000 members and grows by about 1 member a day.
 

Theresau

Well-known member
I'm really glad this came up. I expressed concern during the MI rally about this.

At first I included our last name in the signature of the message. Later I did a google search on an issue and one of my posts popped in the list and included our last name in the signature. I quickly adjusted the signature so that it no longer included our last name. Our last name is unusual and I don't feel it is anyone's business in the general public to know what we own, etc. - especially my work place.

If nothing else, I think it would be good to inform the forum that threads are available to be viewed via search engines so that everyone is cognizant of this when putting together a post. The information in the post and the signature are available to the public.

Secondly, I think it would be good to be able to set up a post so that it is only available to the forum - or perhaps a setting would be available to allow you to select whether your posts were public or private.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
It might be a good idea that when someone starts a thread that you can mark it forum private, club members only or public. Meaning, public anyone can read it, Forum public only Regestered users can read it and club members only can read. Anyone posting to that thread must concider the informtion they are posting in the specific thread. Actually you should be aware of what you post on anything on the intrenet.

I have our last name in my signature and it does not bother me at all.

While we are on this subject one thing I would like to see is that who ever is posting indicate who mad the post. If Sam and Suzie are listed in the signature and one is posting, we don't know if it is Sam or Suzie. I would like to know who orginates the post.

FWIW
BC
 
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