Hi
Can I ask what the point of being able to do this is please?
I've noticed a handful of people who are the subject of recent SLs have blocked access to their profiles.
I know you can search manually for their posts, but it seems like being able to block access to your profile just helps certain people hide things.
Thanks!
It's not possible for members to hide their profile pages entirely - the most you can restrict it to is people you follow. Ultimately, some people don't want their profile information to be visible - like anything, this can be used for good or bad reasons but we're not in the habit of forcing people to publicly display their profile information.
Well, as I stated above, many people, including myself would never do any deals with you if you're hiding your profile from public view.
And my point still stands, I am completely transparent in any business I own that provides a product or service to others. I would only do business with someone who was as open as I am, otherwise I will take my business elsewhere.
So, having said that we won't force people to make their profiles public, these are very good points. People's posting history should not be private. Even if their profile is blocked, you can still see the posting history by searching with the "Posted by Member" field:
Ultimately, it's a judgement call. Some people have been harassed by other members and decided as a result to make their profiles private. Others are trying to conceal their posting information to hide issues with previous services or threads. If you're considering trading with someone who's restricted their profile access, it's worth looking at their posting history to figure out why.
The vast majority of people here are straightforward but there's no real barrier to entry which means we'll always have people online with sketchy motives. So this is a step
every member should go through as part of their due diligence before sending money to random strangers on the internet. I'm always disturbed by the amount of messages and support tickets we get where someone's sent a newbie large amounts of money on the basis of a spam PM and nothing else.
From my perspective, if someone's blocked access to their profile, then yes - it should raise a flag for further investigation. It shouldn't be used to define someone as automatically sketchy, though. Likewise, if you've got a concern about a member, you can report them with a query and we'll look into it, or you can PM me or any of the other mods if you're looking for specific information. Legally, we can't give out private information and we can't give you a judgement call on whether we trust someone or not, but we can give you information and pointers to help you make an informed decision.
Once again, this thread by
@Zwielicht should be essential reading for anyone trading on BHW:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/avoiding-scams-staying-safe-on-black-hat-world.884947/
