Who are the “guests”
 

This is probably a dumb question, but...
When I log on, I look at the bottom of the Forum List page and it shows how many people are on the site. It says “16 active members and 2,305 (or whatever number) guests. Are the guests people who don’t have membership? Just people browsing the site? Can guests see our journals? Who are these guests? 😆

Nope, not a dumb question, and I'll bet there are plenty of others wondering the same thing. ;)
You have pretty much answered your own questions correctly.
Yes, guests are people who do not have membership and are just browsing. Also known as "lurkers".
As you suspected/hoped, guests or nonmembers do not have access to member's journals.

Thank you! That’s a relief. It’s kind of creepy to think of how many people could just be stalking our journals and never become members. 😮I’m glad that policy is in place. I guess I’m feeling vulnerable and when I see the huge number of “guests”, it sort of produces anxiety for me. I think when my journal is full, I’ll start a new one, but request that my old one is locked and sealed or discarded or whatever.

Hi Brandy. If you're ever concerned about past journal posts and privacy, remember that you can edit them at any time. :thup: We do encourage people to use discretion. Be aware of who may follow you here.

The journals are also not indexed by google, which is probably the origin of a lot of our "guests". Our site comes up pretty high in the rankings for a lot of searches.

Since anyone can join the forum without paying as a supporting member, basically the world can read our journals if they sign up.
Right?
The guests, those who have not signed up cannot read the journals but they can read all of the other threads that are available. Is that right?

Basically, yes and yes. The journals and also the Off-Topic area are blocked from search engines and other unregistered visitors.
Note that registered members who aren't logged in are considered to be "guests" ;)

As Kristine noted above, and also noted in Journal Posting Rules and Etiquette which is stickied at the top of the Journal forum (does anyone ever read the stickies?? :rolleyes: ) …
This is a public low-carb support forum, not a private tell-all place to vent about exes, bosses, coworkers or in-laws. There's no way of knowing that JohnDoe123"at"hotmail.com is your vindictive ex ;). Always best to stay on topic and be discrete. If you're worried about previous oversharing in your journal, you can always go back and edit your post(s) :idea:. The normal editing time limit elsewhere on the forum is 24 hours, but in the journals it's unlimited.


kindest regards to all :rose:

Doreen

Journals are automatically locked when a new one is started. That being said, you can certainly request that an old journal be removed.

Thank you for recognizing that journals get "full" (currently 2000 posts). No need to wait for a reminder ;) .. you can just go ahead and start a new thread (instructions here).


Doreen

Thank you for all the prompt and helpful information! I need to check how many posts I have.... I wasn’t sure if the limit was 2,000 or 3,000. I couldn’t remember and didn’t think to check on it. But I’ve seen some of my journal friends make new journals in the past. I’ll check on it and start a new one if I’m over 2000.

I’ve always been careful not to post anything that would bring hurt or shame to my husband or friends. And I’ve never posted about work, I don’t think. I do know that it’s not private. I just wasn’t sure how “available” it was for people to just chance upon.

I guess I’ve started a new phase of my life, so I figure it’s time to put the old journal and the old me away for good. So, no one would be able to read it after I start a new one? It would be closed to everyone but administration. That would suit me just fine. I find that with recent weight loss, I feel more vulnerable, if that makes sense. But no. I don’t have any compromising info in my journal. That’s just common sense, I would think.

Oh! I just remembered that I’ve seen people post links in their journals that allow you access to their old journals. So, that means members can still read old journals, right?

Hi Brandy. That is correct - closed journals are still visible, though you don't have to provide a link. In that case, someone would have to really make an effort to find it, once it disappears into the back end of the journals forum.

Most members choose to leave their old journals visible, but if you request that it be removed, it's gone for good. No one can read it, including you, so just be sure that that's what you want. I regret deleting a journal (elsewhere, not here) and it ended up being a lot of memories wiped out that I later wanted to go back to. :(

For others following along: keep in mind that this is ONLY for full journals, not for re-starting for the eleventy-hundredth time and wanting a fresh journal. ;) Our policy is ONE (active) journal per person, otherwise we'd be here all day removing and manually reassigning journal thread links. More details here.
You'd be surprised. :daze: And I'm not belittling anyone here: I've often caught myself editing and re-editing vent posts in my journal.

Eleventy-hundredth time!! 😂 Thank you! I’ll think on it a bit more.