Just to keep us all safe...or... If we don't know about it, we cannot help :)

[Oldfloss]

This post was put out by our amazing Realfoodieclub , a couple of weeks back..

Please do read the post...

"There are currently some rogue members on many of the forums including ours who are either following or personal messaging members.... Please read the information below...

There is an ongoing issue with a couple of rogue members who seem to want to use these forums like a dating agency. These people are making a nuisance of themselves by sending personal messages to our female members out of the blue. We are doing are best to get rid of this sort of behaviour as it makes people feel uncomfortable. Please if you get a message from someone you have never heard of or seen on our forum please report the message. From what we have seen they are odd messages and written up like an introduction. We are doing our best to stamp this out.

If you get a personal message you are uncomfortable with report it. If you have never messaged with the person before there is a very distinct box at the top of the message to report.

If you have messaged with the person there Is a drop down menu on the bottom right hand side that says more, click on there and you get a drop down menu that says report.

We put these messages out every now and then because as admins we don’t get a report of abuse from the messages they go directly to Healthunlocked but due to privacy issues they can not act unless a report has been made.

Basically you have to invite them to look at the message and then deal with it.

It is very rare it is needed but just to let you know it is always there.

"

Rfc x

Added to this..if you are suddenly followed by someone you feel uncomfortable with, do let us know by personal message... we can then flag this up on our Administrators Forum.., often these trouble makers are on many other forums... and they can be dealt with by HU.

We are here to help... but, you need to let us know.... and try not to worry, thankfully , this does not happen often and can be dealt with very rapidly...

Oldfloss x

[Renidragas]

Thanks! All good tips!

[David_G]

I’m with you 100% OldFloss, RFC and all the admins. You do a great job looking after the forum and it’s such a shame there are those out there who want to spoil it for everyone.😟

We should all be aware of the problems but not let them spoil our lovely friendly community 🙂👍

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to David_G]

They do it for reasons we cannot understand..thankfully not that often and we soon get them dealt with We are a great community

[Hidden]

Thankyou.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Just keeping the forum family safe...it is such a great community

[Debston Graduate]

Is it worth reporting messages which are not overtly creepy but are still from someone you've never interacted with? I have had a couple of them, along the lines of 'nice to meet you' or 'how are you', both from randoms.

[David_G in reply to Debston]

I’ve had a couple of those myself. I just ignored them

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Debston]

Ignore maybe if just a one off..but if more than one form the same person...then report... they do get checked out...

[ButtercupKid Graduate in reply to Debston]

Probably just someone being friendly. Why not say hello back and see where it goes from there ? It’s possible to be TOO suspicious, and I’ve made some great friends on this forum because they bothered to PM me and say hi. Obviously if they then come back with something unpleasant you can then report them and give our lovely administrators something concrete to work on 😄

[Debston Graduate in reply to ButtercupKid]

I don't want to say hi to someone who has never interacted with me on the forum, why would I? I don't have any problem with a private message from someone I "know" on here. But randoms saying hi is just a bit odd.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Debston]

Caution is best.

[Debston Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

Sad but true.

[ButtercupKid Graduate in reply to Debston]

No, you’re completely right there. Someone appearing completely out of nowhere is a bit weird.

[Oldgirlruns Graduate in reply to Debston]

I had one of these just after I started - nothing obvious but I couldn’t see their details anywhere and the style of writing was a bit odd. I ignored it and haven’t seen/heard from them again. But if it happens again, I’ll be reporting immediately!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Oldgirlruns]

That is what we would like..our last unwelcome friend was on at least 5 more HU forums, targeting women...

[Buddy34 Graduate]

Great advice also I didn't even know you could send a personal private message on here. I never received any on here but I did get them on Strava

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Buddy34]

They can be useful and often forum friends are able, having used them to get together for Park runs or races etc

[Buddy34 Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

How do you do it

[Debston Graduate in reply to Buddy34]

See the speech bubbles at the top? Tap on them and then tap on COMPOSE. I have messaged you! 😂

[Oddity]

Thank you for looking out for us 👍

[backintime Graduate]

Cheers !

[Dexy5 Graduate]

Thank you admins. You reacted very quickly when I received one of these messages. I found out later that my posts were “anyone can read them “ , I now restrict them to “this community only”.

[Debston Graduate in reply to Dexy5]

How do you restrict it, please? I'd like to do that too I think.

[Dexy5 Graduate in reply to Debston]

When you write a post, at the bottom left corner there is a choice of buttons, it default to anyone can read , so you should press the other one.

[Debston Graduate in reply to Dexy5]

Thanks, I have never noticed that before! 😂

[Irish-John Graduate]

And please...be cautious about posting your Strava run maps. Sometimes it is very easy to tell from them where you live, let alone predict where and when you run. It's unfortunate that these things have to be thought of, but as an old Pastor I knew used to say "We live in a Fallen World"...

[Debston Graduate in reply to Irish-John]

That's a good point. Sad that we have to consider all of this.