There are many ways you can keep your account safe.
1.) Never share your password with anybody else. Note that Blurty will not initiate contact to ask for your password or to request you to login due to account inactivity.
2.) Use a password that cannot be easily guessed. A combination of letters and numbers is recommended, and lower & upper case characters may also be used. Try to avoid using the same password that you use on any of your other Internet accounts.
Aside from these, you can also keep your login options for Blurty on "session only" so that you are logged out of your account when you exit your browswer window. This option is ideal if other people share your computer.
Instructions on the different login options or changing your current login option can be found here: http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=95 Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31 To edit your friends list using the web interface, go to http://www.blurty.com/friends/edit.bml
You can remove a listed friend by checking the "Delete?" box and saving your changes.
To add friends and set up foreground and background colors, scroll down a bit lower to "Add Friends". You can also add users to your Friends list through their User Info page by clicking the "Add Friend" button on the toolbar (http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=70).
You have the ability to hide your Friend-of list on your userinfo page by checking the "Hide "Friend of" list" option on the edit info page (http://www.blurty.com/editinfo.bml). This will also hide the "Member of" list which show which communities you belong to, however it will not hide the list of communities you have posting access in. There is also no way to hide who you have listed as a friend other than simply not adding them as a friend.
Custom friends groups, which let you filter posts to only certain friends or view only certain friends at once, are explained here: http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=71
You can also use one of the Blurty clients available at http://www.blurty.com/download/ to manage your Friends list. For more information on using one of the clients, please consult its help file or the journal associated with it. Last Updated:
bertho, 2003-08-30 You can create up to 30 custom friend groups. These are useful in controlling which of your friends can see your journal entries, or which of your friends' journal entries appear on a filtered friends page (http://www.blurty.com/friends/filter.bml).
For details on how to make a post with a custom friend group security setting, please see "Who can read my journal entries? How can I make things public, private, and protected?" at http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72
In addition, the custom "default view" friends group allows you to view only those specific friends and communitites you choose to display on your default friends page (http://www.blurty.com/users/yourusername/friends). To do this, you would create a friend group with the name "default view" and add all the friends and communties you wish to see to the "in" group. By default, all the friends and communities not in that list will not display on your default friends view. Only those you have selected to see will appear.
Another feature is being able to view a specific custom friends group by itself. You can do so if you create a group (for example, "Group1"). As before, add in all the people you'd like in this group to the "in" list. Then visit http://www.blurty.com/users/yourusername/friends/group1 (where "yourusername" is your username, and "group1" is the name you've given the filter). This will display a page with only the friends and communtities you have selected for this particular group. You can also view your groups by checking the appropriate boxes from the "friends filter page" (http://www.blurty.com/friends/filter.bml).
Both of these features will only work for you, and only when you are logged in to your account, unless you specifically mark your group(s) as "public". If they are marked as "private" (the default setting) anyone else who goes to any of your filter pages will see all of your friends, regardless of the groups you have created.
If you create your custom groups from http://www.blurty.com/friends/editgroups.bml but use the option on one of the downloadable clients (http://www.blurty.com/download) to view them, you may need to close your client and open it again before it will list your newly created, custom groups.
Using the web interface:
Go to the "edit friend groups" page (http://www.blurty.com/friends/editgroups.bml). From here, you'll see a link at the bottom of the page saying "If you want to edit your friends groups, go here." Click this, and you'll be on your way.
Using the Visions client for Windows:
(This capability was introduced in version 1.2.6 of the client.)
1.) With your client open, type Ctrl+F or go through the "LiveJournal" menu and select "edit friends".
2.) Go to the "Friend Groups" tab.
3.) Click the icon on the most left that looks like a square box (to the left of the red x).
4.) Type in a name for your custom friend list.
5.) Select which friends you want to "add to group" which will put them in a list in the right window.
6.) When you are done selecting which friends you want in that custom friend list, click the button that says "save groups & lists" This is imporant to remember, or your group will be lost.
7.) Click "OK" when you are done saving.
Security notes: If you want to delete a group and make a new group, do NOT simply rename one group to something else and change the people that are in the group. If you do, all the people in the new group can see all your old entries you made for people in the old group.
If you delete a custom group, any posts made to that group will still have the "custom" security set, but it won't be set to any particular group. The effect of this is that the entry becomes private (but it will still show the lock icon instead of the eye icon).
Additionally, if you recreate the group with the same name, the post will not automatically be set to that group again. If you wish to make the entry non-private, you'll have to go back and edit the entry (see http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2 for more information on editing posts). Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31 You have the choice to restrict who can read your entries. You can make certain entries friends-only, so only your friends can read specific entries. You can create friends filters (http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=71) so that only certain friends on your list can read specific entries. You can even make entries of your choice private, so only you can read them.
The authentication is done with cookies. If you're logged in (http://www.blurty.com/login.bml) and you have access to see a certain post, it will show up with a special graphic to indicate its security level.
To assign a security level to an entry using the web, visit the "full update page" (http://www.blurty.com/update.bml?mode=full).
Below the area where you type your entry, there is a dropdown list which allows you to select the security level you want to assign that entry. You may choose from Public, Private, Friends, and Custom. At this time, there is no way to change the security level of your entire journal with one command, but this is under development.
The security levels operate as follows:
PUBLIC: May be read by anyone, logged in or not.
PRIVATE: May be read only by you. Note that when you are logged in, and view the friends pages of those who have named you a friend, your private entries will show up for you. This will happen if they have added you as a friend and you are logged in to your account, reading their friends page. Only you can see your private entry there, no one else can, but it displays for you because you have access to read that post. This level of security is completely private and is secure as long as you keep your account secure.
FRIENDS: Only people whom you've added to your friends list and are also logged in may view a "friends-only" entry. If someone lists you as a friend, they cannot see your friends-only entries unless you also list them as a friend. As with private entries, you will see all of your entries on the friends pages of people who list you, because you are authorised to, but they cannot see them if you do not also list that person.
CUSTOM: The Custom security feature allows you to post to only certain groups of people on your friends list. These groups are completely customizable, and can be further read about here : (http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=71).
Certain Blurty clients come with the Custom security feature already; below are instructions for accessing some of them:
-> Windows Client:
If you need to download the Visions client software, go to http://www.blurty.com/download/
1.) In the Security Level option, there is a drop-down menu with the options: Public, Private, Friends, and Custom. Select "Custom" in this drop-down menu.
2.) You will then be shown a list of the friend groups that you have created. Check the box next to the friend group you want the post to be visible to.
3.) Click OK. Your post will then be visible only to the friends listed in that group.
The friend group you select will still be available for selection when you make future posts. You can also create multiple custom friend lists.
-> Web Update Client:
The Blurty web update client now supports the custom friends group security when posting entries. However, to be able to use it, you need to make sure that the browser you are using to update with is capable of running javascript. In most browsers you can set this option in either the appropriate security or preferences menus.
In the drop down listing of security levels, on the bottom you should see "Custom". Choosing this option will make a set of checkboxes appear directly below the scroll box, one for each set of friend groups you have defined. When posting with the custom security, you are able to choose between one friend group, all of the currently defined friend groups, or any combination of friend groups in between.
NOTE: Any entries already on your journal must be edited one by one if you wish to change the security level for them. More information on editing can be found here: http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=20 Last Updated:
bertho, 2003-11-12 No. In order for someone to see your "friends-only" entries you must add them to your friends list and they must be logged in.
There is no other way for someone not on your list to see your friends-only entries. If someone adds you to their friends list, for example, that does not enable them to see your friends-only entries.
For a more complete explanation of this security feature, see also: http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72 Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31 If you post an entry as friends-only and your friend then lists that post as a public memory, anyone who looks at your friend's memory list will see that there is a memory and the description given to that memory. However, if they are not someone who you had given access to the post itself then they will see "Error - You are not authorized to view this protected entry." when they click on that memory.
In other words, your posts always retain the security level that you set for them, no matter who sets what security level for it as a memory. Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31 Blurty doesn't yet provide any means to change all of your past journal entries from public to friends-only or private with one command.
To achieve this, you must edit each post (see: http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=20), changing the security Level on each individual entry. Details about the various security settings can be found at http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72
Editing your journal can be done from either the web client (http://www.blurty.com/editjournal.bml) or by using any downloadable client. If you have not yet downloaded the client you may do so at http://www.blurty.com/download/
Blurty does provide the means to set a minimum security level on all posts you may make in the future. Setting this option might prevent you from slipping up and posting a public entry that you meant to post friends-only.
To set the minimum security level of your journal to friends-only, go to (http://www.blurty.com/admin/console) and type in:
set newpost_minsecurity friends
You can also set the minimum security to private by entering:
set newpost_minsecurity private
You can turn off the minimum security level by entering:
set newpost_minsecurity public
If you maintain a community, you can set the minimum security level to friends-only by entering in:
set for communityname newpost_minsecurity friends Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31 There is no way to ban a specific person from viewing your public journal entries. To restrict who can see an entry, you must alter its security level as described at http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72 . If you leave an entry public so that it's visible to people who aren't on your friends list, anyone can read it.
Banning someone from reading your journal when they're logged in under a certain username would be pointless: they could still read your public posts by simply logging out. Even if you could also restrict access to logged-in users (not a currently available security setting but one that has been suggested), the person you want to ban could easily make another account and continue to view your public posts.
If you could ban someone by their IP address, you would end up banning other people too, and the person you wanted to ban could still view your journal from a computer that connects to the internet differently.
Since any attempt to block someone from reading public posts could be circumvented, Blurty does not offer such an option. If someone can find your journal, the only way to stop them from reading your posts is to make the posts non-public.
You can, however, ban an individual user from commenting in your journal, as explained at http://www.blurty.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=34 . If the user creates new accounts to get around that ban, you will be aware of it, and you might be able to take further steps to prevent any abuse. Last Updated:
greentea, 2002-10-31
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