eyes LJ worriedly...

[ratcreature]

I've always found the LJ notes feature really useful. Like for example if someone changes usernames I can add a note with the old one. And of course you can make a note if you have less than pleasant run-ins with someone and many other things.

Only just now I'm seeing one of those note stars behind a name for whom I have not added any notes, and yet when I hover I see a note. I don't see the star behind the name in all places as I would if I had added the note, but I do see it in one community post where the user name is linked. I had met the fan online before (the post I noticed it in was notice in kirkspock that easilymused1956 died and the note is behind that name, maybe you see the note star too?), so I double checked, but I really do not have any such note visible on my note management page (also it doesn't make much sense to me). So now I wonder what happened there that made the note, that I assume someone has for this person, visible to me, when it is not mine.

Also I worry whether something could make my own notes visible, or whether I could do something inadvertently that shares my notes. Do you know what happened there?

ETA: It seems to have been due to something the poster did when inserting the name rather than the worst case scenario of LJ randomly displaying notes, and the poster has fixed it now, but I'll certainly make sure to take extra care how I'll insert LJ username codes in the future.

Comments

[zing_och]

I never used the notes feature (probably couldn't with OpenID), and I can see the little star and the mouseover text, too. So ... um, worrying. If you want me to, I can check if I can see your notes, too?

ETA: I can see it when logged out of LJ, too.

[ratcreature]

I don't know what posting circumstances trigger this or how to test. For example in the LJ of the poster (assuming it might be their note) when they link the deceased fan I do not see that note.

Most of my notes are mostly harmless, old pseuds that fans themselves don't even mind connecting, but a few do connect pseuds where fans publicly broke that connections, and a few I added due to some kerfuffles, and they are not meant for anyone but to remind me where I ran into them... *is paranoid now*

[zing_och]

Since the FAQ says that only the poster should ever be able to see notes, I can't imagine how it'd happen from the poster's end, either.

[ratcreature]

Yeah. I'm not sure, but my speculation as alternative to a horrible LJ security glitch is that it might be something like that the poster didn't use the html editor where you handcode the username but something else, and then copied the user name code as it appeared on their screen to the input field of some wysiwyg editor, which included all html as it displayed to them, including their note. Only hardcoded without the poster realizing the difference and that now the comment isn't dynamic because they didn't use the short cut but the actual html code. Or something like that.

I guess I should point out that the note is visible and ask how they posted, but it just feels so awkward to me to talk about LJ and or posting glitches in a death announcement.

[gnatkip]

I think this explanation is likely. When I looked at that post with ?nohtml=1, the ljuser code is different from the ljuser code in the following post in the same community. I really feel for the poster. :(

[ratcreature]

Huh, I didn't know of this html option. And yeah, accidentally making your notes public...*gulp* And it's not like it looks any different to yourself.

Maybe I should comment to make the poster aware of this, it just feels so awkward to comment with this unrelated thing in a death notice... OTOH, the public note is awkward too. Social interaction: always difficult. :(

[gnatkip]

Yes, horror. There's no good way to go about it. :( Maybe a PM rather than a public comment?

[ratcreature]

Yes, that's an idea. I just PM'ed the poster about this.

[ratcreature]

I submitted a support request to LJ, saying that I see a note that's not mine, and asking what could have caused this.

Popping in from /network

[jackandahat]

Yeah - considering I can see notes on someone's mental health (I know they've passed away, but still) I'd be pretty worried.

Do you mind if I link a few people to this post? I think it's important information and this is the first place I've seen it.

Re: Popping in from /network

[ratcreature]

I don't mind linking though I'm not even sure it is really LJ doing this. For all I know the poster did some unfortunate code c&p and didn't realize that the code they copied contained their note, because to them it looks the same. I mean, I cannot see the note visible in the posters LJ, for example. I filed a support request with LJ. Maybe I should ask the poster about the note being visible in that post and about how they posted the username, but it just feels so inappropriate and awkward to start a "is this an LJ glitch or did you made an error posting?" discussion in a death announcement...

Re: Popping in from /network

[jackandahat]

Ahh - I wasn't aware of how LJ notes work, I think I was gone by that point. I'll hold off and see then. Thank you.

Re: Popping in from /network

[ratcreature]

It seems to have been something the poster did. I PM'ed them and now it is fixed. But I'll sure be careful how I'll include usernames myself in posts in the future to not run into this kind of problem where you end up hardcoding your personal notes for all to see though an incautious code copy or the like. Yikes.

[rydra_wong]

Um, wow. Yeah, I see the note too.

[ratcreature]

I really hope this is some unfortunate code c&p accident on the poster's part that they didn't realize because to them it looks the same, though I don't know how you'd include user names in a post to have this happen (and would like to know to avoid this myself). But that would be far better than this being some sortof LJ glitch that made notes visible under some circumstance.

[liviapenn]

I don't use Notes, but just to test to see if it's something about this comm, I added a note to the person whose lj name is linked in this post. Can you see what it is?

[ratcreature]

No. There's no notes visible there.

I think maybe the original poster did something to accidentally hardcode their note in the html. That would be better than this being some LJ glitch.

[lilacsigil]

I can see the one you linked, but not the one liviapenn linked, or any others.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I think maybe the poster did something unfortunate in how they included the user name code, so that it also posted their note. Maybe they copied some html. But I'd still wonder what makes that kind of thing happen, and whether it's something I could do accidentally.

[liviapenn]

I bet they made an announcement post to their own journal, then copy/pasted the announcement to various comms. So yeah, it could happen if you made a post with someone's name in it and then copy/pasted the code somewhere else.

I'm not sure what LJ could do to stop this from happening, so it's definitely something to be aware of if you're someone who uses Notes a lot, I guess.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

I just checked and I do not see a note there.

[ratcreature]

Odd. I still do, and so do several people who commented on the DW version of this post.

I do not necessarily think that it is an LJ problem, the poster could have somehow c&p'ed the user name display code from somewhere so that it ended up hardcoding their note or something, but I definitely see a star behind and a note.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

Ah, I checked again (after reading the comments in your DW post) and yes, I do see the note in the body of the linked entry. I first thought you meant a note directly next to the name of the person who commented to this entry. Sorry for the confusion.

And yeah, it does look like as if it's an unfortunate c&p accident.

[ratcreature]

I sure hope so. A glitch making notes visible sometimes would be really bad. This just brought home that maybe I should have stuck with the note textfile I used to keep track of stuff before LJ introduced these notes. That has the advantage to work regardless off platform too. But the right click "add note" is so convenient... :/

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

I've never used the note feature. I thought about it a few times, but I'm always so lazy!