Many individuals are rethinking how they maintain a presence on the internet while still maintaining personal privacy.  One of the best features of Garden-Share is that you do not have to share your last name if you do not want to. So we encourage members to protect their privacy and preclude search engines from finding your profile by only using your first name or abbreviating you last name. This way there is no record associated with you out there on the Internet.  

It is really easy to do.  Go to Settings and then Profile. 

Many members share what Zone they are in as well as Location where they live. This makes it really nice to connect with other members with similar interests.

Some of the first social networks like Facebook require your full name. I think this will eventually become a problem for them.  You have to keep in mind that everything you do on Facebook becomes part of a digital record that users have little control over.  Garden-Share is much different, because you can remain anonymous but not sharing your full name.  I am not sure if our members know about this feature and wanted to share it with them.  Some members want to be in search engines and some do not. It is about preference and we have a solution.

John M.

Garden-Share Admin