FAQ - 1.7 Log In/Log Out

[3yardsandacloud]

1.7 Log In/Log Out

When you become a member at BuckeyePlanet you will choose a User Name and a Password. These two items are needed to ‘Log In’ to the BuckeyePlanet community. You may ‘Log In’ at the upper right corner of almost every page on BuckeyePlanet. It doesn’t necessarily need to be the ‘home page’ or the ‘forum lobby’. When you ‘Log In’, a ‘cookie’ (possibly several ‘cookies’) will be placed on your computer. This small piece of computer code identifies you to the BuckeyePlanet software. That in turn, lets the software determine or recall many of your customized settings and priviledges. When you ‘Log Out’ of BuckeyePlanet, all ‘cookies’ specific to BuckeyePlanet are deleted from your computer. If you simply close BuckeyePlanet (without ‘Logging Out’), the ‘cookies’ are left on your computer and you will not need to ‘Log In’ upon your return. This is a nice convenience, but beware, it also presents a security issue. If you do NOT ‘Log Out’, anyone with access to your computer can simply return to BuckeyePlanet and they will automatically be ‘Logged In’. This will give them access to your account and could lead to embarrassing incidents for you ... or worse.

There are several reasons that you will want to ‘Log In’ to BuckeyePlanet. The most obvious reason is that you can NOT post until you are ‘Logged In’. You may ‘lurk’ and read the threads and posts, but all the forums are ‘locked’ and you will not be able to interact with the community at BuckeyePlanet. The next reason is that some of the features at BuckeyePlanet are disabled for users that are not ‘Logged In’. At least one of the forums is not accessible and additional features like Quick Links, Search, Private Messages, User CP, etc. will not be available.

The reason to ‘Log Out’ has been covered in the first paragraph ... security.