TOPIC:

What's with the people hiding or blacking out the license plate numbers when they post pics of the bikes online?

You ride down the road and you have hundreds of people that see your plates, and you have a bunch of cops with license plate scanners taking pictures of them, but they are so secret you have to hide them in pics?

Darn, I thought you were going to rant about dinnerware.

Only thing I can figure is world wide Web offers a wide variety of goofball's to be able to find wear you park your bike.
but there sure are a lot of goofball's that see you on the stree as well..
as far as dinner wear,I hide the paper plates when I'm on a date

I would guess the practice comes from two things.
1) I saw that someone else blacked out or blurred there plate number, so I guess I should as well.
2) The inter-webs are full of scammers who might just try to sell your bike on craigslist if they have a good picture. Your profile says what city you live in. If they can get your name they can google your address. Maybe from the plate alone they can determine your name and address. I doubt it, but who knows. Next thing you know there is a craigslist add selling your bike in your name giving your address saying you were deployed to Nigeria to fight Ebola so just send money to cover the ridiculousness low price to Nigeria and go pick up the bike from my wife. People fall for that crap all the time.

dkoz wrote: Only thing I can figure is world wide Web offers a wide variety of goofball's to be able to find wear you park your bike.
but there sure are a lot of goofball's that see you on the stree as well..
as far as dinner wear,I hide the paper plates when I'm on a date

The only way I hide the paper plates is if someone else is doing the dishes

Now I have to admit that when I cook myself a ribeye maybe once a week or so, I do use the real deal (Melmac, or something like that), cause I like my steaks juicy, and paper plates don't do well

jakedude wrote: I would guess the practice comes from two things.
1) I saw that someone else blacked out or blurred there plate number, so I guess I should as well.
2) The inter-webs are full of scammers who might just try to sell your bike on craigslist if they have a good picture. Your profile says what city you live in. If they can get your name they can google your address. Maybe from the plate alone they can determine your name and address. I doubt it, but who knows. Next thing you know there is a craigslist add selling your bike in your name giving your address saying you were deployed to Nigeria to fight Ebola so just send money to cover the ridiculousness low price to Nigeria and go pick up the bike from my wife. People fall for that crap all the time.

You're thinking to small, think eBay and Craigslist. People put an ad on Craigslist and cover their plate (thumb seems common), while listing the city they live in, and their freaking phone number. If I see a bike ad in Craigslist with no City name, then I assume it's a scam and flag it (Yes sir, I will gladly send you $1000 for your 2009 R1).
And even the lowest and dumbest of low lifes can find you with your phone number. Maybe call up and ask your location so I can view the bike?

The only rational reason for hiding your plates is if the vehicle was used in the commission of a crime and the cops are looking for it. Or some other nefarious purpose.

The privacy advocacy groups will have their own set of reasons. You never know, these days, who will come knocking on your door...