cprompt wrote
Many organizations also restrict what parts of their website can be edited, if any. They restrict access to their services to those without an account, and they verify accounts. Personally though, I think some protection should be offered against "ego surfing" where information on a person from the list is indexed in Google. This can still be an open and transparent public project with a fully searchable mailing list archive. I think that anyone should be able to search the archive only after clicking an appropriate link on Wikipedia.org.
Here's a practical example. We have all being condemning Lir. That could rebound on Adam (I won't use his full name here so as not to provide another link to his name!) But how many of his 'names' on wiki are also the names of real people. For example, if there is someone called Vera Cruz, they might not be happy to find the following on google:
[WikiEN-l] vera cruz is a troll ... WikiEN-l] vera cruz is a troll; ... |From: Oliver Pereira omp199@ecs.soton.ac.uk |X-ECS-MailScanner: Found to be clean |Sender: wikien-l-admin@wikipedia.org |Reply ...
I have clashed with Fred Bauder, but Fred does not deserve to have the following on google, which comes via a different dispute he was involved in:
[WikiEN-l] [FB] and academic dishonesty [WikiEN-l] [FB] and academic dishonesty. Fred Bauder wikien-l@wikipedia.org Thu, 20 Mar 2003 18:08:18 -0700: Previous message ...
(I have removed Fred's name from the above so as not to create another link to that claim!)
These are just from a couple of quick google searches I did at random.
In view of this, I would suggest:
1. That the list NOT be available to check on google or any search engine. 2. That users be discouraged from using their own name. If they don't have a nickname, initials or an unusual spelling of their name should be used. 3. We should not use a person's in the title of any messages on the list.
JT
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