james duffy wrote:
[...] I would suggest:
- 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.
20 years ago, the RAND corporation put out a tech report discussing the then-newfangled email, and one of their recommendations was "don't put anything in email that you don't want to see on the front page of the New York Times the next day".
It's still good advice today. I came to appreciate its value when some of my Usenet flaming came up in a job interview a year later. It didn't cost me the job, but it was a reminder that what we do here is as much a part of the public record as a printed article or book. Perhaps someday a Wikipedia talk page will figure in a political scandal! "I truly believe a [[Strom Thurmond]] presidency in [[1948]] would have averted the [[civil rights]] disturbances of the following decade." :-)
Stan