Edward Senft wrote:
Under this logic, Angela's IP address is public knowledge and I did nothing wrong. I only used her IP address to figure out that information.
We have all made an implicit agreement not to bring up aspects of others' personal lives here on the mailing list or on the Wikipedia website. Perhaps now is a good time to make this agreement explicit.
I happen to work for, well, a certain company which I would rather not name. I scrupulously avoid bringing it up (even though you could easily guess it from my e-mail headers). To avoid any conflict of interest, I almost /never/ write anything relating to my company's services or products -- and if I do, and someone reverts it, I always leave it alone. I will /never/ get into an edit war or similar dispute about my company -- otherwise they'd probably fire me.
Please, don't reply by saying that the Blah Blah Company would never do that, or anything that mentions my company's name. I'd really like to leave my employer's business out of it completely.
Similarly, as contributors or sysopso or developers we might find out something "personal" about another contributor. At best, it's poor taste to bring it up -- unless they themselves clearly invite discussion.
For example, I am a member of the Unification Church and don't mind people talking about my membership in it. Erik (Eloquence) even calls my church a "cult" and I don't mind. Note that it's only because I said I don't mind that he has the "right" to mention my church affiliation.
The same goes for openly gay contributors, Republicans, gun nuts, pro- and anti-abortion folks, etc. The line between discussing personal information and 'making personal remarks' is a thin one, so we ought to be careful.
Ed Poor Wikien-l Admin