[WikiEN-l] A request from H. Jonat

[Stan Shebs]

james duffy wrote:

> [...]  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.

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