[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: ADMIN: Possible Change to the Main List Settings

[Iggy McSnurd]

Iggy de-cloaking for a second:

Fortunately, I am one of those people out there who only posts under an
alias.  (I also happen to have a first and last name combination in RL
that, when I did a Google search of my name, it turned up over 900,000
entries... so there's no way you can be sure that you are actually
reading something about me... and you're most likely not since I use
aliases all the time.)

I did a search of my alias from here, and only got 4 entries, all
directing people to filks I have done... which I have no problem in
people knowing about.  *grin*  This also indicates that, currently,
there's no way to Google someone's posts on here, since I didn't find
any of the 1k+ posts I have probably done in the mere 4 months I have
been here.  *chuckle*


That's as the issue relates to me personally.

As it relates to others, I would probably recommend that settings be
kept (whenever possible) so that Google can't look up people's names.
Enough people out there have jobs and such that are sensitive enough in
some ways that they would be better off with random searches pulling up
some of their comments.  (For example:  Let's say Bill is a minister at
a Southern Baptist church.  Personally, he sees nothing wrong with HP,
but his congregation and much of the rest of the church admin does.  If
someone finds out that he is an active member of an HP list, and
supports a lot of the theories, then it could go against him in his
job.)

It may seem innocent to most, but unfortunately there are some people
who could have their lives made a little more difficult if certain
people read some of their posts.

Also, to a certain degree, it's an invasion of privacy in its own way.
While we may have 11k or so members on the group, it is still a private
group where you have to jump through hoops and obey rules to participate
in.  If access to our posts are made public knowledge, they can be
twisted, in some cases, to be used against them or simply
misinterpreted.  (Lord knows what people could get out of my post on
prejudices from a couple of months back...  And if I apply for a secured
government job when I get out of school, some of the opinions voiced
could be twisted to imply that I am a prejudiced bigot... even though my
best friend, aside from my wife, is a gay, black, pagan...)

That, BTW, is one of the reasons I use aliases.


So, while it's easy to join the HPfGU groups, the fact that you *need*
to join helps to protect the members.  (For one thing, there is an
implied condition that you will not join a group for the sole purposes
of dredging up information to use against people.  And if it's in the HB
file, or any of the rules that we are required to read, then it is
accepted as a contract that the member agrees to abide by... whether
they bother to read the files or not... and can be used against them in
court if they try to use anything said here against someone.)


Just my herd of centaurs worth.

Iggy McSnurd
(*pulls his Invisibility Cloak about himself again and vanishes.*)