Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 17:08:29 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Candy Madigan <candymadigan at mindspring.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: On Google and WSFA policy
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

My vote for what it's worth:

>If I'm understanding this correctly, the question has three aspects:
>
>1. Should WSFAlist email messages be officially archived and available on
>the web, and if so how public?

Absolutely not.  These are conversations.  I don't mind you guys listening
to my 'private' conversations, because you are part of that 'private'
group, but I don't want the rest of the world essentially eves dropping on me.

>2. Should old WSFA Journals be available on the WSFA website, and if so
>how public?

Sure.  They are publications.  Anything that is published is fair game.

>3. What other information should be publicly available on the WSFA
>website.

Obviously, things like where and when meetings will be and cons and such.

>As for email messages, I think it is useful for list members to be able
>to consult an archive of recent messages, if only because people
>sometimes delete messages they really intended to read, or have deleted
>messages which they later decide to re-read, or simply want to have
>access to recent messages on the web without getting 40 messages per day
>in their inbox.
>
>However, the value of archived messages (to most users) trails off as the
>messages get older, so I would suggest archiving messages from the
>current calendar month, and the previous calendar month, automatically
>dropping anything older.  One advantage of such a policy is that message
>writers need not worry that things they may have regretted saying will
>sit on the web page for years to come.  A complete archive could continue
>to be maintained off line.  Many years from now, the archive could be of
>historical interest, and release of data from the archive would
>presumably be at the discretion of the WSFA trustees.  It might also be a
>good idea to give list members the option of having specific messages
>they authored deleted from the archive, including quoted copies of what
>they wrote, upon request.  Presumably such requests would be rare.

If this is going to become a matter of public record, I'll want to be taken
off the mailing list.

>As for old WSFA Journals being on-line, editing out street addresses and
>email addresses is probably sufficient to assuage most privacy concerns.
>There should probably be an additional provision that members have the
>option to specifically request deletion of their own personal information
>from the online copies.  If there are any who find it generally
>objectionable for very old data in WSFA Journals be publicly accessible,
>then there could be only, say, two or three years worth of Journals
>available on the public portion of the website, and keep the older ones
>under a 'secret' URL which would be made known to members.
>
>As for other information on the WSFA website, people should be aware that
>any names, unusual words, or phrases contained within the public portions
>of the WSFA may be findable using a Google search, therefore it may be a
>good idea to give WSFA members the option of having mention of their name
>globally deleted from the website (or replaced with initials), if that is
>a concern.
>
>Ron Kean

Candy