Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Online bits are forever

Author:Gerald Oskoboiny
Posted:9/13/2000; 9:45:40 AM
Topic:Discuss by email?
Msg #:21299 (In response to 21260)
Prev/Next:21298 / 21300

I have nothing against systems that allow you to edit/annotate stuff you posted before (preferably with pointers to previous versions; even better if diffs are clearly marked), but you should realize that one you post something in a public forum, you should expect it to be available somewhere online forever.

Maybe you can convince Aaron to shut down his mailer, but how do you know there aren't 10 others exactly like it that you don't know about, broadcasting your (our) comments to intranets or converting it to private email or NNTP feeds for convenience? You might be surprised where your content will show up in the future.

The Internet Archive attempts to archive all publicly-accessible sites; I personally archive any web pages I visit, etc.

Sorry this post is kind of disorganized; I keep meaning to write up this issue in detail, but never get around to it.

another random observation: I can read email or an NNTP feed about 20 times more productively than a web board, probably more if you include advanced killfile/scoring features.

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