On Wed, 15 Nov 1995 22:23:50 -0600 Ingrid H. Shafer said:
>subscribers of whom about twenty participate in the ongoing dialogue.
>The others either lurk or slip in and out of nomail status. Since
 
  Once they slip in to the dialogue, they are public.  Even ONE post
makes you public.  Sure, we all have some who NEVER post.  Nothing wrong
with that.  Most of us don't write letters to the editor, either.  o-)
 
>our notebooks are public the e-mail addresses of active participants
>are public knowledge.  Since Review is set private subscribers have a
>right to expect that only fellow listmembers know their identity.
 
  Well, except for a FEW topics I can't imagine why anyone would care if
someone knew I was a member of a list.  I'm on a couple dozen lists relating
to libraries and computers.  And being a member of GAY-LIBN doesn't make
me gay, does it?  And if someone wants to think I'm gay, fine.  I don't care.
But other than a few lists like bisexu-l or gay-libn or some others,
I just can't imagine it being an issue.  Well, I can IMAGINE it, because
I see people conceal themselves on POSTCARD (for postcard collectors) or on
ARIE-L (for those using a particular internet related software package).  And
those concealing on ARIE-L aren't competitors, but users.  o-)  Gee, maybe
they don't want their boss to know they are keeping up with their specialty....
 
>For an individual to subscribe in order to circumvent the private
>review obstacle and then to publish the names of people who may never
>have sent a single public post is clearly unethical and should be
>illegal.
 
   Well, I don't think you'll find a law that makes it illegal, though of
course any sort of law could be written....until you think of enforcing it
in international cyberspace.  As to unethical, I'm just missing what is
unethical about taking information that is "posted on the wall".  Seems
like a Playboy Playmate complaining that a few zillion people know what
she looks like naked....
 
cyclops
 
  Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
  Albertsons Library, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho 83725 USA
  [log in to unmask]             http://cyclops.idbsu.edu/
  How can one fool make another wise?  Kansas, "No One Together," 1979