Important issues for WWW forums
I build and maintain a large WWW site on legal issues. I also run some long-standing Internet discussion groups for law professors. These are tips I pass on to new faculty getting into the online world. They may be useful for those of you from the analog world who are starting to venture online:
1) Things that are posted on the WWW are immortal - once they get into the bowels of the search engines and the WWW archiving sites, they will keep popping up long after the original page is gone.
2) Anything with your name on it can potentially be read by anyone - all they have to do is google or otherwise search on your name for any purpose. For faculty, this usually means that someone checking out your publications or courses also sees your blog - even after you have wised up and shut it down. For this group, it means anyone looking to find your gallery will also be treated to all of your online comments.
3) Do not post anything you would be uncomfortable seeing on the front page of the NY Times.
Important issues for WWW forums
Thanks for that, Ed. Next week will you be showing us all how to tie our shoelaces?
Important issues for WWW forums
I think it would be hilarious if one of our flame wars was in the front page of the NYT........
Important issues for WWW forums
How can someone see a website if it has been removed from the server?
Important issues for WWW forums
Jeffrey: Here is a partial answer. www.googleguide.com/cached_pages.html
There are other stored resources, some specialized.
Important issues for WWW forums
> Next week will you be showing us all how to tie our shoelaces?
I always prefered the overhand knot...:-)
I know this seems like tying shoes for folks who live on the net', but for folks who do not, it is often surprising/disconcerting to discover that your kid googled you and found out about your "secret" life, or that your boss/spouse/date or people you have never heard of know what you have been posting on the WWW, and that this stuff does not go away. It is one thing to say, "Privacy?, Get over it", and another to internalize what that means in your own life.
Important issues for WWW forums
the Internet Archive for one
www.archive.org - not perfect, but I've often found old info that's been dumped from a new version of a website
+ if you do google searches you can go to the cached link rather than the actual one, if the latter is dead , and it's usually still in google's giant multi mega cache
those are just two of many many palces where all this endless info is cached and stored
Important issues for WWW forums
You can prevent any website that you control from being "crawled" by the Internet Archive, Google and the like and from gaining web-immortality by loading the appropriate code on your server. That way it will vanish entirely once you take it down, unless someone with an ax to grind took it upon himself to seek out your site and save the content privately while it was up. Of course, blocking the search engine crawlers also makes the site harder for people to find while it's still up.
But in general, Ed's advice is right on. Just always remember that places like this are truly public forums.
Important issues for WWW forums
There was a guy that years back I had a heated email exchange with about a stupid review he did of one of my books. My responces were a bit arrogant, which I regreted, but I never expected them to be posted on the web. He posted our interchange for years on his website and had it pushed so if you Googled my name it always showed up second. Ironically it was good advertising for my book and led to many sales. He left it up for like 6 years until I finally told him that he was helping me sell books. He immediately took it down.
Important issues for WWW forums
Ironically it was good advertising for my book and led to many sales. He left it up for like 6 years until I finally told him that he was helping me sell books.
Life is wonderful... :-)