Cutting and Pasting Etiquette

[BobD]

I've said it before, but the net is a weird place. Knowledge is power, and we literally have enormous power in our hands.

We can cut, paste, copy, link, e-mail, PM, manipulate, and send that information and knowledge ANYWHERE with just a few key strokes. And if we can do it, anyone can do it. That is the risk we take when we post anything in an open forum.

But among friends, like I hope we all are here on the board, I think we should establish a few guidelines. There are things I would say among friends that I wouldn't say in the general public, and the friendly nature of this board, tucked away in our corner of the net, makes us sometimes feel more like we are in someone's living room than in an open place where Google bots are searching our every word.

We all know about the bots and spiders checking out every thread, and we are at least aware of the lurkers, but we don't always think about them.


So I propose this: Let's not cut and paste a thread directly into an e-mail to send to someone else. Send a direct link to the thread instead. No one needs to log in or register to read threads, so anyone can read it. That protects everyone.

It just makes sense to send people to the source; then there is no question of whether or not someone said or didn't say XX; the only one who can change a post you made is you or a moderator, and the forum logs any such edits. Then there are no questions. It changes hearsay to proof.

Bob Duncan
Technical Editor

[workin for wood]

Oh..question to Bob. Of course " I " know what a lurker is...but these other people might not be aware, so you might what to explain what that is all about ...for the others of course.

and it wasn't " I ", that glued my own self to a picture with a tube of CA...it was some other guy.

[BobD]

Lurkers, as Jeff pointed out, are people who read but don't post. Some of them register and log in, but others just stay "guests."

They are members of the forum that they benefit from all of the questions and responses we provide.

Bob

[Mackem]

I certainly don't regard Bob's thread as a joke, and i did'nt realise i must reply to it. If this is the case Bob i apologise profusely, i in no way meant to be disrespectful.
Now to other business, i did not join this group to be told what i can and can't do by other member's (apart from the moderator's and the staff.)
I am very sure that other member's did the same as me, read the thread and understood it but did'nt see anywhere that a reply was compulsory.Just because a person does'nt reply does'nt mean they have no dignity and i for one take great exception to this statement. Every person on this forum has different circumstances to each other and may have reasons not to reply to threads, take myself for instance, along with terrible pain i have to bear 24/7 i also suffer from severe depression, which this past 2 weeks has been extremely severe.I still reply to posts when i'm like this but only with great effort.
Just because you have become unhappy about something or some-one on this forum please don't tar the rest of us with the same brush.
Yours Kevin.

[BobD]

OK.
I've remove all of the posts that didn't pertain to my original. It's a slippery slope and people insist on adding teflon to it.

I'm not censoring anyone; the parties involved in the original situation know who they are, and can deal with it in private if they so choose. I posted this because I wanted to prevent something like this from happening again. My message seems to have gotten through on that. Lets just let this go as a group.

Bob Duncan
Technical Editor