[GSBN] private vs public archives (was: Calibration of Balemaster probe)

[Bill Christensen]

At 3:41 PM -0500 11/8/09, strawnet at aol.com wrote:
>
>
>This makes me wonder if there might be a way to automate a kind of 
>differentiation of posts - some of which would not automatically be 
>archived in the public sphere - perhaps using a key word in the 
>subject line of posts that contain info not intended for wider 
>distribution. I don't know how feasible that might be, but I would 
>hope we might find a way to preserve both the openness of the flow 
>of information and exchange and also preserve something of a more 
>private/tighter community sharing when that is appropriate. On the 
>other hand, I don't want to see more burden placed on Bill C for 
>additional work.
>
>Either way, I just want to say how much I have appreciated and 
>continue to value the existence of this list, the archives, and 
>especially the members and their contributions. Kudos to Bill for 
>all his work to keep this list functioning and for making the wealth 
>of information that has been generated and shared here available to 
>so many people.
>
>Warmest regards to you all,
>
>David
>

I can't think of an easy way to implement a separation of private vs 
public archives.  Even if we were to figure out how to define some 
subject line tag that magically put certain posts in a protected 
area, my guess is that most on the list would soon forget it or 
forget to use it.  It's not like there's a whole lot of discussion 
here that really needs to be kept private, and when there is it's 
probably best just to use direct email to discuss it with the 
relevant members offlist, and to discuss it on the list with the 
private parts left out.

Regarding the instant searchability, it's not necessarily that 
instant.  Google indexes sites at varying frequencies.  GSBN doesn't 
get indexed all *that* often, despite how important any of us think 
our work is.  In fact, I just did a completely non-scientific study 
by searching for various phrases from posts to see how far back I'd 
need to go before coming up with a match.  August 19th matched; 
September 9th didn't.  (there was one other post in that span of time 
which I didn't test, on Aug 21st.)

So we probably have an average buffer of at least a month before 
anything posted on GSBN shows up in Google.

Of course anyone who knows of the GSBN archives can pull them up as 
soon as the post goes through, and as Derek pointed out that would be 
before any of us received them in our own mailboxes.  I doubt there 
are forces of straw-evil out lurking out there watching our every 
move, so it doesn't seem like we'd really need to worry about it much.

I think we're all pretty aware of the need to be discreet about 
certain aspects of our discussions - we don't give out owners' names 
when discussing catastrophic failures which may involve insurance 
companies, for instance.

As for me, I'm just happy to keep y'all connected.

Bill "fly on the wall" Christensen

-- 
Bill Christensen
billc at greenbuilder.com

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