A lesson for consideration

[SGB]

Plan-Link is a New Hampshire planning listserve (mailing list) that I lurk on.

Those of us who either are not anonymous or are gradually losing our anonymity on the Cyburbia Forums should give this some thought.

[Name remove] wrote:

While I am aware that Plan-Link is a public forum, I never considered just how public it is until last night.

At a Zoning Board hearing last night, where an applicant was appealing my decision on a zoning matter (I am the Zoning Administrator), an attorney for the applicant read comments that I had made on Plan-Link as part of his testimony to present the applicant's case. He said he had gotten them off of the Listserve.

So, I caution all of you to be aware of what you say, and how you say it, on this e-mail forum.

 

[Rem]

That must have been uncomfortable for [Name Removed].

I'm a long way from the US but still get nervous from time to time about how easy it would be for others to put two and two together, identify me and use something I've said here, potentially out of context, to try and damage me.

 

[Chet]

Yes I fear that all the time, but still offer identifying work related information to help those, like SGB's exotic animal request.

Many of us have changed user names in order to blur the lines a bit, but we're still very identifyable (right Indigo?)

 

[tsc]

...one reason I changed my user name to be a little less obvious....but I realize my identity would be easy to figure out if someone really wanted too

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Ummm... I guess I could always blame it on the other two Zoning Goddesses (sorry, Trail Nazi).