Be careful what you say online....

[Eric Larsen]

I couldn't find the "How many of you are using an alias?" thread.

This news story may be of interest. (Executive summary, someone posted that he was going on vacation and his house was burglarized.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31174026/ns/travel-tips/

[Chris Padilla]

That thread was pulled, Eric.

Yep, one does need to be careful what one says online and how much info is divulged. Just spend some time googling yourself or maybe an alias you use and see if you can figure out who you are. It can be scary at times....

[Jim O'Dell]

Google my kennel name and you can find out where I live! Yes, it is scary. Good thing the sat view of my house only shows trees...they'd try to break into the neighbors house. ;) Jim.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I couldn't find the "How many of you are using an alias?" thread.

I couldn't either. Was it deleted?

[Keith Outten]

The thread in question was removed because it got out of line, for what it's worth this was my post in the thread.

No doubt this is the most active subject we have ever had here at The Creek, not so much in our public forums but behind the scenes via Private Messages and email.

The bottom line is that the requirement to use your real first and last names was not a business decision or something I dreamed up when we started SawMill Creek. Registering with your real name was a decision that this Community made, this is what the majority wanted so I adopted the rule in our Terms of Service.

The fact is that almost every aspect of our Terms of Service are based on rules from Badger Pond with a few changes that the people who joined SawMill Creek decided they preferred. You are basically debating with yourselves whenever you discuss the rules here.

I have said it a thousand times........"The rules at SawMill Creek are based on what is good for the majority". Rule number one - When you each joined SawMill Creek you agreed to our Terms of Service, there isn't much to debate concerning rule number one.

It was never our intention to attempt to serve every woodworker. We knew that some would disagree with our Forum regulations and many have decided not to join us because this Community isn't their cup of tea. Many have joined and tried to change or have certainly challenged the rules here. The fact is that our rules haven't changed much since the first month we went online. Our Staff has been discussing a major revision of our Terms of Service for over a year now, this is one of the most difficult things to accomplish we have ever attempted. All of our Moderators have worked hard and invested a lot of their time creating a new TOS, that shamefully, has been on my work list for a very long time. Some of the changes involve areas of the TOS that establish our legal position, these areas are almost impossible to adjust at this point in time. Often a small change in one area will affect other areas, it can be very complex and time consuming to prepare the final document, incorporate all the proposed changes and to make sure we don't make a mistake that might jeopardize the existence of this Community.

Many advise not to mess with success. The fact is that SawMill Creek is the largest and most active woodworking Community that exists today. The primary reason for our success is that we adopted the basic rules for this Community from Badger Pond. Any "Ponder" still around will tell you that Badger Pond was a very successful Community, it wasn't just a Woodworking Forum. When The Pond went offline SawMill Creek was born and the plank owners here were very clear that what they wanted was for the Community that had been established at Badger Pond to continue on.

They key word in this message is "Community". This is why the majority of you are here and this is why we have grown beyond anyone's expectations. What we have here is the largest group of woodworking friends in the world. In order to have a friend you must be able to be a friend and there are costs associated with friendship starting with honor, trust and possibly a little risk. This Community asked you to use your real name when you joined us and every one of you agreed.

You are all welcome to continue to debate this issue as long as you like, it is clearly your rule, not mine, and it is yours to uphold or change. Should you decide to allow people to register here using a false identity you must be willing to accept the negative side of your decision. I believe that allowing people to register using an alias will destroy this Community. If you prefer to go this route your will need several thousand Members to agree with you, enough to establish a majority of this Community.

[Keith Outten]

Concerning being careful what you say online I would suggest that you should always careful what you say no matter where you are or who you are talking to unless you are using an alias because you don't exist anyway.