I recently found that a post to the list was available to the general public on otherhealth.com - I was very uncomfortable - but worse - it affected a client. I had recently posted a question to the list about a situation where the health, comfort and well being of a child (and parents) were of first consideration. I was seeking advice from the collective experience of homeopaths on this group. Some responses were silly, some did not bother to read the post and replied anyway - but some gave me excellent insight, ideas and the benefit of their experience - for which I am very greatful. It was brought to my attention that is was publically posted on otherhealth.com. I did not subscribe to that 'group'. I was under the apparently mistaken belief that this was a privately registered list and there was some moderate degree of freedom to discuss and ask for insights, experience, and help on professional issues.

When did this list go public?

I saw a searchable message on the BB from you Donna Rona dated Aug 2004 in re use of homeopathy in chickens, a link to article elsewhere--so I guess public nature goes back at least till then.

This seems to be confusing in general. There seem to be people who only access via an email list, others only via BB, others both. Nothing in the rules I saw say not to comment on this section if one signed up via BB.

And when first signing on via webmail the new topics list does not differentiate where the new topic is--might be in the List group, or in any other section, so if I click there and read and then respond I guess it may go to you on the email list as well as showing up on the BB. But I think that the moderator does not send what in his her discretion is too much mindless junk, thus sparing you on email some of our silly BB chatter.

I am sorry if I have read things you wrote thinking they were private, but had no idea that people thought they were writing in private.

I have found reading some of these threads both on specific conditions like the one about the child you refer to above, and more general ones such as David Little on the 4 Cardinal Principles *extremely* informative and am very glad that they are available here on the BB and web.

You brought up some good points. While this list is not for professionals only, it did assume some degree of privacy. Now each post appears immediately on the homepage of otherhealth.com as a New entry where anyone can view it.

As for going public, looks like at least October 2004 since upon doing a Google search of your name, your personal posts from the email lists appear as Google results listed as messages from the otherhealth.com bulletin board.

Maybe Jon will reconsider the repositioning of this list as the quality of the posts diminish due to privacy concerns if not other issues.

Susan

Assume nothing.

I'm afraid the words "privacy" and "public mail list" do not go together. Practically nothing on the internet is in fact really "private" - if you want privacy, you must encode one-to-one email.

Do not discuss anything in public you don't want the public to know.

Hi Jon

I have just read that the list is open on a public noticeboard. I had no idea of this and am very unhappy with the idea that anyone who has not subscribed directly can read our posts.

Has this always been the case? If we have a choice, I really would prefer that only list members can read and contribute to discussions.

Thanks

Caroline

To post to the List you must be subscribed to the List or registered with the BB.

As for the 'public' nature of posts - the List has from its inception in 1994 been a public list that anyone may join. The List archives were available originally via FTP - to anyone - and more recently on the Web via the List home page. Linking the List to the BB Forum adds no greater publicity - it is just that a search will throw up the BB copy first as it is Web based.

I have always resisted the (very) occasional suggestion that the List be in any way restricted - it would defeat its very object over 11 years - to spread the word on homeopathy.

You can avoid your name appearing in the post header on the BB by sending only from your email address without a real name. You then appear as 'Guest'.

But above all take to heart the fact that this is a public list. Use private email for things you don't want to be public.


Regards,
Jon Haworth

Cambridge, UK

I am the member of all mailing lists, professional forums and BB's

The BB and mailing lists are open to everyone. This is not private at all.

The only difference between them is the decorum of the operation. At BB, it is easy to discuss points because you have idea right from the start of the topic.

In mailing list, what I have observed that members send posts with previous replies everytime when they make their posts. This is annoying. At bb, we don't see such problem. In mailing lists, if you have enter in the center and you did not read the first post, then you can't pick the ongoing discussion.

If you want to keep your mails and cases private. Then join professional forums, where only registered homeopaths can participate.

__________________
Homeopath

Agreed. I don't post much, but there are things I have posted in the past that I would never have asked if I knew they could appear in a casual search. While anyone CAN subscribe to the list, few will make the effort.

Linda Jarosiewicz

I'm curious why?
Since anyone can be a member, and many (most?) members are not homeopaths, and we don't know who's on... Why is it an issue?

Hi Linda,

A couple of years ago, just playing around in the net, I entered my name in google and found pages upon pages of my mails to various mailing lists.

I posted this information right here.

So it is definitely not just the relatively few members of this or any other mailing list who have had access to one's posts - the entire world has and has had ever since the search engines have been around.

As someone said: there is no privacy in the net. Actually, not even for private mails - many people use encryption for those.

As lax as most people are about security of their computers, who even knows what spy programs they have on their very own computer, sending out all sorts of information.

Everything has its draw-backs - the net is certainly no exception!

Regards

Luise