Hello all 
This post is just a reminder to everyone in general about the very “public” nature of all forums and the fact that they are indexed by search engines.
A lot of us post on this forum post here when we are in need of support and advice. That is what a forum is for and being able to do that is obviously extremely important.
However, some of our posts can be very personal, sometimes that is essential to us and we need that outlet, but forums remain very public places and thanks to search engines, it is surprising what things may come up in a search.
Often, if one puts in key words (and that CAN include someone’s screen name), a quick search brings up posts on here.
Most of the time this is of very little importance and indeed is a valuable source of information to those out there looking for the same type of support and advice as we all lucky enough to have here. Sometimes though, if a story is too personal, or if we are likely to have family members/colleagues looking up what we might be writing about, it obviously isn’t what we wanted.
For my part, I sometimes need to write something more personal and if I do, I really don’t mind who reads it at all. I might think differently though if I had mentioned something that could, potentially, harm me at work or if I felt that certainly family members might read it.
Katharine
This post is just a reminder to everyone in general about the very “public” nature of all forums and the fact that they are indexed by search engines.
A lot of us post on this forum post here when we are in need of support and advice. That is what a forum is for and being able to do that is obviously extremely important.
However, some of our posts can be very personal, sometimes that is essential to us and we need that outlet, but forums remain very public places and thanks to search engines, it is surprising what things may come up in a search.
Often, if one puts in key words (and that CAN include someone’s screen name), a quick search brings up posts on here.
Most of the time this is of very little importance and indeed is a valuable source of information to those out there looking for the same type of support and advice as we all lucky enough to have here. Sometimes though, if a story is too personal, or if we are likely to have family members/colleagues looking up what we might be writing about, it obviously isn’t what we wanted.
For my part, I sometimes need to write something more personal and if I do, I really don’t mind who reads it at all. I might think differently though if I had mentioned something that could, potentially, harm me at work or if I felt that certainly family members might read it.
Katharine
