OK, that makes sense.

But, as I have now read, I agree with Molly who says she wants to keep ALL her messages! I know I have said some pretty stupid things here and I wish I could go back and "erase" what I said, but on the other hand, I have said some positively brilliant things...well, maybe not brilliant to most people, but for me, I was proud of me and I want those things to remain as well.

Paulette

It is so easy to make changes in old posts. If you really made too personal remarks you can go back and change the sentence.
I still sometimes see typo's in my old posts and if I am in the mood I fix them.
I do understand that a lot of people have a lot of posts, but you might recognize by the subject if there might be something in there that you want to fix. Just a thought.

I never thought of it that way, the only thing I noticed that I had 50 pages, while I thought I had at the most 30, and at an average of 150 posts a page I have been spending too much time on CZ in the last 3 1/2 years.

P.S. Sorry it is 46 pages. Thanks to the EDIT I could add this :)

I feel honored.

But, more than that, I feel understood.

Words cannot express the value of understanding.

We are friends who have never met.

Technology is wonderful!

f.

I agree with what you say fledgling, often wondering how many other people spend time re-reading and re-writing their own posts just to correct some of the more glaring punctuation, grammar and spelling mistakes, after the fact (after the post has gone live to the forum). As far as this goes, there are probably few who re-write/re-edit posts more than I just for this purpoe.

When it comes to matters/threads that are actively being debated with lots of back and forth and input from two or more people, Erasure can really undo the entire thread. s far a serving the general purpose of a do over, and serving the needs of "I'm still kinda new at this, I may have blabbed too much, can you help me wipe it all out and start fresh", this is understandable as it pertains to privacy, but I'm still sort of lukewarm on the erasure thing. Privacy issues are important to each of us in our own ways, but "privacy" is to a large extent a hotbutton because it has been hyped and made into this for us by the establishment, the very same establishment that in many cases are the same ones already in control of the information that details each of our lives from the moment our parents signed an appl for Birth Certificate and SS# on our behlf. I'm human, I tend to forget things about myself, especially now that I'm into middle age. Anyone think government computers forget our life's details after they've been keyed in? All it takes is for somebody to have a reason to type in an inquiry and they can call up a lot more about our lives than most of us can remember off the tops of our heads, and they are trhe same ones brutally and repeatedly violating common people's privacy on numerous nefarious fronts every damn day of the week. This kind of privacy assault is not easily defeated, certainly not by requesting a list of forum posts be erased. At best erasure heads off or defeats the average amateur crack-pot type of privacy invader.

At some point, one needs to learn the valuable lesson, perhaps the hard way, of how/when to be appropriately discrete about the kinds of information they put out there for cyberspace to do whatever floats it's boat to do with. What I feel is appropriate for myself may be more than what somebody else feels is appropriate for them.


The real privacy concern for all of us is not a matter of the visible information we mistakenly blurt out into a public forum, it's the invisible activity that allows the internet to be managed the way it is, and deep understanding of the underlying protocols that carry my typed text and graphics to your displays, traffic sniffiing and decoding, satellites and computers in space filtering all traffic for further indepth analysis to be done manually by some government drone, filtering based on keywords automatically detected by the first-level computer monitoring programs that flag the drone "hey, drone, here is something for you to spend your government-paid time paying closer attention to, via Echelon, Magic Lantern, Homeland Security... that kind of stuff .....will still be here or there lurking no matter how much any of us may try to retroactively remove information we typed into a forum. And, there is always the anonymity factor - in most cases the average person among us is seldom in a position to say we really know for sure that any other posting personality that we know electronically as forum handle/nickname/number is in fact an actual person portrayed by the typing style of the handle/nickname/number.

Bottom line, if you want ultimate privacy, do not connect to the internet, do not have an SS #, or bank account, or credit card, or grocery card, or an insurance policy - especially a health/medical policy, neither self-payed nor HMO, dont' have a telephone number, or mail box, and purchase with cash only. If you want no privacy, then avail yourself to all of these and be sure to regularly and repeatedly disclose your personal information, like phone number, age, gender and address, and be sure to clarify when you can be found at this location. If you want something in between the two extremese, use your own best judgement accordingly as to what and when you publicly reveal information that relates to your personal self.

Every point you make is exactly right on.

Our online activities, and our writings, as our life conversations, are as individual as fingerprints.

And, the entire Internet is a great hunting ground for those who think they are able to 'profile', for whatever reason.

I agree that we have no idea who might be on the other side of the screen, but most of us are mature and 'savvy' enough to limit our 'involvement' to our own personal 'comfort zones'.

Also, we have anonymity on our side. For example, a thief might never come to our house, simply because there is nothing outstanding to tempt burglars. It's the same as the 'safety in numbers' of schools of fish and flocks of birds.

The great author, John D. MacDonald, thought up another kind of anonymity...incorporate, incorporate, incorporate. I think it was in one of his Travis Magee novels where a businessperson character needed to obliterate their financial trail, probably for very lofty reasons. He/she was able to hide within a huge network of incorporation, that would take forever to unravel.

...Just the same as some others we think we know.

Fortunately for us, the human brain is far deeper, and quicker, than any computer that will ever be beneath our fingers. And our judgement is improving every day.

Many posters on CureZone are not 'word lovers', and would never think of attempting to edit or rewrite their posts. Still, we may wish to remember this capability when we have successes to report for the benefit of those who read or re-read in the future.

It is the success stories that increase the value of our posts, and the CureZone itself, beyond measure.

Each of us will choose to protect our own particular comfort zones in our own way.

Fortunately, there are technologies that allow us to do just that.

Also fortunately, the vast majority of posters and readers here, and the world's people, are honest, forgiving, and kind. Different, yes, but more the same than not.

Snoops, would-be advertisers, scam artists, and the biased fall further and further behind in 'profiling' us for their own purposes...and they have no idea what we will write next. Guess as they may, we are always first!

I like Jane Goodall's "Four Reasons for Hope." I think she says it all. http://www.janegoodall.org/jane/essay.asp

My thanks, Ohfor07.

fledgling