Would you like access to the VF Forum in the Internet Archives?

[Lianne]

Originally Posted by Alta

Lianne, the issue seems to bring up emotions (fear and paranoia), so you might not get the rational, black & white answer that will satisfy you. Even the Poll results depend on who clicks on this thread title.

What black and white answer am I looking for? I think the poll is quite clear that I am in the minority, and as I indicated in my earlier post, I accept that.

Suzette, one of the things Google's algorithim does is dismiss irrelevant results from blogs, forums, etc. So I believe your posts would not show up at all.

[Vintage VFer]

Originally Posted by Lianne

What black and white answer am I looking for? I think the poll is quite clear that I am in the minority, and as I indicated in my earlier post, I accept that.

Okay, I'm going to go put my tin foil hat back on. I only get into trouble when I take it off!

[Carol_is_fit]

Alta, I don't think even a tin foil hat can keep one from getting in trouble on certain threads. Basically all one has to do is show up and post.

Carol

[Lianne]

Ok, you have completely lost me - but perhaps that was the plan. Alta, you know you could never be in trouble with me. Nobody's in trouble here. Even me - she may think I'm harsh, but I know Elisa still loves me anyway.

[Elisa B.]

Originally Posted by Lianne

Even me - she may think I'm harsh, but I know Elisa still loves me anyway.

Well, yeah, duh. But Lianne, I also disagree with you about Google. In my experience, Google returns random, irrelevant results all the time. I know that their secret algorithm is supposed to rank results by relevancy, but in practice, I don't see that happening. I think part of the issue is that they are constantly rejiggering the algorithm to try to stay ahead of webmasters who are trying to game the search engines to improve their rankings.

Elisa

[Joanna]

Another issue with Google is you have to be the site owner to have something removed. I have been dogged by just two search results I am unhaooy with, an in one case the site is long-abandoned and the webmaster is off the net while in the other the site is long-abandoned but the still-around webmaster refuses to take it down. In both cases, I have no options, and that bothers me because it is my name these pages are associated with, nomatter who owns or does not own the page.

[dnk]

I voted yes. I've always assumed that whatever I put here or in just about any other site could be found by someone who wanted to look for it.

Deb

[Cardiogirl]

I'm not sure I understand, but I voted yes. I found this forum by Googling "Tracie Long" or "Tracie Long Productions". I found a fairly heated thread, too.

Is it the "forever" factor of the archives that bothers some people?

[Joanna]

Cardiogirl: Yes, it is the 'forever' factor that bothers me. And also, as I said, the retroactivity of it (i.e. that it would archive things I wrote when I did not know there was to be archiving). Those two things.

[KathAL79]

Originally Posted by Cardiogirl

Is it the "forever" factor of the archives that bothers some people?

For me it's more of the unknown person with no knowledge of the forum and what it represents, how it operates, etc., taking something out of context. The chances of that happening are pretty slim, I'll concede, but it might be tempting for someone marketing or reviewing videos to "borrow" someone's comments from here. (I know I'd be upset if I found one of my off the cuff comments printed on the back cover of a new video, if an old opinion of mine which I no longer held appeared in a newspaper article, blog, etc., if my post was copied verbatim in someone's review on Amazon, and so on.) So maybe I'm overly sensitive to such things after working for an institution where one's personal integrity and life outside of the workplace could be taken into consideration when contracts were up for renewal. Obviously I'm not too concerned since I still post here.

I can see why members, especially those who have been with VF longer than I have, would want to read old threads, but I still don't see the pressing *need* for this thread to be archived publicly for all times.

Since this will be my last post on this thread, I'll just say that Wendy has spoken, and I support her decision.