Dear Members,
Please keep in mind, that this forum is visited regularly by search-robots (bots) from all kinds of search engines. A few minutes, hours or days after posting, and your contributions can be seen on the internet all over the world. To make searching faster, most search-engines also store data on their own computers, so even if a reply is deleted here, it may still be accessable for a while.
If you feel that certain information should not be available to the general public, then please write your replies in such a way that they won't mean anything to anyone outside the forum. If anybody requests information, and doesn't want this to be seen by outsiders, then please request that the information be sent via e-mail or a personal message (PM). Information sent this way cannot be seen by search-engines.
You can, of course, contact the board moderator to discuss deleting certain passages. Please keep in mind however, that the forum is here to disseminate information, i.e. to make information available for other members. Whoever is searching for information should also give other members the opportunity to see the information. Therefore, deleting replies and contributions will only be made in exceptional cases.
But remember too, that many people will see your information on the internet, and sometimes someone will see a name and think - "hey, that's my family!!" - and want to get in touch with you. This is one of the main reasons why such forums are "public".
Sometime the question arise: why can search-engines look at members' profiles ? This is not possible ! If you see this in "Users Online" it just shows that the search-engine has clicked on a profile link. What you don't see is that the search engine receives the same "Access denied" message, that every guest also receives. You can rely on the fact that your profile remains invisible and cannot be "harvested". Access to the profiles is only available to members. If you wish, you can set your profile so that members cannot see your e-mail address. Other members can still send you e-mails, but they cannot see your address as this will be added by the forum software.
Not all search-robots are from search-engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. Another kind of bot "harvests" the web for addresses, telephone numbers and other personal data. E-mail addresses in particular are "treasured", as they can be sold to advertisers, spammers, and other "nasties" in the net. For this reason, we advise not to put any personal data in your replies and contributions, but to always use the safe personal message system or the forum e-mail system for such data. Personal data will be deleted by the moderators. Personal data of other living people will also be deleted.
E-mail addresses of archives, institutions and other public bodies should be written so that they aren't immediately recognisable (for a 'bot') as e-mail addresses.
