* * * * *
                                        
                                   Redactions
                                        
It's always a risk when writing about other people, so it wasn't too
surprising when I got the following:

> Looking at it further, could you ask him to strike the whole part about who
> XXXXX decided to write about? I mean, that would point directly to him. I'd
> really rather not have anything that could possibly identify him out there
> like that. Tell him sorry, but I'm weird.
> 

in reference to yesterday's entry about creativity [1] (I also had to remove
all references to the college as well). And while I may think that Bunny's
friend (who requested I remove the material) is being a too cautious, she
didn't ask to have the material placed on a website in the first place (even
though I thought I removed enough identifying material).

It's not like this hasn't [2] happened [3] before.

Bunny had written me earlier about removing some information (before she
wrote me asking for a whole bunch more stuff to be removed):

> Hey, here's something that didn't occur to me. XXX says they check the
> internet for plagiarism and stuff, and [the college] might google and find
> your post. Not likely, but do you think you could strike the reference to
> [the college], just in case? … I know they wouldn't stumble upon it just by
> the premise for the essay alone. … I can't imagine they have a filter or
> something set up to ring a chime every time somebody mentions [the
> college]. But I guess she'd feel better about it. She loved your stories
> and creativity, though, and wished she'd asked me sooner.
> 

While [the college] itself might not actually check, there are other services
[4] that do, and one such service (if not the service) is TurnItIn [5]. So,
it is conceivable that [the college] could come across these entries
(although I thought that I made it clear that I did not come up with the
kid's essay idea, but hey, things I wrote a long time ago have a habit of
resurfacing [6]), but whether it will hurt the kid? I doubt it, but hey, like
I said, the kid's mother didn't ask for this to be posted, so best to remove
it (am I making a mountain out of a molehill? I don't think so—it's just
something I can write about, that's all).

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2007/01/04.1
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2001/08/22.2
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2001/11/30.1
[4] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2002/08/12.4
[5] http://www.turnitin.com/
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2003/12/23.1

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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