Re: Re: Posting Summary for Week Ending 18 January, 2008: php-general@lists.php.net

Jochem Maas wrote:

if I am correct you are or were a journalist. forgive if I have mistaken you for another, but if that is correct then how often have you trodden on someone's privacy for the sake of a story?

Yes, I was a journalist for some 30 years, but roughly two-thirds of that time was spent in an editorial capacity, not on the road. I cannot honestly remember an occasion on which I infringed someone's privacy for the sake of a story. The privacy guidelines that applied to my job are publicly available online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/privacy/consent.shtml

as Dan pointed out he's not actually in violation of anything

That's Dan's interpretation.

why not get over it and join the club instead of knocking it?

All that was necessary was for Dan to acknowledge that he'd made a mistake publishing a list of everyone's email address in plain text. It was wholly unnecessary for the purpose of creating a chart of the most prolific posters. Counting the number of posts is pretty meaningless anyway. It says nothing about the usefulness of those posts. I rarely post here, not for any negative reasons, but because I can see there are plenty of knowledgeable people here giving a lot of valuable help to others. So I spend my time contributing to other forums where PHP expertise is thin on the ground. If treating someone's complaint with contempt, even if you don't agree with the substance of it, is the way this "club" works, it's not one that I feel comfortable joining. -- David Powers