Are Facebook names OK in posts?

[RetiredInNH]

I just ran across this (name obscured to protect the guilty ):

	Quote:
	text me on Facebook: Abcd Efgh

I know that email addresses in posts are not allowed and usually I report them; what about Facebook names?

Thanks!!

[Caviarchips]

Its not explicitly mentioned, but I usually delete the personal ones but allow the business facebook sites (as long as its in an appropriately placed commercial thread) - not sure if the other guys do the same though

Good question

[Deep Purple]

I suppose that if people are happy to share their personal details it is up to them. The policy of deleting email addresses seems over-protective. It is only the individual who gives out their details who risks spam etc.

My understanding is that the email address policy was intoduced as the site attracts morepeople who may harvest emails than day-to-day communications.

[adrianlondon]

The email (and phone number) policy is to prevent naive posters from dumping personal info into a post not fully understanding the potential risks.

I think it's over the top, as each post has your EF id on it which can also be harvested, PMs sent, email addresses often obtained (send PM to email and wait for a reply) etc.

But in the brief time I was a mod, I still removed them - in small part cos rules are rules, but primarily because I thought people shouldn't use EF to direct all discussion into the private arena (eg email me if you want to meet for a drink).

And as such, facebook IDs should be treated the same as email addresses; i.e. the way cavalierchips, I mean caviarchips currently does.

But as the rule itself is based on a shakey premise, I guess inconsistencies will remain. You can often find email addresses in posts here, old and new, which no mod has bothered to remove or has simply not seen.

[RetiredInNH]

Thanks for the insights.

I just reported it, up to the mods to do what they see fit with it

[mirfield]

Another reason for personal names to be removed is that we often get outraged emails where people are shocked that their name appears in google because of a post they made a couple of years ago. So we try to pre-empt that.

We can remove the name but, especially if it's an old post, it takes a long time for it to get removed from google's cache (all of which is our fault of course )

There's no blanket rule on people contacting each other outside of EF (otherwise there wouldn't be the "send email to member" option for example). It's not like we remove personal identifiers from your PMs as we are perusing them for our entertainment.


No. Really. We can't.