Criticisms of HypertWiki

Some criticisms which I had posted here were deleted, apparently by the author, so it would seem reasonable to conclude that those objections have been retracted.

In the course of the discussions with that person, however, some interesting issues have come up:

• Are personal emails considered confidential by default?
• Are personal emails considered to be copyrighted (another means of requiring confidentiality)?
• If someone criticizes me in writing, does that have any effect on whatever presumed confidentiality may exist – in other words, must I still keep those criticisms of me confidential?
• If someone emailed me threats of physical harm, those emails would (as I understand it) be considered evidence, and therefore not confidential. Where is the boundary line between threats and criticism?
  • Is it when the criticism becomes abusive?

I think part of the complication here may be because there are two different sets of rules involved: statutory rules (law) and social rules (etiquette).

Social rules (as I understand it) are governed by unwritten but semi-obvious contracts between people – such as "I will continue to trust you as long as you don't abuse that trust." If I post "confidential" writing, I may be violating that trust – but if I feel that the writer is being abusive to me, I don't really care too much if they trust me.

Related Links

• 2006-12-29 Some rethink posting of private info