A Question of Netiquette.

[lilithraevyn]

Preface:

I am soon to be moving, and thus going through some (lots) of papers stuffed in boxes from the last time I moved. In my adventures of un- and repacking, I have found a large 3 ring binder of printed conversations and excerpts of massive brainstorming from the Yahoo Group, where I was quite active, or at least read a lot, a bit before I came to the AtS forums...

Chapter  One:

I suspect it would be bad manners to reproduce summaries of some of the stuff discussed there, even if I gave credit to those who participated/provided the information. Given the mutability of the internet population, I suspect it may be near impossible to contact some of the individuals to gain permission. In some cases, there's some really great information in those archives...

Chapter Two:

So my question is - what would any of you suggest? None of it is as thorough a job as the things we have on this site already - such as our creatures, locations, items, NPCs... but the ideas originally were someone else's and in most of the cases (by flipping through), I have that information with on my print outs.

Chapter Three:
I don't want to put anything up and take credit for it, I just want to share good ideas when I find them, if they aren't already lurking around here somewhere. Maybe dress them up a little more modern, and toss them out there to you super-brains for some storming.

I mean really... WWDD. (What would Dirigible Do?) Or WWND (Nif!). Or.... WWAD. What Would Anybody Do!


Epilogue:
(this is your part.)

[Dirigible]

WWDD. (What would Dirigible Do?)

Float silently above, raining terror on the innocent below?

Also, he'd move this to... hmm... Meta.

Hold tight, everyone, and insure your seat tables are in the upright position.

[lilithraevyn]

Mmm raining terror.

Thanks for the move. I don't know where my brain is lately. It might be the squishy thing I step on when I get out of bed in the morning...

[Dirigible]

Now.

As far as I'm concerned, if you've made a good-faith effort to contact the authors, and you post these ideas/materials with credit, there shouldn't be a problem with it.

Do these print outs have the original author's name attached?

[lilithraevyn]

The vast majority do. If you've not been a part of the Yahoo Group... the Digest comes something like so:

Digest ##
Topics in this Digest:

1. Re: Rest of the World?
   From: "Jenna" <myemail@whateversite.yeah>
2, 3, 4

and on down the list.


When I printed them, I printed this front sheet of the digest, and mostly just cleaned out the copied info in the responses. You know how email conversations get when you reply, you get the copy below. Then someone replies to you, and the next thing you know, someone is posting ONE response, and there are 50 other peoples' comments underneath with >>>>>> all the way down.

So, when I comb through these (as I have a very odd urge to do), I have names and email addresses. I think the trouble I may hit is if the addresses are bunk (given that most of these conversations are from 2003), and the number of participants in any given thread of conversation.

Glancing over the list, it shouldn't be too hard. Just like the forums had their major Idea Guys, so did the Yahoo Group.

A. Christian, R. Maxwell, Sanjeev, Jim H. Of course Greg, Wil, and Robert from FFG were here and there...

While their names are prominently displayed in the Yahoo archives, did a quick edit to not put them in full here for now. When/if there's something I find and get permission for... then I can. Hey, maybe they are even floating around.


Memories...

[Pheros]

The internet is a funny place of lawless law-less-ness...or something.  I consider anything I post anywhere for any reason public, and should I get any credit for it what-so-ever, all the better.  Not that everyone has or should have that philosophy, but I'd be my guess most people would be happy with what credit you can give them (2003 email or username) and having their work inspire others. 

I doubt anyone will be making money off these discussions, otherwise some might feel different.

My personal vote would be post them up with as much citation as you can give, and they'll contact you or an admin if they'd prefer it be pulled down.

Joe

P.S. Oh, and welcome back Lil!

[Albert]

I agree with Pheros, as long as no money is made and you get no complaints, I can't see the harm. If it's on a mailing list, or message board, or whatever, it's already sort of public.

[Nifelhein]

The Yahoo Group is still around and has an archive of messages, so you can also link to them instead, it would work perfectly fine, and the old AtS material, well we are the same place, just out of luck with the old database backup for the time being (I haven't given up and I believe we may be able to get it up soon).

In any case, if you don't say it is yours, you give people the chance to know where they may find the original (simply mentioning the yahoo groups will do) and give the authors credit (or at least say you are uncertain who the author is, we should be safe. Trying to contact them is god too, but I have to say it might be hard to get a reply, tried that kind of thing before.

I think Pheros covers the general attitude too.

[IORNBORN]

I agree post some goodies with all Haste!

IORNBORN