----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher S. Penn" <csp...@gmail.com>
To: "Quest List" <Quest-List@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 7:00 AM
Subject: [Quest List] Re: Reminder on replies re:Cold Moon

> Many thanks for the kind words, Mike.

> I cannot emphasize strongly enough how important it is to be mindful
> of Google's watchful eye online. It is literally everywhere, and it
> does not forget.

> Google searches, indexes, and stores copies of every public web page,
> public forum, public discussion board, public email list it can find.
> Google Orion monitors not just what you search for, but how you behave
> when you search, how long it takes you to locate things, and what you
> do when you find something.
> Google News stores all of the news it can find in newspapers, radio,
> and television.
> Google Feedburner stores all of the RSS feeds and other news feeds it
> can find - and who subscribes to them.
> Google Reader tracks and stores all of the blogs you subscribe to and
> what items you deem important enough to share.
> Google Maps provides geographic data and in return tracks exactly what
> you're looking for and where on the earth it is.
> Google Blog Search stores and remembers what you blog about on your
> personal blog.
> Google AdWords watches what ads it shows and what ads you click on,
> how often, and when.
> Google 411 stores how you pronounce words and uses its speech
> recognition to analyze non-text data.
> Google YouTube tracks what videos you watch, share, promote, and
> enjoy.
> Google Chat stores and searches what you discuss in instant messaging.
> Google Pagerank algorithm tracks who links to web pages of yours and
> who you link to, diagramming out important nodes.
> Google Android will bring these capabilities and monitoring powers to
> your phone.
> Google OpenSocial will bring these capabilities to social networks
> like MySpace and Facebook.

> This places a unique burden on forum and discussion moderators, not
> only to keep discussions civil, but also to be mindful of how Google
> will perceive the words and activities of forum members. When An-Shu
> Hayes permitted us to have a Quest discussion list back in 1997, there
> was no Google's omniscient eye. Today, every single member of the
> Quest List, in your discussions and posts, reinforces what Google
> thinks, believes, and shares about To-Shin Do and the work of An-Shu
> Hayes, directly from the mouths and keyboards of the To-Shin Do
> community.

> If you post frivolity or openly hostile content to the list (assuming
> it would be permitted to be posted) Google adds that to its knowledge
> index about *what To-Shin Do is about*. The reputation of the art, of
> the dojo you train at, and ultimately of An-Shu Hayes takes a ding
> whenever someone behaves irresponsibly here or in any other forum, and
> not just among martial artists, but among anyone who uses Google's
> myriad services to find information.

> Mindfulness is absolutely imperative in the age of Google. Write,
> discuss, and share like the person you want to become, even if you
> aren't that person today, because Google will remember you based on
> what you publicly create online. For forum moderators, mailing list
> managers, and community developers like myself, it is our obligation
> to create, manage, and moderate forums like the Quest List to be
> perceived by the general public in alignment with who we want to be,
> even if we as a community aren't there just yet.

> Hopefully, this post will also help give you some insight about why
> some moderation decisions are made the way they are. One good post
> lifts the entire To-Shin Do community up in reputation, if only a
> little in Google's massive knowledgebase. One bad post drags us all
> down. We are now, more than ever, interdependent on each other.

> Christopher Penn
> Quest List Admin
> Boston, MA