Prisca: I assure you, my intentions were benign. I, too, have been deceived by those on the internet who appear to be trustworthy and later turn out to be something else (like married, for example).
(This is a personal aside to Prisca that might be best handled in e-mail, but as it might serve to warn others, I'll say it publicly.)
You and I have not exactly been "soul mates" since I started here. I got the impression early on that we disagreed about lots of stuff, some important and some not so important. Occasionally, we even butted heads. I simply decided to avoid posting directly to you and that seemed to keep us at a respectful distance. I like some people you do not, and vise-versa.
However, on more than one occasion, people have teased - even threatened - to "out" your identity. The publishing of your picture was a dispicable act, in my opinion. Someone else recently taunted you with "I could publish the picture you sent me..." or words to that effect. It struck me how vulnerable we sometimes make ourselves here. We get to trust someone, thinking of them as a friend and then the next thing you know, our image is splattered all over cyber-space.
Another example to think about, guys: I had a good friend who got "intimate" with a man she met through Yahoo chat. He enjoyed sending provocative pictures of himself to her (why are men so confident in their less-than-perfect-bodies?) He ended up treating her badly, and one drunken night she wrote to me, on the verge of sending those pictures to his very clueless wife. I talked her out of it. (In case you're wondering, this has nothing to do with anyone on this board.)
Let this be a lesson to all of us to be extremely careful about sharing things that might embarrass us later. Remember poor Dr. Laura???
Sorry to use your example like this, Prisca, but I think it might help our new friend, don't you?
Sincerely,
Wasa
Edited by - wasasister on 29 July 2002 23:17:51
