The right thing to do

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seaside

Distinguished member
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
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110
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PALS
Diagnosis
04/2011
Country
US
State
MA
City
Hull
If you were to visit the Scam Watch portion of these forums, towards the bottom of the page you would find a section entitled "How Can I Protect Myself Against Fraud?". Among the advice offered is: Never post your email address or full name in a public forum. Well that seems to me to be pretty good advice.

There is a controversial thread in the research forum entitled with a person's full name (intentionally omitted here). Of course there are times when full names are properly posted such as the names of public figures, those in news accounts and those in memorium messages, however this is not one of those times. The original poster, a "researcher", has asked for personal health information about the fully named third party.

"The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes the conditions under which protected health information may be used or disclosed by covered entities for research purposes." (see HHS.gov)

Yet this "researcher" seeks access outside those established rules. Why? Is this really research? Or curiosity? Or just plain old gossip? There are also hints of ego boosting within the original poster's replies as the number of thread replies and view counts edge higher. Well "researcher" - I am not your poster child, nor do I want my name used to feed your ego.

I make the effort to avoid using my full name here, and I would feel betrayed if others were casually using my full name in their postings. And I would be appalled to find my full name used as the title for a thread! A thread repeatedly scanned by search engines and possibly causing my name to be linked to thoughts and ideas I may not support.

Now imagine it's your name. In a forum where you're not a member. Can you fix that?

We can't undo any damage done, but we can make a correction. In my opinion the quickest remedy is to simply delete the offending thread.
 
Great post Seaside, I've been following that thread vicariously and have "reported" it numerous times, to no avail...

Its confrontational, talking about someone else (with full name) and the poster won't take it down. Boy, do I miss Al!
 
I don't like having MY USERNAME associated with that thread or that person, whether by full name, username, or nickname. I have REPEATEDLY requested that the thread be closed and/or deleted, but to no avail. I even asked people to quit posting on it, and instead it goes on for 11 pages! I give up!
 
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