TED, thank you for starting this thread! Someday I'll be brave, like you are...
Here are the snippets from Wilma's "privacy" thread in Turf which made me want to discuss this further:
Eg the TORC mod forum was always understood to be private (for better reasons than this forum is, IMO), and yet things leaked out fairly often. I myself sometimes alluded to things posted in the mod forum to outsiders, if I thought it would be beneficial. I think most people understand that the enforcement of "privacy" is a judgement call.
I really don't understand this. If the mod forum discussions were known to be private, they should have been kept private. Period.
The enforcement of privacy is not a judgment call. It is an honorable pledge between two people. If one asks for privacy with their thoughts, the other honors that privacy.
On a tangent, the dillema of beneficial vs. right or more precisely of following the rules vs. doing what is right and honorable has a very Tolkienesque ring to it. Think Eomer, Hama, Faramir and Beregond. Maybe some should start a thread on that in "teh bonas".
But sometimes following the rules IS right and honorable.
I understand your point, Frelga, and I agree with you in your examples. However, these were extreme cases, were they not? The examples that wilko was presenting, in keeping confidential information INSIDE a confidential forum, seem more black and white to me.
I've always been a pragmatist, so "beneficial" does broadly equate to "right" in my book. You may well have a good point though, as far as the principles of the TORC mod forum go. As far as this board goes, I feel there is much less case, as the principles demanding absolute secrecy are nowhere set out.
I agree.
The only time recently I have knowingly shared a confidence was when a friend of mine confided that he was considering suicide. I did share that with his family, and there was an intervention with him... and he did not forgive me, for quite a while.
I'm certain it has affected our friendship, and I still regret that. However, I feel like I did the right thing, in that instance. I think my lack of honor in not protecting his secret was secondary to my responsibility to try to protect his life.
So maybe this stuff isn't always black and white.