Dear Fellow AAPORNET members:
At the most recent AAPOR Executive Council meeting, the following language describing our position on the privacy of messages posted on AAPORNET was adopted:
---------------------------------------------------------------------- AAPORNET is a community. It exists only electronically, but nonetheless it's a community with norms of behavior.
One of these norms is how we use each other's contributions outside the community. Not everyone may know the details, but AAPORNET is a closed, subscription-only list. Only AAPOR members may post messages and view the archives.
Therefore it's AAPOR Council's view that list members should ask the original poster(s) for permission when wanting to use another's posting for some purpose outside of AAPORNET (e.g., quoting to a reporter, lecturing in class, posting on a web page, etc.).
Some have argued that in this electronic world, a group with over 1,000 members has no expectation of privacy. That may be, but we believe AAPOR, and AAPORNET, is a more close-knit community than the blind anonymous internet at large. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
You might also think about noting in your posts (or modifying your signature) to say whether or not it is OK to quote you and in what circumstances. I'll also be modifying the message footer and the archives page to remind everyone of this policy.
On behalf of Council, Shap Wolf Associate Chair, Publications & Information AAPORNET Volunteer Coordinator