[HCoop-Misc] google-screen new members?

[Justin S. Leitgeb]

On Fri, Jul 28, 2006 at 12:51:24AM -0400, Terrence Brannon wrote:
>    Speaking of googling, should we do this on all new prospective members? I
>    remember that a person named Jason Smathers was interested in joining
>    hcoop and I'm guess that this Jason Smathers is him:
>    [1]http://www.google.com/search?q=jason+smathers&hl=en&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-27,GGLD:en

I don't think that we should be basing our evaluation of members on the results of a search engine.  Not only are they very susceptible to manipulation, but most of us who have "googled" someone realize that it is easy to confound results with other people of the same name.  

Additionally, I think that this conflicts with the cooperative principle of "voluntary and *open* membership", in that we would be screening, and possibly closing potential opportunities for new members to join.  What benefit would this bring us, other than pushing us towards a more cynical view towards new members?  Don't we reserve the right to restrict usage or ban membership based on unethical actions once members are enrolled?  

Finally, even though the society that we live in tends to build archives that serve to mark people for life, I would instead like to foster an environment within the cooperative that allows for people who would like to change themselves substantially, despite the contents of massive databases, regardless of their correlation to actual events.

For these reasons, I would disagree that we should "google" all new prospective members.  In contrast, I would suggest that we formulate a policy that specifically says that we will *not* engage in this practice.

Regards,

Justin

>    Visible links
>    1. http://www.google.com/search?q=jason+smathers&hl=en&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-27,GGLD:en
>    2. mailto:frank at hcoop.net
>    3. http://www.mail-archive.com/hcoop-discuss@hcoop.net/
>    4. mailto:HCoop-Discuss at hcoop.net
>    5. http://hcoop.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hcoop-discuss

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