Hi, Eero, and all A long post I made in answer has fallen into the internet ether, so I will let elijah's stand in for me to some extent. I do want to say though, I don't agree that our individual attachments to personal ethics or the law are quite enough to stand in for guidelines. As a newer member of the aoir ethics committee chaired by Charles Ess, and as a presenter of a paper on ethics of researching online community and relationships, I applaud the aoir group for putting together a pioneering set of guidelines growing from people with allegiances to many different disciplines and countries. I also disagree that posting in a newsgroup is analogous to walking down the street. There is a large grey area between the totally public and totally private online which bears examination and continued attempts to reach at least a rough agreement on how and when to do research there. Finally, without having professional knowledge of the profession, it seems to me that journalists often have fewer strictures than researchers, not only because of our IRB's, but because of the demand for daily stories and the traditions of their profession. For example, they may be more than satisfied if three people back up their information, whereas we may need far more than that to support a thesis about everyday life. best, andrea baker (andee)