In response to Danah's thoughtful post: Some years ago (1995 perhaps?), I was subscribed to an academic mailing list. The question of whether quotes could be pulled from posts and cited in publications in the same way that those writers' publications would be was raised. The people on that list got EXTREMELY upset at the idea that their words could be used this way and decided that they would institute a norm that such use of their words was disallowed. I pointed out that this was fine if they wanted to reach that agreement amongst themselves, but that the list was archived and searchable and that it was quite possible that someone might search for, say, "Sachs" and "adjacency pair," and that a post would come up written by an important person in the field that they found useful. This user would not see the discussion about the ethics of such quotation, and if said user went to MLA or APA or other style books, would find no implication that there was any reason not to quote that material (instead would find guidelines on how to do it). I thought I was performing a public service by helping them understand the public nature of their activity. Instead of people responding by saying "wow, I didn't realize how public this discussion was," I was vehemently and personally attacked for what they saw as a phenomenal display of professional disrespect and lack of ethics on my part (note that this was despite my disclaimer that I would respect their desire not to be quoted, but that I was seeking to let them know how others could come to quote them without realizing it could be problematic). These were extremely smart people. I was floored by their response. Shoot the messenger! Yes, ET, it IS public in the sense that anyone can get at it. Yet people might get hurt or REALLY mad at you for using their words. It's in trying to reconsile these contradictions that the question of ethics arises. If it doesn't bother a researcher to alienate and perhaps cause emotional hurt to their subjects, then there is no ethical problem for that researcher. If a researcher is concerned for the well being of those he or she studies, then these issues need to be thought through. There isn't a right answer. I have had the posts I've written to this list (on this very issue) used in classroom discussions before. I've taken posts from this list into class for discussion. I assume the possiblity when I post (even if my spell-check is not always successful!), but I bet Danah is right that most of us don't. Nancy -- Nancy Baym http://www.ku.edu/home/nbaym Communication Studies, University of Kansas Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 102, Lawrence, KS 66045-7574, USA Association of Internet Researchers: http://aoir.org