In company that I work for, it is a serious offense to let other's in company find out how much money you make. In fact, you could be fired if you told another employee your salary. Yet you have to enter that same highly sensitive data to get a free email account!

There have also been quite a few stories in news lately about accidental e-mailings of personal information to wrong people. These mailings all seemed to have to do with medical records. I read one case where 5,000 people received other people's medical history in their email box! I don't know about you, but I don't really want my medical records spread all over planet!

What is point of all of this? Well, you just need to be careful about giving out your personal information over internet. You don't really know who is at other end of telephone line, and you probably don't have a good understanding of how that information is to be kept secure, how it is going to be used and why it is even needed in first place.

So before you type in that personal data ask yourself a few questions.

Do I really need this service? - When I am asked something personal that I would rather not give out, this is first thing that I ask. Is this service really that important? For me, half time answer is no. If it is important, I usually find that I can pay some small fee for same service without giving any personal data, and that's what I usually wind up doing.

What is this information likely to be used for? - This is obvious when I'm entering information to get a credit card, and not so obvious when I want a free email account. Remember, you never get something for nothing - there is always a price, even if it is well hidden. Find out what site is going to use information for before you enter it.

Do I care if anyone else knows this information? - If answer is yes (as it was for amount of money that I make), then think a little harder about entering it into that web form. How embarrassed or damaged would you be if that data wound up posted on a thousand web sites?

Personally, I am least likely to give away personal information that is to be used for marketing purposes, no matter how much benefit I will gain for that data. It is not one of my primary goals in life to make it easier for advertisers to target me for their messages. In fact, I would rather not get their ads at all.

The key is simple. Before you enter that information into web form, do a little research and find out what data is going to be used for. Think for a moment about how you would feel if everyone knew, then decide for yourself if you still want to enter it.

That's all I've got to say about that.

Message boards have a life of their own, like any other community of living, intelligent beings. Virtually all vibrant boards have one or two very dominant contributors (who are occasionally moderators) who area very respected and who more or less control everything. These people are very prolific, very knowledgeable and extremely respected.

Good contributors have following characteristics:

- They are very prolific - They respect other contributors to board - They are polite and never flame anyone - They do not put up with other people misusing message board - They support moderator and goals of message board - They do not spam board with advertisements

Bad contributors, on other hand, do opposite.

Smart moderators support good contributors, as they understand that this is what makes a board not only survive but prosper. In fact, if a message board can get even one good contributor, it will soon have a large following of other contributors and readers.

I have seen many message boards fail when one of star contributors left scene. Even more interestingly, I've seen boards go on vacation (become idle) at exact same time as one of power contributors went on vacation. When he returned, board came back to life.

The point of all of this is if you want to be part of a web community, then find a message board which matches your interests. Then go ahead and contribute your experiences, opinions, knowledge and data. You may gain a following, and you may find others beginning to look to your for guidance. And that is a great way to spend your time on internet.