All messages on the HabitableZone are retained, technically, simply because I haven't written software to purge old messages. As a matter of policy, I won't, because I think that much of what's written here is worth preserving. As a community we possess a bit of collective narcissism. Several times over the years people have suggested creating "Best of the HabitableZone" compilations, and perhaps someday we will. Also, on a practical level, people want to refer back to old posts. That's currently not easy without a built-in search feature, but when I add one, the data must be there.

Speaking of search features, remember that Google saves its own copy of Web pages independently of their home site. There are a handful of sites out there whose ambitious mission is to preserve copies of everything ever published on the Web.

Those are all the practical reasons, but your concerns about exposure to retaliation by a future police state are disturbing and the most important thing I need to address.

Whenever you participate in an online discussion, or for that matter put up any kind of Web page, you're doing so in public for all the world to see. It goes with the territory. Even if we purged old messages, somebody might remember what you said, and as I pointed out, third parties may keep a record of your words.

We're participating in a new mode of communication on the Internet, but honoring an ancient and hallowed tradition of public discourse that's at the heart of any free society. I believe that we must do so, even if we fear retaliation by some authority, in order to preserve our free society. Every denunciation of the current government puts it on notice that democracy is alive and well and that the people are watching. Every critical post reminds it that we will not tolerate attempts to abridge our freedom of expression. We constantly let them know that we remain a feisty bunch with a strong sense of our rights and our duties to freedom.

If we censor ourselves because of the future potential of a police state, we've surrendered--we may as well already have a police state if we behave as if it exists.

A silent majority is the constituency of tyranny.

If we think that a police state is developing and that it's beginning to encroach upon our freedom, to continue to debate and criticize and express our anger is to give that police state the symbolic finger. Speaking out anyway is a powerful act of defiance that should make anyone in power tempted to expand that power think twice about it.

Success_Machine, in my darker moments I've wondered if perhaps we really are headed in the direction of a police state. Tyranny takes hold most easily in times of fear and turmoil, and god knows, that describes our times to a "T". But I never consider shutting up; I resolve to push back. If someday "they" take me away in the middle of the night, my conscience will be clear. I'll have done what duty demands of me. Those who remain free will remember my example and, I hope, will be emboldened by it to resist.

Be strong.

Power to the people. Power to us.