I heartily endorse preserving the old messages, and hope they are backed up safely elsewhere. Of course, I preserve everything I do on my computer, too. I still have Wordstar files lovingly socked away, and storage space gets cheaper every year.

Anything you post anywhere on the Web is public property. That's just the way it works. I was long ago told never to put anything on the Internet you wouldn't write on a postcard. I try to remember this. Hey, my kid knows where this site is now!

This bothered me only once, after I had been making fun of the anti-Bush crowd by saying they could save a lot of trouble if they just posted "Die, Bush Die!" instead of all the complex things they were writing. I wondered if a text recognition spider with a government badge on its abdomen would someday fish that up and flag the Secret Service. Hasn't happened so far.

Oops...I just did another one, didn't I?