How is the HabitableZone being watched? Let me count the ways...

There are seven moderators watching over the place: Nick, podrock, and Raoul on Space/Science. FrankC and Fox on CurrentEvents. Mary Anne on OffTopic. And me flitting around like a hummingbird watching the other boards as well as theirs.

The search engines are watching. The logs show that the Zone is now getting spidered daily by Yahoo and MSN, and every few days by Google.

The lurkers are watching. At times the logs show traffic ten times the level that could be accounted for by the known participants. People I've never heard of have bookmarked threads here, which accounts for why some very old threads become resurrected from time to time.

Are "They" watching? Probably, just as "They" can be assumed to be watching all Internet discussion forums, with automated keyword recognition systems and IP address tracing. I wouldn't expect the logs to reveal Their surveillance, because connecting from an address like "dhs.gov" or "nsa.gov" or "cia.gov" would be an amateur mistake. I'd guess that the Zone is considered in one respect to be interesting to Them because we're an open system, and possibly Bad People could use it to post cryptic messages to conspirators. OTOH, our openness makes us less interesting because there's no suspicion of secret conversations, and nothing is more frightening to an authoritarian government than the possibility of people having private conversations.

It'll be interesting to see whether installing a membership-control system here will provoke more interest from Them.

I don't lose any sleep worrying about Them. When I think about it all, it just stiffens my resolve to speak my mind, and to push back at the intimidation implied by surveillance. It's good to speak in a public forum knowing that the government is likely listening. Relay my words to the White House, Mr. NSA Spook, go on, I relish the thought. With the White House hermetically sealed against the American people, there's a perverse satisfaction in the thought that government surveillance itself can breach the fortress walls. The irony of authoritarians hunkering down in their bunkers is that their paranoia forces them to obsessively watch the people. Behind Mr. Bush's blatant disdain of the American people is a terrible fear of what will happen if we rise up against him.

So, Martha, don't let the thought that we're being 'watched' slow you down. Think of it as an opportunity every day to let your voice be heard by a wide audience. If there are government agents in the audience, that just makes it even sweeter. Raise a finger to toast their presence.