My only response: Yes.
While there may be technical ways to retrieve various information, they are not normally used. I have had several moron clients get convicted off a facebook post, etc. Protip: if you are in a custody dispute over your kid, never ever post on said kid's facebook wall or whatever, "You'll be better off at so and so's house." Nobody gives a rat's ass what your intent was in posting that, and I especially don't care if you scream at me that it was "private." No. I'm not dealing with other people's thoughts anymore about their stupid posts, because I know through practical experience that they are wrong.
When somebody "quotes" something, it means you can't edit the post they made quoting you and thus you can't easily get rid of it. Moreover, it really sucks when that happens and a thread gets locked, cause now you're double screwed.
I know everybody seems to love this whole "online" social crap, and it's becoming normal. That doesn't mean it's a good idea to have what you say permanently out there. This is yet another reason why IRC chat is usually better in that regard.
If you must quote, then just link to the post, perhaps embedded into text without featuring any of the actual content of the post itself. Example:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=68850.msg5376351#msg5376351Or
In response to this:Now, you may or may not see the difference but trust me, it is there. Now if SealyStar should want to edit his post, they can without my having preserved it forever out of their ability to edit it.
I'm not going to get into the various ways to deal with this stuff, but they exist. We're in a world where big brother is unfortunately real and I'm more practical than paranoid. When you quote content you are not referencing but rather you are etching into stone.... They're gonna make it the new norm so they can more easily monitor you. It doesn't matter how right you are, if you try to stop big brother's bullshit, then
they will ruin your life, and
literally brand you a traitor. There is a reason for rule 1 and rule 2. Don't talk about it.