[pct-l] PCT Hiker Register

[Tortoise]

There are several issues here:

1.  Safety for those on the trail, especially women. Stalkers and attackers 
could find the current updates and then lay in wait for a solo female 
hiker. There's a need and desires to record one's passing a location and 
the registers provide a useful means for doing so. Obviously someone 
tracking a person could check the registers along the trail but this takes 
a bit more work.

      thinking about this, posting pictures of hikers without their 
knowledge also carries some risk. Best to ask first and allow some time to 
pass before publically posting.

2. I've never before heard the "what happens on the trail stays on the 
trail" nor do most people follow it. We tell others of where we went, what 
we did, who we saw, etc. as well as pictures we've taken of others. Then we 
now have the yearly DVDs.

3. Historical files of trail registers and scans posted a few months after 
the fact are obviously low risk. Journals could even be useful evidence of 
where was one when.

4. Trail names offer some protection -- but the issue is who know the 
person and their trail name.


Yes, we all probably have quite a bit of "web presence" without our 
knowledge. I limit mine as I can.

Tortoise

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable
President John F Kennedy,  1962

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On 2012.07.31 21:11, I Discovered That By Going Out I Had Really Gone In wrote:
> It really is a question about the expectation of privacy, at least to me.  A seperate issue that has come up through the PCT-L is commercial exploitation of posts made in one venue, the PCT-L, by another, Postholer.
>
> One can certainly argue that there is no expectation of privacy from the general public to such posts, but I think that is wrong and not appreciated by those who've been avant-garde from through hiking for awhile.
>
> The rule is that what happens on the trail stays on the trail. So the expected audiance for register posts is the those actually on the trail, not those living vicariously through the hikers of a given season. What is for public consumption are the journals posted by the hikers specifically for public consumption.
>
> This isn't a question of legality so much as it is protecting some hikers who shed the normal persona during a thru hike as well as the experience as a whole.
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
>
> Ashley <djalowe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ohhh let's get gourmet on this!!! He is a lawyer! But the registry does say its going to be posted on postholer so I guess it's the person who registers responsibility to read the fine print! I think the lawyers would agree with that....Haha these email threads are hilarious, so many heated opinions about the darnedest things :)!
>> Iguana
>>
>> Sent from my iPod
>>
>> On Jul 31, 2012, at 9:32 AM, Greg Hummel <bighummel at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hm, if I came across a trail register in the forest, on public land, or in a Post Office, and freely available to anyone coming by, I don't think I would expect any comments I leave to be private in any shape, form or legality.
>>>
>>>
>>> The old trail registers are in the PCTA's archives and I and many other old, ancient thru-hikers have been urging them to scan and post, or make available to the public. This same argument came up, one of privacy and we have argued as I have here, that these were recorded on public property, in a public arena, with free access to anyone. Where does the privacy issue come into this? Maybe a lawyer can explain it to me.
>>>
>>>
>>> Greg Hummel
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "I'm afraid of nothing and scared of everything"- GNH
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