# Commoncog Policy: Forum Privacy
**URL:** https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033
**Category:** Meta
**Created:** [October 1, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033 "2025-10-01T04:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033/1 "2025-10-01T04:16:41Z")
So, I realise I should make this explicit because I’ve already adopted this policy for a year now:
> We (meaning Commoncog staff) will **never** publish any post from the forum on a public medium without first asking permission from the poster. The only exceptions to this are, of course, posts by Commoncog staff.
~~We may, of course, occasionally write things like “In a forum post, member X (username) argued Y” in a publicly-available Commoncog essay, but if the member has any objections, we take down or modify that immediately, **no questions asked**.~~ (We will also ask permission for this if we want to cite specific members, see below.) For verbatim quotes, however, our policy is that we **must** ask permission **first** , **before** reproducing it in a public setting.
An example of this may be seen in the [How to Use AI Without Becoming Stupid](https://commoncog.com/how-to-use-ai-without-becoming-stupid/#using-llms-to-self-teach-fiction-writing) essay, where I asked for @brian’s permission first before I published his post on how he used AI to self-improve on fiction writing.
This also applies, naturally, to screenshots of forum posts (those following me on my socials will notice I only ever screenshot _my_ posts, never anyone else’s) and to any other sort of reproduction (e.g. ‘save to PDF’).
Just wanted to make this crystal clear.
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### Author:  [@minhthanh3145](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/minhthanh3145)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2025, 6:29am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033/2 "2025-10-01T06:29:58Z")
I screenshot some issues in which I was mentioned and shared with my friends (who also know of you and your newsletter, so I guess I’m helping nurture your leads 😆) so I don’t mind it too much, but good to know!
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### Author:  [@justin](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/justin)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2025, 9:43am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033/3 "2025-10-01T09:43:59Z")
> [@cedric](#):
>
> In a forum post, member X (username) argued Y
Should we go full Chatham House Rules and not attribute names at all externally (without permission)?
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### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 1, 2025, 9:51am UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033/4 "2025-10-01T09:51:19Z")
Sounds like a plan, actually. Let’s adopt that. I prefer privacy in this forum (within limits; I hope everyone here assumes that folks _may_ take screenshots to share with other folks; there’s no way we can prevent that — I’m merely assuring you that _we_ will never do it.)
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### Author:  [@cedric](https://forum.commoncog.com/u/cedric)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://forum.commoncog.com/t/commoncog-policy-forum-privacy/3033/5 "2025-10-05T16:21:30Z")
Oh, I just realise a quirk: this would mean changing the format of the newsletter forum excerpts.
Hmm. Should be fine, but let me see how goes once newsletters start again! It might make for odd reading!