Just a quick reminder, from personal experience, that DailyKos is a very public website accessible by everyone with an internet connection. It's easy to forget this since we have so many tightly-knit communities on this site. The pootie folks, the Morning F-Bomb, GUS, Cheers and Jeers, and all the other communities I can't list off the top of my head, use this site day in and day out to communicate with friends near and far.
One of the downsides, however, is that it's easy to forget that every comment thread on this site (sans the hiddens) is open to the general public. Anyone can read, write, copy, and print what you say on the pages herein. Don't give out any personally revealing information that you wouldn't want your grandfather or worst enemy reading.
I was just informed that my anti-gay, conservative cousin came across this diary that I wrote two weeks ago about the Jason Collins saga. In the diary, I included this sentence:
I'm gay, and I had a girlfriend in 9th grade.
He saw that and, as I'm told, "freaked the fuck out." He ran to my family and told them, which apparently landed with a resounding thud. They've known for years, though not directly through me (someone outed me). He must have missed the memo.
Let me make it clear, since I know my family is reading this: I wouldn't have written that I'm gay unless I didn't give three flying monkeys that you know. Who cares? I don't care if you're attracted to tall men with mustaches or plus-sized women with blonde hair. I don't care. You shouldn't care that I'm attracted to men. And it's especially not a revelation since I wrote it on a publicly-accessible website. Dummy.
And as for you, dear reader, remember that people you've never heard of are reading your stuff. If you're gay and want to stay in the closet for whatever your reasons are, don't say something in public that could be traced back to you. Let me make it clear: I have no interest in hiding my homosexuality from anyone anymore, or else I wouldn't have posted it here.
Don't post your personal contact information unless you're ready for the weirdest weirdos to email you pictures of their feet dressed up as Nazi soldiers. Don't post your address unless you're willing to have someone send you nasty cookies. Don't post your flight information unless you're ready for Mitt Romney to board and try to open the windows mid-flight.
DailyKos is a public website. Remember that.