Watch what you post (because someone else will)

The controversy surrounding computer images kept on a federal judge's personal website provides an important reminder to anyone with a website, or even with an account on a social networking site (like Facebook or MySpace).

What you post can be — and will be — read by all sorts of people, including professional adversaries, a soon-to-be ex-spouse's divorce attorney, business competitors, disgruntled former employees — not to mention members of the media.

If there are those who wish you ill will — regardless of how rational their anger towards you may be — anything you post on a publicly accessible website becomes fair game for criticism.

The caution one should show when posting materials online should not necessarily result in the chilling of personal expression, but it does remind all of us that we should always try to conduct ourselves — both online and in face-to-face contact — with at least a modicum of civility.