When this project began, the repository incorporated individual alum information. Some vandals decided it was fun to submit false information intended to embarrass the alum. Since there will always be slanderous statements I won't recognize, the information is no longer part of the repository.
The current substitute is the bulletin boards. If you want to tell your classmates about what you're doing, you can just post it to the relevant decade.
If you really want to read more about this depressing topic, the following is the original explanation:
Vandals have victimized the Po-Hi alumni page by including false information on the biographical information blurbs that formerly accompanies each entry. The approach to this has been to handle each entry individually, screening the information as carefully as possible for potentially embarrassing or offensive remarks. This has had two major effects:
- Alumni have become angry as their choice of content, deemed inappropriate for the site, was refused.
- False information still leaked through as vandals found they needed to be less transparent.
Legally (as the maintainer understands it), unknowlingly publishing false information falls short of libel, but this does not excuse playing party to damaging a person's name. To handle this, two approaches - more careful screening and refusing content to the young - suggest themselves. Neither is acceptable.
Additional screening would be offensive, as it would require severe investigation into any entries claiming, for example, a homosexual relationship. (This was the gist of the false entry that passed the most recent screening.) It would also be time-consuming. More restrictive screening is not an option.
Refusing entries from people who are, say, not more than two years past graduation (since the false entries have originated almost entirely among younger alumni) is likewise inadequate. Besides adding to the blatant discrimination that youth already face, the approach would not be entirely effective. The most recent problem apparently came from a 25-year-old.
Unfortunately, the only reasonable alternative is to remove the information blurbs altogether. The maintainer is familiar with the state of the art in authentication technology; it is not deployed widely enough for a site such as this, nor will it be in the next few years. You should not expect the biographical information to return.
The maintainer is sorry and would like to apologize profusely to the vandals' targets for giving the circumstance the possibility of occurring.
This page has always been vulnerable to vandalization; it still is. Continuing problems may, indeed, bring down the entire service.
Please, however, continue to report problems. Thank you for your support of the Po-Hi alumni page.