Information disclosure clean-up policy

Sometimes people post information they'd prefer to be confidential to a mailing list, bug tracker, etc. Sometimes people would like me to delete that information. This is mostly pointless, as just about everything here is rapidly indexed and mirrored by multiple third parties we have no control over, but people ask anyway. But it's also very time-consuming for me and my time is very valuable.

If you would like me to remove data that you posted to Mercurial's mailing list, bugtracker, or elsewhere in error, please donate $100 to either the Software Freedom Conservancy or the Electronic Frontier Foundation (your choice) and send me the receipt. I will then spend up to half an hour trying to undo your mistake so far as possible. Again, because our public mailing list is indexed by multiple third parties, this will not be effective in removing your data from the internet.

Rationale

Rather than repeatedly spending time explaining to people that a) their request is pointless and b) my time is actually valuable, I'm now going to just send out this URL which puts a number on it. My former consulting rate was higher than the quoted price, and I need free time much more than money, but hopefully this will be enough to discourage people.

So please consider if you really need this service.