I'm just a little curious here......

How does one balance safety (i.e., not placing personal info in a letterbox for fear of some mentally deranged
person discovering and and using that info for various nefarious plans) and prudence (i.e., hiding a box like object
in a public place where someone might discover it and the next thing you know, you've got S.W.A.T and the bomb squad
lining up!)?

Given that something as innocuous as a package of candy triggered this very thing in Athens, see this URL:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/100203/opi_20031002057.shtml , what's to stop the same thing from happening in a
park? Now, granted, a state or municipal park is not as ripe a 'target' as, say, City Hall or other governmental
buildings, but it can happen, reference this URL:
http://www.americanforests.org/productsandpubs/magazine/archives/2003summer/recreation.php which was in the middle of
nowhere. Now, given it WAS an old ammunition container and all, but I've seen how some people react to things unknown.

Where's the balance? Placing your contact info on the box is no different that using the contact the placer
function at the LbNA website, as an e-mail address can be traced as well as an IP address. Hiding on the Internet is
not an easy thing to do anymore.

I'm not trying to tell anyone to 'Stuff a Sock in it', nor am I trying to stir up the pot. I'm simply asking when
is to much information, to much information? BookCrossing.com uses a BCID number to identify each book. No one
places anything more than their first name, if even that, on a book they release.... However, I doubt many of them
are releasing books into the wild, in the wild! We're kinda stuck in a different realm here. I, myself, place my
full contact information in my letterboxes. Name, address, e-mail address. I include the 'standard' this is a
letterbox info sheet from the files section here. I try to make people's ability to locate the owner of the box as
easy as possible.

I think that the contact the placer function at the LbNA website is a wonderful way to get information to the
placer, but it does lead to the Webmasters e-Mail box getting flooded with replies to those letter because people
didn't take the time to cull the address from the letter, they just hit reply.

I'm not saying anyone is right, wrong or indifferent, just curious.

Steve of Rayvenhaus