Wendy, you have every right to not make your personal recipes public. And you have control by simply not discussing in public those recipes that you are not willing to divulge. That will protect you from being put on the spot.
As I am not lusting after chocolate brownie cobbler, consider these disinterested remarks:
1. I think Isa makes the most important point when she points out that posting something online may give the host site copyright on the posted material. Can we get a clarification of this about this site?
2. Copyright issues aside, anything on the web is potentially accessible through a google search. This may account for why some people do not use their own names and post no identifying information about themselves in the Members' section. It may be because they are (like me) categorically opposed to the loss of privacy we are subject to in our modern era. Or, I acknowledge, it may even be someone who is out to skim off easily what someone else has learned through hard work much like the students here who want others to do their research.
Each of us must decide individually when sharing in a common, cumulative community of knowledge veers off into parasitism and/or theft. I can't recall now who exactly coined the phrase, "on the shoulder of giants." Newton? or someone who stood on his shoulders?
3. Anyone has a right to simply say, that's a recipe I'm not yet willing to share. For whatever reason.
4. For my part, I'm much more concerned with the learning about techniques and basic ratios than I am the specific ingredients for most dishes (perhaps somewhat less so for baking). Once I've made a dish (and sometimes before) I will vary the ingredients, flavorings, etc.
3. I totally agree with Anna W and others who point out that with only the rarest exceptions, we're all using someone else's recipes, adaptions at best.
And it must be said that some people put a lot of research into finding different ways to make or present foods. I recall seeing many recipes where the person offering them says they're adaptations of medieval, Elizabethan, or a traditional Ligurian housewifes version of this or that. But I acknowledge that one could argue such research is just a way of stealing from the dead.
I respect people who seek out new ways of doing things whether they get their inspiration from an ancient "receipt," from W. DeBord, or from Adria - as long as they acknowledge the source. Except for a few "aberrant" types, most people are happy to point out they're trying a new recipe they found in such and such a cookbook. I don't see anything different (from a pride of accomplishment pov) between saying the best stew I ever made came from a Wolfert recipe or saying it was an old family recipe.
It could be that in the more cut-throat reaches of high level chef-ing they may strive to hide sources. Many chefs publish even their signature recipes not only in books which they sell, but also on line. Raymond Blanc has a website full of recipes on line, for example.
