How bad could being an internet forum poster ruin a person's life if their details are posted? (CD, setting)
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I post on the misc (bodybuilding.com), joined a month back and something bizarre happened. Some poster apparently pissed off the wrong guy. Now this poster had his picture up and everything and he had made so many posts about being some foreveralone guy in the UK and facing racism there, like had so many posts about it.
Apparently someone in real life recognized him from the forum and knew his name which he has refused to tell forum posters but I want to know this.
If someone was posting on an internet forum (or several of them) with an alias, people end up finding his picture, and they end up attaching a name to his picture, how screwed is he for life?
Dunno ... there was this dude on C-D who had multiple handles like GlitteringPrizes/AStalkingButler/KnowerOfThings/CodeViolationMcEnroe and posted mysogynistic things and had a white-power blurb in his status; this dude posted his picture, his resume, personal website, and other personal info on here.
I think that info lives forever.
Dunno ... there was this dude on C-D who had multiple handles like GlitteringPrizes/AStalkingButler/KnowerOfThings/CodeViolationMcEnroe and posted mysogynistic things and had a white-power blurb in his status; this dude posted his picture, his resume, personal website, and other personal info on here.
I think that info lives forever.
And, funny enough, that same dude's picture appears on a banned profile in the bodybuilder.com forum.
Scary how that kind of stuff can come back to haunt you, no?
Think Dennis Rodman with the Chicago Bulls under Phil Jackson in basketball--he did some nutty things when not playing, but on the court he played very well & did exactly what they needed him to do (most of the time).
Generally I agree, but then you have people like John Rocker who lives in infamy for his racial slurs about who rides the 7 Train. I bet you can see how that would present a bit of a PR problem for major league baseball.
I've never had a job or career where my online activities were scrutinized. I would for sure have a problem with a company who scoured my social media and forum activities and judged me unfit for employment based on that, because they would reject me or fire me based on who I am – an atheist, a leftist, and LGBT supporter. If you're such a far-gone alcoholic that you're getting drunk every morning before you operate a forklift, or you're a true creep who gets off on molesting children, that's different though.
I will say also that my wife, being in software/web dev, has to be a lot more careful about what she puts out there. On the other hand, she's been on the job market since July and has been finding, ironically enough, that it's her LACK of social media activity that's serving as a hindrance, especially when compared to a younger person who shares everything on Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, etc.
Last edited by Mr.BadGuy; 10-05-2013 at 02:39 PM..
And don't contribute your opinions on abortion, religion or gay marriage as you never know what you mager's personal believe are. Add politics to that list. If feel you must, then use a gender neutral
user name, never mention specifically where you live and give out as few personsonal
details as you can.
It was my impression that HR, doesnt't dig too deep. They keep their search to Facebook, LiknIn an general searches. Goverment jobs? They have departments devoted to searches, but these tend to be more the sort of using key words "bombs, attacks and forthright.
Racism and mysogeny are probably some good topics to avoid, too.
Yeah. Screw personal responsibility. While we are at it drug tests and background checks should be illegal.
If it has nothing to do with your fitness on the JOB ITSELF, yes, they should be.
The thing is, though, it makes sense that a company wants to make sure you're not going to go to work stoned or intoxicated. It makes sense that a company wants to make sure they're not employing a former embezzler, especially if it's someone like a bank. All of that makes sense.
Beyond that, though, it's not any of their business. Like Bruce Springsteen said years ago in his song "when I'm out on the street, I talk the way I want to talk." So when you scrutinize my credit rating, whether it's good or bad, or scrutinize how topical I get about politics outside of work, yes that's none of your business. That you expect me to NOT get topical about politics at the workplace itself, that's totally appropriate and expected, absolutely. However, what relevance does it have if during my free time I love it when Fred Sanford says "take that faggoty jacket with you" in a sit-com and say such in comments somewhere? That's irrelevant regarding my job. However, if I go off on that sort of thing at work, that is NOT okay.
I myself hate "LOL" and "DS" abbreviations, but if I were hiring, then so long as the person used proper grammar & avoided "jive talk" within business communication, then they can engage in "LOL" and "jive talk" etc outside of work all they want to, it has zero relevance to the job at hand, even though I hate for it to be used in ANY context. When a teacher gets in hot water for posting photos of herself enjoying a glass of wine while ON VACATION, that is not at all okay. By day she is a teacher, what she is by night is no one else's business, and she shouldn't have to hide it under a rock, if she wants to share online, that's her prerogative, and it shouldn't be a company's prerogative to include such in their hiring decisions.
Would an NAACP office hire a person who is known to espouse white-power philosophies on various media in his spare time?
There is a HUGE difference between someone putting their face on national television being something of a leader or agitator, absolutely going out of their way to publicly & under their own name make their views obvious, and someone going online under an alias, or operating within "closed" social media only meant for their like-minded friends, just venting about their opinions. It's the same as someone going to a public political rally as an audience member etc, to be sure no one with half a brain thinks someone going to a RALLY as an audience member saying what they feel should be any of their employer's business. It's not like they're David Duke or Louis Farrakhan. They're the average joe just having their own little mini-platform.
It depends on how hard people want to dig up information about him. Simply deleting his posts and his accounts will stop most people from ever seeing it, but for the people in IT or anyone with good enough knowledge of how the internet works, they'll be able to find it. The internet doesn't forget.
Well.... City Data doesn't allow for deletion of posts after a short period, and you can't delete your account (something which was news to me because I rarely wade through those small print Terms of Service, since most sites do allow you to delete your account.)
So to answer this in a general way... getting rid of the posts may not be so simple for someone, depending on the site. But I think if there is a real privacy concern, the owner/administrator of the site should be able to make an exception and intervene. If I were the owner of a site and this happened, strictly from a legal/liability standpoint, I would want to intervene. So, if this happened to me as a member, I would contact the site. I might even threaten to take legal action, assuming I had good reason to want to keep my details private.
I've never had such a thing happen, but I was posting on a blog... just some fashion blog... and I never troll, but I happened to disagree with what the blogger said and posted a balanced and intelligent comment, anonymously. (This was not a membership site.) The blogger responded to my post and actually called me out by NAME... No idea how this happened, as I am not a blogger and was not logged in to anything when posting. That was pretty insane, considering my comment was polite and benign. The blogger must have looked up my IP address and somehow linked it to SOMETHING which had my name... I don't know. There are some crazies out there who will really go out of their way to dig something up if they don't like you.
Frankly, I wish more sites required people to post using their real names. While people might occasionally have a legitimate reason to hide their true identities, 99% of the time posting anonymously just helps trolls, flamers and spammers. If you wouldn't say it to someone's face in real life, don't say it online.
I agree with you about anonymous posting helping trolls, flamers, and spammers. And, also, that if you wouldn't say it to someone's face in real life, you shouldn't say it online. Still, I don't agree that more sites should require people to post using their real names, and I don't comment on sites which require this (other than, of course, LinkedIn.... and then I am careful not to express any controversial opinion.)
The problem is that people are offended by anything and everything. And people have ideas about what is a frivolous way to spend time. Or people may wonder why someone posted during "work hours," even though that person was on vacation, in another time zone, or wasn't working traditional hours. Maybe I post something on some site dedicated to frugal housekeeping tips. Whatever... who cares. But some employer might see me as "too domestic" and maybe not a serious-enough candidate for a job. Or maybe they saw that I posted on a fashion site... maybe they think that interest is frivolous and says something about me. Maybe they saw that I posted a book review on a book site, for some book with a political angle, and they disagree with it.
I'm sure someone will say, "but would you really want to work for someone who would hold any of those things against you?" Yeah, I would. People ask that question all the time, but most people don't have the luxury to choose a 100% open-minded employer, and besides, it is human nature to make snap assessments of people based on statements, interests, and other activity. I'm not sure you can find any employer who won't form an opinion of you based on what you write on the internet... you just might not know whether they've formed an opinion.
I have a general rule of trying to keep work and personal life separate. Internet activity is personal life even if you are posting comments the world can see. I wouldn't want to be required to make all my comments easily-findable by employers.
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