There’s a great article by Linda Keenan in Boston.com today entitled: My Blog Ate My Career. The byline continues: “I’m perfectly qualified for a job — just don’t look me up online.”
This is a humourous, but true danger of posting on the internet under your own name, and increasingly one becomes aware of the immortality of one’s comments and statements where “google never forgets”. Just as I have had a few scuffles in the past with people I’ve disagreed with, google can become a nasty tool when prospective employers enter your name online, and can come up with words like “racism” or “sexism” associated to past posts. Some rather unsavoury bloggers even intentionally manipulate google by putting a person’s name next to a keyword like “pedophile” in order to try and get it as a top research result in tandem with the person’s name.
Things that usually fly off the cuff can come back to haunt someone, and over years if one is not careful, there can be the very real and awkward possibility that your prospective employer could hit a google search that doesn’t exactly highlight your best qualities:
I would like to work again full time. And if I were applying to be, say, Flava Flav’s girlfriend or an unhinged Real Housewife on Bravo, I might well prove qualified. But would I blame a proper boss in this brutal job market for ignoring me because of my online shenanigans? No. The fact is: I wouldn’t hire me either. Further, I’m not sure I’d let me in the PTA, or even near my kid. An employer typically looks for someone trustworthy, helpful, courteous. My attributes, etched forever in the digital record, read like a perversion of the Boy Scout Law.
Disloyal I compared some unnamed news anchors I had worked for to my toddler — discussing their flatulence, their bald spots, their screaming red-faced tantrums — and declared my toddler more mature.
Sexist I wrote that Sarah Palin’s recipe for Middle East peace was Tater Tot Casserole.
Petty I resolved this New Year to fire 10 Facebook friends for non-responsiveness.
Sanctimonious I decided to get my next Pap smear done by a Sikh doctor, in a purely political act, after hearing that other patients were unjustly scared of him and his turban.
[...]
The list continues. Of course I’m sure this is mainly meant to be humourous, but sometimes the things we utter online are things we wouldn’t dream of sharing with our bosses who maintain our gainful employment. It got to me thinking how many of the top bloggers are forward and upfront about their identities, and whether that detracts from popularity at all. Robert Jago’s monthly list of top 25 political bloggers I will use as a reference:
1. Michael Geist, real name and a law professor at the University of Ottawa
2. The Hook, all contributors use their real names, as The Tyee is a media outlet
3. Small Dead Animals, written by Kate McMillan who uses her real name
4. Ghost of a Flea, semi-anonymous but his name, Nicholas Packwood, is easily found in copyright
5. The Shotgun Blog, all contributors use their real names
6. Matthew Good, his real name and is a famous musician
7. Eaves, written by David Eaves, his real name
8. Ezra Levant, who uses his real name
9. Steyn Online, written by Mark Steyn, his real name
10. Five Feet of Fury, written by Kathy Shaidle, her real name
11. DavidAkin, a journalist and his real name
12. April Reign, the first anonymous blogger, although I’m not certain if people know her real name
13. Bow. James Bow, a writer and his real name
14. Warren Kinsella, political strategist and his real name
15. Canadian Cynic, anonymous and proud of it
16. Abandoned Stuff, semi-anonymous, only known as John as far as I know
17. Slap Upside the Head, semi-anonymous, only known as Mark
18. Stephen Taylor, real name and founder of Blogging Tories
19. Gen X at 40, real name is Alan McLeod
20. M.A.Dinosaur, anonymous and posts as “dinosaur”
21. Dawg’s Blog, anonymous and posts as “Dr.Dawg”
22. Quebec Politique, anonymous but I don’t speak French so I could be wrong
23. Blazing Cat Fur, anonymous
24. Jay Currie, posts under his real name
25. Maple Leaf Web, group blog where people appear to post under real names
From this, it seems like popular anonymous bloggers are from both sides of the fence, but more are leftwing. The top bloggers are all using their real names and some are even using them for their writing careers. The bottom of the top 25 list are more prone to anonymous writers. 16 of the top 25 use their real names.
Make of this as you will. Or perhaps not at all. I found it an entertaining 30 minutes of my life, but “your mileage may vary”.
February 9, 2009 at 12:36 am
Sure if I was the Batman, the Flea would be my secret identity. But as Rorschach, the Flea is more like putting on my real face.
(Google that one, hypothetical future employers!)
February 9, 2009 at 3:06 am
That is one of the reasons why I don’t blog under my real name. I wouldn’t say I am anonymous, it wouldn’t take much to figure out my real name but at least a quick google search isn’t flooded with entries from my blog and comments I (or other fellow bloggers) have made.
February 9, 2009 at 3:35 am
Does Google have the right to archive all our posts?
Shouldn’t we have the right of choosing what is to be recorded?
February 9, 2009 at 3:44 am
@ pochp
The short answer is yes they do. The issue of indexing and caching has been through the courts several times before and google et al. have always come up victorious. If you don’t agree think about how the web would function without serch engines.
Of course any page deleted from the web will eventually be removed form google’s index. This is not so for every caching serves (ie the way back machine).
The problem usually lies with pages or comments that one does not control. I may be able to take down my site and be content that google will delete it soon enough, but I cannot do much against other bloggers or commenters on other blogs to force them to take down their content short of legal action which gets increasing complicated if everyone involved (me, blog author, commenters, hosting provider, server space) are in different jurisdictions.
Start out with this assumption and act appropriately, perhaps by remaining anonymous (though that is more difficult than most assume) and everything will be fine.
February 9, 2009 at 6:49 am
The thing about anonymous blogging (as opposed to anonymous commenting) is to ask this question: are you willing to stand behind what you say?
That’s one of the reasons why I don’t believe “anonymous” works well in political blogging.
Canadian Cynic, I would argue, isn’t anonymous blogging so much as “pseudonymous” blogging: his style helps to establish “Canadian Cynic” as a brand name of a particular style of political blogging. I don’t make as serious an attempt to hide my real identity when I blog, but that’s because I want to establish “Phantom Observer” as a brand name for my style of blogging.
February 9, 2009 at 7:05 am
I see your point Phantom.
As to your question, I stand by what I say all right.
February 9, 2009 at 8:36 am
I’m of the same mind as ScruffyDan. As an anoymous blogger I get quite pissy when I see people calling anonymous bloggers “cowards”.
Why don’t I blog under my real name? No advantages to me. Honestly, whats in it for me? I’m not going to make a name for myself as a journalist or “citizen reporter.” While I trust the majority of bloggers I communicate with to be honourable people, it only takes one idiot to spoil the game and cause me headaches I don’t need. (To illustrate the difference between brave, and needless courage, take someone that mountain bikes down a cliff without any safety equipment. Are they brave in that they conquered their fears and took the ride. Yes. But were they sane?)
Disadvantages, there are many. Mostly career related (I could be fired, or be rendered unemployable). That affects me and my family and could be quite devastating.
And yeah there is also the protection it offers that I take advantage of. I can speak a little more freely as Catelli then under my real name. To me its akin to a party where everybody knows you and you are looser in your communications style. You say things there you wouldn’t say at work, or in public or what have you. By being anonymous, I’m having my “party” online. Blogging is part venting part thoughtful discussion. Some weeks more one than the other. Under anonymity I can do that venting, reasonably safely.
February 9, 2009 at 11:01 am
Interesting points raised above. I am less anonymous than serially pseudonymous – I’ve published my name on our site several times, and linked to my publications and productions. A couple of nastier right wing bloggers have triumphantly “outed” me in the past, one just a day after I announced the release of a DVD I co-produced on ours site.
I blog pseudonymously for two reasons. One is to protect my staff against harassment, which occurred two years ago when a psychotic began phoning the workplaces of several bloggers he disliked with threats. (Zorph and Ian Scott were also harrassed by the same idiot).
But more important, I blog under the name “balbulican” because he is a character I, his author, have created. He’s not me. He’s a lot like me in some ways, but he is my version of Samuel Marchbanks.
February 9, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Interestingly, I wonder if anyone else took note of this particular post at the Sycophantic Groupthink Temple.
Anybody else find it amusing that someone who whipped his pack of jackals into an outraged frenzy at the idea that he might be outed would be so willing to out another individual with the express purpose of ruining their life?
Of course if the individual in question really is an anti-Semite like Cynic insists I won’t be shedding any tears for the person’s fate — then again, considering the calculated dishonesty that so often is the stock in trade of that site, one can rarely be quite sure.
But I find it quite amusing that someone who uses anonymity as a shield from which he can attack people — often to libelous extents — and whines petulantly whenever someone decides he shouldn’t be able to do so with impunity would so indulge himself.
Then again, who’s really surprised at the depth of the hypocrisy at that site anymore?
February 9, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Good grief, I’m not that anonymous.
February 9, 2009 at 4:19 pm
@ Patrick Ross
In regards to the CC site upon reading the post in question (I don’t go there regularly so I may be missing important background info) it seems the threat of removing PaleoAnarchist’s anonymity stems from the fact that he continuously posts unwanted and seemingly insulting/racist comments on the CC site and the blogger platform doesn’t allow the site administrators from banning him. Thus the threat of revealing his identity if he continues to comment over at CC.
In the comments CC himself seems to be considering moving his comments to another system that would allow commenters to be banned thus avoiding this admittedly hypocritical (though somewhat understandable) situation.
February 9, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Victor,
I do recognize the “brand” idea of a pseudonym, and it’s a perfectly acceptable way to go. I fully endorse anyone’s choice to be anonymous, but with a recognizable internet name that people know.
But to be clear, I was making the distinction between one’s real name and one’s pseudonym clear: a person with a pseudonym can ruin their online brand, but walk away clear and free in real life. When people put their real name online, I feel it’s a bolder approach, and I tend to respect that a little more. Of course, it’s also the riskiest choice if one dwells in controversial territory, like a Canadian Cynic.
February 9, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Catelli,
I hope I haven’t inferred that anonymous bloggers are cowards, although I think I have said as much a few times when pseudonymous bloggers threaten people who use their real names with real life consequences. At any rate, as you say, it is far safer to blog when you know there won’t be consequences to your family or your employment and you can walk away if things ever get out of hand.
For the other “top 10″ bloggers, many of them are either professionals or close to branding themselves as such, and I can understand why they’ve turned this hobby into a career.
Still, I am always fearful of that one nutcase out there who decides to take a personal vendetta against me.
February 9, 2009 at 5:10 pm
balbulican,
Yes, I was going to mention Stageleft as a perfect example of pseudonymous bloggers who provide quality content without really trying to be anonymous. I recognize the “character” aspect of it perfectly, and to a certain extent it’s true that no matter what we have different online personalities to our real life ones.
Patrick,
Yes, I caught that CC blog entry by chance. Not sure how I arrived there. Probably checking my web stats. Everybody knows what I think of CC and his shenanigans. No point in dredging it up again.
February 9, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Dawg,
I haven’t been paying attention too carefully, so if you revealed your real name, I’m sure to have missed it.
February 9, 2009 at 5:27 pm
That wasn’t directed at you. I was referencing Warren Kinsella and Werner Patels to name two “anonymous bloggers are cowards” people.
February 9, 2009 at 7:11 pm
@ Dan
Yes, and posting unwanted comments in something that, by its very nature, is maintained as a public forum is something that justifies intentfully “runing someone’s life”.
Moving to Haloscan probably would make Cynic a good deal happier. Not only would he be able to remove this individual’s allegedly anti-semitic comments (although he knowingly pals around with known anti-semite Robert McClelland, so that’s a little hard to swallow), but he’d also be able to ban anyone who so much as turns up and points on when he’s factually wrong.
Last but not least, I wouldn’t overestimate my objection. Considering how utterly fruitless Cynic’s professed efforts to destroy my career have been — considering how obsenely well-employed I am right now — this is a guy who’s utterly inept at character assassination. Although he does try.
February 9, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Then there are the happy few, like myself, whose real names are so pathetically common that they may as well be anonymous.
February 10, 2009 at 1:40 am
well it looks like CC has had a change of heart, and realized the errors of his ways.
http://canadiancynic.blogspot.com/2009/02/of-anonymity-and-assholes-and-justice.html
February 10, 2009 at 6:07 am
How is Gen X at 40 my “identity”? My real name sits to the right of every page. The real protection is not posting anything that is stupidly unsupportable.
February 10, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Jennifer,
There’s something in what you say, lol. Ironically, two of my female cousins wound up marrying “Smiths” from different backgrounds, so even though they changed their father’s surname to their husband’s, they still have the same last name together.
February 10, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Alan,
I’m sorry for any confusion, but I identified you as a blogger who uses his real name.
February 10, 2009 at 9:40 pm
“well it looks like CC has had a change of heart, and realized the errors of his ways.”
Now, if he can stop himself from encouraging his jackals to go after a blogging rival by stalking his children we’d be in business.
February 11, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Does Google have the right to archive all our posts?
Shouldn’t we have the right of choosing what is to be recorded?
You can change your robots.txt.
February 11, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Very good point Mr Z, I completely missed that the first time around.
February 12, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I don’t post under my real name, but I doubt it would be hard to find it. Doing a Google search of my real name wouldn’t find me, though – it’s not an uncommon name, and there are too many others who show up in the results before me.
I once thought it would be fun to do a “biography” post where every sentence was descriptive of, and had a link to, the people who appeared earlier in a Google search of my name.
March 1, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Is “Raphael Alexander” your real name? Just curious.
March 1, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Define what real name means. Is it my legal birth name? Yes. Is it my real first name? No.
June 10, 2009 at 9:10 pm
OMG! Conspiracy! Warren Kinsella is so gonna catch you, and find out all youre devious racist pasts. YOu and ur past dealings with the NatPost will be burst for all the world to see, and Mr. Kinsella will now look after making sure of that.
June 11, 2009 at 9:27 am
I assure you, we all post under our REAL names. All the blog authors provide detailed biographies (just click on their names) and contact information.
Thanks for the link!
June 11, 2009 at 9:30 am
That’s great. I guess. Your page has a 404 error by the way.
June 15, 2009 at 3:35 am
I’m new here on the forum, found it by searching google. I look forward to chatting about various topics with all of you.
September 14, 2009 at 11:29 am
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