Roger Hicks
Mentor
Why not?clarence said:
And how long is it going to take to find out your real name if someone REALLY wants to know?
Cheers,
R.
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Roger Hicks
Mentor
And perhaps anyone who is afraid of this should not post on the internet. If you won't stand up for what you said when it is true, what will you stand up for? And if you won't clarify or apologize for what you said when it is wrong, what will you clarify or apologize for?warren1960 said:
Cheers,
R.
warren1960
Warren
As a follow up I should add that most forums allow (or should allow) a user to update their nicknames, and this usualy resets all of the local archives retroactively.
But it will not rewrite any 3d party archives.
But it will not rewrite any 3d party archives.
physiognomy
Confirmed RF addict...
anselwannab said:
I agree that it might help in some circumstances, but I do not think it is a good idea to mandate such an idea... Feeling comfortable with how you identify yourself is part of what makes this forum work imho...
On a lighter note, I submit this quote from a moderator on another forum - "My advice is to just be yourself (unless you're a jerk, in which case you should be someone else)"
Peter
wgerrard
Mentor
A pseudonym might not be enough to hide on-the-job forum activity. If the employer is at all interested in tracking usage, and you're using the boss's network to access the internet, he will know when your machine was exchanging packets with this forum, or any other site. Matching a pseudonym with an actual employee won't be a difficult challenge.
People use pseudonyms for privacy, to try to avoid spam, to hide their tracks, and because they don't trust what others might do.
That said, others know you by the name you use, real or not. We all create an online persona, no matter what we call ourselves.
Remember, too, that a pseudonym can be a real name, not just your real name.
People use pseudonyms for privacy, to try to avoid spam, to hide their tracks, and because they don't trust what others might do.
That said, others know you by the name you use, real or not. We all create an online persona, no matter what we call ourselves.
Remember, too, that a pseudonym can be a real name, not just your real name.
40oz
...
Roger Hicks said:
This is quite understandable coming from someone who as far as I can tell, is self-employed and relies upon his name being well-known for income.
But, no offense intended, such an opinion is ludicrous and naive from the point of view of someone who depends upon an employer for a livelihood. And looking ahead, losing control of my ability to make a first impression to a search engine scouring comments made years ago on a message board doesn't seem like a good idea. I'd prefer to make my first impression the day I show up for the interview. It's hard enough to get an interview without providing fodder for snap judgements.
Some of us live in the real world, and don't see ourselves pitted against the universe, but rather struggle to get face time for a job interview or or a call-back from a potential client. As much as we may aplogize or correct ourselves, we have no control over what a simple search will show, and reality is that even if apologies are represented as much as offenses, people are people. Which means that many don't care if one ever apologizes, all they care about is that someone was once wrong or rude.
You maybe can afford to be cavalier with your name, many of us cannot. And the fact that I use a nickname has no bearing on my personal character, it's just prudent and harmless. As has already been stated, anyone who looks will find that people using their real names aren't any more polite.
anselwannab
Well-known
40oz said:
40oz, wow. You make Calista Flockheart look like a fatty!
If you say something on a photography forum that is going to get you fired or keep you from getting a job, you are either doing something horribly wrong, or that is one odd job.
Roger Hicks
Mentor
That was basically my feeling.anselwannab said:
Fear of employers is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and you can generally tell what they're like at the interview. As my wife once said, on being told at an interview that she would be fired the third time she arrived late, even if it was only by a minute, "There's no point in wasting any more of my time or yours with this interview." She then walked out.
Another job, years later, she simply reorganized the whole manning schedule (for a theatre box office) so she could get out on time. The fact that everyone else got out earlier too, and that the shift handover ran smoother, was a bonus. She was a part-time clerk on minimum wage at the time; it was just before she went full-time freelance.
It's been almost 30 years since I worked full-time as an employee in an office, but when I did, I was allowed a lot of latitude: if I left early, it was because I had done all the work I was going to do that day, and there was no point in staying. It took a while to train my boss to realize this, but I succeeded. When I left (for a better-paying job), he said, "We probably won't be able to afford you, but if you ever need a job again, we'll hire you."
Before that, among other things, I was a schoolteacher and photographic assistant and articled clerk to a firm of accountants. There was no internet in those days, though there were plenty of ways to steal time from your employer if your tastes ran that way. Reading a book, for example. Or trying to seduce your colleagues (strangely enough, I never tried that one). I took the view that if I was at work, I might as well work, and if I wasn't going to work, I might as well be up-front about it.
Yes, it can be hard to stand up to people. Sometimes it hurts. It may well cost you money: I'd be a richer man today if I'd been more of a yes-man. The price is worth it to me. I find it slightly difficult to see it any other way.
Cheers,
R.
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chris000
Landscaper
40oz said:
Well I'm employed by a government department, but I have nothing to fear from what I write on web forums because:
I don't use my PC at work for posting here or anywhere else - to do so would not only break the company rules it would be dishonest
I don't slag off my employer or co-workers - It would not only be unprofessional but I also learned long ago not to bite the hand that feeds me!
I don't post extreme political or religious views - this is a photography forum and is not the place for them anyway
My name is below for anyone who wants to know itI don't slag off my employer or co-workers - It would not only be unprofessional but I also learned long ago not to bite the hand that feeds me!
I don't post extreme political or religious views - this is a photography forum and is not the place for them anyway
Sparrow
Mentor
as i was reading this I'm listening to "my way" surreal or what
Chris, do the government have any PCs that work?
sorry bad joke
Chris, do the government have any PCs that work?
sorry bad joke
chris000
Landscaper
Sparrow said:
Oh yes ...... a few
wgerrard
Mentor
The world is full of all kinds of employers. For every one that doesn't care what you do as long as the work gets done, there is another who sees even the most productive worker goof off for 20 minutes and just gets mad.
If your work PC talks to the world through your company's internal network and firewall, your employer would need to do some extra work to avoid building a record of every employee's internet transactions. If the boss wants to track time wasters, all he needs to do is ask the IT department to generate a weekly list showing who accessed what for how long, and mapping internal IP addresses to employee names.
Ranting on the net is another issue. Publishing words we later regret has been around for centuries. The net just makes it easy for all of us to join in the fun. What we post will hang around forever. Use of a pseudonym doesn't make it impossible to trace your words back to you.
If your work PC talks to the world through your company's internal network and firewall, your employer would need to do some extra work to avoid building a record of every employee's internet transactions. If the boss wants to track time wasters, all he needs to do is ask the IT department to generate a weekly list showing who accessed what for how long, and mapping internal IP addresses to employee names.
Ranting on the net is another issue. Publishing words we later regret has been around for centuries. The net just makes it easy for all of us to join in the fun. What we post will hang around forever. Use of a pseudonym doesn't make it impossible to trace your words back to you.
Sparrow
Mentor
chris000 said:Oh yes ...... a few
bet it's just HMR&C
micromontenegro
Well-known
Roger Hicks said:
I very rarely post here, but I must pause a moment to honor sanity-such a rare comodity! Bravo, Roger.
Al Patterson
Ferroequinologist
wgerrard said:
A few years back I worked in the Information Security department of a company here in the US. We had a report online that showed on a daily basis all URLs you visited from work, and how many page views. Now, maybe some firms don't have time to review all these reports daily, but they are there and can and will be used against you.