Comments on: Could blogging damage your career?

By: Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Fan

Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Fan — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 16:42:53 +0000

I did a search for “talk about sport” as I am looking for information on where Halifax Mooseheads players lived and the history about them and their culture. We have and have had hockey players from all over the world play with the local hockey team here in halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am researching anyone who has played in the past and the present for the Halifax Mooseheads hockey team. I came upon your website when I searched for sports, the words “talk about sport” must have been on this webpage , thus it put you in the search engine for the word “talk about sport”. You seem to know about blogs. I wonder if people would like a Halifax Mooseheads blog. Anyways although I didnot find anything about any Moosehead players here, but I wish you good luck with your website. It maynot be what I was searching for this time, but I will be back as you stoked my interest on blogs and about the things people can enjoy about blogs, but I bet there is lots more to understand to operate a blog. Be back later to read more as you seem very knowledgeable. Take care and God Bless Steve A Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Fan

By: Brooke Burke nude

Brooke Burke nude — Tue, 27 Jan 2004 05:39:42 +0000

nice post

By: Dave F

Dave F — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 11:45:49 +0000

http://www.google-watch.org/proxy.html purports to provide a shield against intrusion while allowing the user to google. The site concerned is dedicated to warning that G is watching you in ways you wot not of.

By: ahem

ahem — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 05:24:00 +0000

The MLA will never hire me! :) Just for the record, Sebastian: ‘the MLA’ is the location for the interviews (the annual Convention of the Modern Language Association), not the prospective employer. The EngLit section of the academy congregates en masse for the MLA each December, and this has meant that the ostensible purpose of giving papers and making contacts (of all kinds) is now considered secondary to its hosting of hundreds of interviews for posts beginning the following Fall. (A long process, but an efficient one. At least it prevents a logistical nightmare for candidates and interviewers alike.) The MLA is rather like an academic cattle market. Read David Lodge’s Small World for a sense of it. Though that pre-dates the era of google-stalking.

By: Sebastian Holsclaw

Sebastian Holsclaw — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:34:25 +0000

I’m doomed. The MLA will never hire me! :)

By: PZ Myers

PZ Myers — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 19:15:39 +0000

Or just be given a common name at birth. I can tell you that there are an awful lot of “Paul Myers” out there. I think what will eventually make this a non-problem, though, is simply the near-universality of the web record. Our little brain farts will get swamped out in the vast and ever-growing miasma of the net.

By: Brian Weatherson

Brian Weatherson — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 16:50:28 +0000

Yeah, I think it’s completely obvious that not hiring someone because they couldn’t carry an argument in a bucket is way more offensive than not hiring someone because of their skin colour.

By: Rv. Agnos

Rv. Agnos — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 16:46:21 +0000

It is certainly not a violation of free speech to require people to take responsibility for their statements.

By: jason

jason — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 16:16:11 +0000

free speech? what happened to it? and yet abercrombie gets heat for it’s hiring practices. fiasco.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 15:43:44 +0000

The needle in the haystack thing is easier to pull off than you might think. I dearly hope that any search committee that googles me will realize that “Remembering Matt Weiner ‘02” is a false positive….

By: Rv. Agnos

Rv. Agnos — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 15:26:42 +0000

Another option would be to change your name to “Michael Jackson” or “Paris Hilton”. You’d be the needle in the haystack.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 15:26:25 +0000

Soon enough, the absence of a Google record will look suspicious in itself: “So, M. Applicant. You mean to say you have never participated in an online discussion about your field of interest?” And also: “Oh, you posted under an alias. Courage of your convictions, eh? Is it a verifiable one, M. Factory? No, of course not.” Happy goldfish bowl. C.

By: Brian Weatherson

Brian Weatherson — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 15:21:36 +0000

If you’re worried about a quick Google search, just the simple expedient of having posts signed by first name only (as on CT) removes a lot of the connection. If you Google for Chris Bertram the initial link is to Junius (where the posts were all signed ‘Chris Bertram’) and there are very few links to CT. This is despite the fact that CT is more frequently updated and more widely linked. So you needn’t stay completely anonymous to fend off the casual Google-browser, just don’t obsessively put your full name on every post. This won’t help against the more dedicated searcher of course. My impression is that at this stage I’m getting job offers because of the blog rather than despite it, but maybe that will change if I drop the superficial politeness.

By: Rv. Agnos

Rv. Agnos — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 13:58:25 +0000

I don’t see why this is necessarily a bad thing. If it were easily googlable that a candidate runs and make daily contributions to the “Fred Phelps is a Moderate” website, it would practically be reckless not to search and check that out.

By: Dedman

Dedman — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 11:15:15 +0000

Well, that’s less of a worry than blog entries haunting the blogger in court. But didn’t everyone already suspect that employers, friends, acquaintances, et cetera, Googled everyone anyone?