Blog at your own risk
Published February 09, 2005
Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor runs a pretty well-informed article about bloggers getting fired for blogging about their workplaces.
[Fired journalist Rachel Mosteller] learned a valuable lesson: If you have a job, blog at your own risk - "unless you're writing recipes and about how much you love puppies and kittens," Ms. Mosteller says.
Okay, that puppy and kitten stuff is hitting a little close to home here, and I have so far refrained from posting my cornbread and pound cake recipes (any requests?) but she's got a pretty good point: if you go out on a limb in your blog, and especially if you blog about work, don't be surprised if there are consequences to be paid.
The CSM article was okay, but even a cursory glance around the blogosphere reveals that blog-related firings have been a trend for some time now. PopeMark, over at The Papal Bull, has compiled a list of fired bloggers (see also the update here) going back a couple of years.
Somehow, the author of the CSM story failed to notice and interview Heather Armstrong, who blogs at Dooce. Heather's firing a few years back gave rise to the term "dooced," meaning "to be fired for blogging."
And CSM missed a highly relevant news peg: Google (which, ironically, owns and operates Blogger, the host of enrevanche and millions of other blogs) just fired a recently hired employee, Mark Jen, for blogging about working at Google (blog still active, but "objectionable" material apparently removed.)
Generally speaking, I am not too impressed by anonymous blogging; I made the decision to go "open kimono" when I started my blog, and I tend to have more respect for people who are willing to sign their name to their opinions.
But if you're going to blog about work, both anonymity and a modicum of active deception about the details you share with your readers would seem to be prudent.
(Originally posted at enrevanche.)
- Blog at your own risk
- Published: February 09, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Culture: Business and Economics
- Writer: Barry Campbell
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- Barry Campbell's personal site
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There are lots of reasons not to go "open kimono" (great phrase, BTW, Barry!) -- among them, you give less information to hackers that way.
Discovery Channel's It Takes a Thief also referred to this recently; some thieves browse the blogs looking for information that will lead them to the home addresses of users they know will have at least some computer goodies to steal.
Kimonos? I thought bloggers were all about pajamas?
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After researching the stories of several bloggers who've been fired, it's difficult to have much sympathy for them. Many seem to use the same, vindictive modus operandi ;
1. Publicize the blog & MAKE SURE that everyone in the office is reading.
2. Under the THINNEST guise of "annonymity", make-up some easily identifiable 'screen names' for everyone in the office.
3. Proceed to BASH & ridicule ALL of your co-workers AND every management decision in a PURELY negative manner.
This is a GUARANTEED formula for making enemies, and it's equally obvious that nothing good could ever come of such pranks.
To add insult to injury, several of these people were using company computers, on paid, company TIME to compose their insults & display their STUPIDITY.
If these 'journalists' couldn't show ANY loyalty to the company that was paying them, or ANY respect for their co-workers... Maybe they DESERVED to be FIRED.