Last night at the BJ meet-up we had a good talk on commenter privacy concerns. The major worry was work, whether comments posted would come back to the author and end up getting the writer fired.
This NN panel I attended was about (female) bloggers and candidates and how they have been attacked both online and in major media, but I think there are similarities between this sort of thing and commenter concerns.
Krystal Ball was on the forum. I remember the day that the Halloween costume photos of her came out, because I was walking by the television and I saw them. I was just immediately sympathetic to her, and knee-jerk hostile to the news reader promoting the “scandal”.
She said she was at a candidate event and got a text from her husband. He told her “everything is okay, but call me first when you leave that event”, so of course she knew something horrible had happened. She said it was completely bizarre to become the second-most searched term on Google, if only briefly.
Her campaign staff were divided on whether to address the fake-scandal directly, but she got good advice and went on what she called a media blitz, where she made the very good comparison to media favorite Senator Scott Brown, (R, truck) and his completely accepted photo spread in Cosmo:
Ball said women in politics are held to an unfair standard, noting that Sen. Scott Brown posed nude in Cosmopolitan magazine.
One of the blogger stories is here.
Back in May, my friend and then-editor at Minnesota Monitor, Robin Marty, announced she was expecting a child. It was great news for Robin and her husband Steve, and obviously those of us who know them were happy for them. Now, Robin was and is a longtime supporter of abortion rights. Something about women having the right to determine what happens in their own bodies. Anyhow, like many pro-choice women, Robin was still able to enjoy her pregnancy, knowing that even though it was early in her term, the fetus that she carried was going, eventually, to grow into her child….
…So like any good blogger, she posted an image of the first ultrasound.At this point, enter Tom Swift, crazy Minnesota blogger and erstwhile GOP candidate for school board in St. Paul. (I won’t link to him, and if he finds his way back here, Melissa, terminate him with extreme prejudice.) He blogs under the name Swiftee, and he created an image to welcome Robin and Steve’s child into the world:
You get it? Because Robin was pro-choice, she might decide to abort the child she wrote about, so let’s get it some protection. Disgusting doesn’t even begin to touch it. The insinuation Swiftee makes is that Robin would want to harm her child, not just as a fetus, but once born, too. It’s attacking Robin, using the image of her eventual child to do so.
Robin decided to post an announcement that each time the right wing activist used the ultrasound of her daughter to smear her, she would donate 25 dollars to Planned Parenthood. The altered sonogram pictures came down quickly.
Corner Stone
An important topic. What was the group summary?
John Cole
What is wrong with these people?
BTW- I will never release any IP addresses or any personal email addresses of any commenter here. Period.
burnspbesq
When I write under my real name for professional journals, I definitely self-censor. I just avoid writing on topics where my views might conflict with the interests of my clients.
Which is why after the kid is done with college, I am getting off the BigLaw treadmill and going off to teach law school somewhere. I want to be able to say what I think, at least for a few years.
Roger Moore
@John Cole:
You won’t release it even if you’re prevented with a court order or a national security letter? The only way of ensuring you don’t release personal information is not to gather it in the first place.
FWIW. I post under my real name because I started doing so a long time ago when nobody worried about people tracking your on-line postings. I have a long enough track record that changing to some kind of pseudonym wouldn’t protect me anyway, so I might as well own my opinions.
birthmarker
Kay–I am really enjoying your posts from NN–thanks for doing this for us.
WereBear
I appreciate it, John: even though my nym links to my blog, which features my books, which are under my real name. Not everyone is in that position!
But I am appalled at the way right wing pseudo-commandos thus target people and chill their free speech rights. Blogging and commenting under a nickname, and creating an effort to track down the actual person… that should be enough of a distance between our thoughts and ourselves.
Cat Lady
John Cole: why has JSF said he knows who the commenters are and where they’re from? Is that just Fuckhead being a fuckhead? I can’t find the past comments, but the implication creeped me out.
Villago Delenda Est
They are authoritarian assholes.
JPL
Cat Lady, I remember when he said that and assumed at the time it was just fuc.head being jsf.
Several times I mentioned that I lived in Price’s district so it’s easy to deduce that I live outside of Atlanta city limits.
Jewish Steel
The best way to preserve complete anonymity is to join my band.
(ouch. self-zing kinda hurts, J-Steel)
Cat Lady
JPL: Well, you know what they say about assume.
OT, but what’s up with the site’s comments being borked? First they came for the reply button, and I didn’t reply so I did nothing, then they came for the comments and since I didn’t…. wait there’s someone at the door.
James E. Powell
@Roger Moore
I’ve also used my own name since I first started being an online blowhard on Salon’s Table Talk. In addition to being simple, it helps remind me to keep my rants from becoming too intemperate.
Whiskey Screams from a Guy With No Short-Term Memory
What he said. And John, don’t think I’m accusing you of being insincere; I know you wouldn’t. But you can’t make that promise on behalf of your webhost, or any of our respective ISPs, or the slew of other people that could get access to said records.
JPL
UhOh..and CatLady goes missing.
Corner Stone
@JPL #14
And did you speak up?
Starfish
Not collecting the information would prevent things like the banning of certain morons on occasion. Do you think that this place would be better with those people?
Roger Moore
@James E. Powell:
Newbie. I’ve been posting under my own name since I first started out on USENET back when it was the high-tech way of communicating online. I was already an old pro by the time people started looking at the WWW using this new fangled “NCSA Mosaic” thingie. You kids get off my virtual lawn!
PS
I used to be 73227.1510, but that was back when I had a Compuserve account. Gotta say the quality of conversation hasn’t improved … but it’s quicker, quieter and looks better.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: Not to toot my area’s own horn, but there are three excellent law schools in the Seattle area. Plus you’ll be a regular visitor up this way thanks to your progeny anyway. :)
John Cole
That’s just him being an idiot.
burnspbesq
Robert Bork’s lawyers got a secret ultrasuperinjunction from an English court, and she’s off to Downview Prison, never to be heard from again.
She did say “borked.”
Poopyman
Re Corner Stone’s question @1:
I think our concensus is well illustrated by the pic j michael neal posted in the open thread last night. But in plain English, we agreed no pics of our faces would be taken, let alone posted.
iriedc
My job has a lot of rules about how and when personal opinions about politics and/or public policy can be shared. technically I could use my own name, but I have to use a lot of social networking tools for work. i’m trying to keep my personal and professional personas separate. I try not to kid myself about how easy it could to trace “iriedc” if I piss off the wrong person, and that a determined nutcase couldn’t find a way to derail my career based on my comments and tweets. Nonetheless, thanks John Cole for being willing to keep our information as private as you can. I know I’m not the only commenter who feels this way.
Ripley
It’s a major issue with me and some of my online cohorts, which is why we started the, now sadly defunct, Online BlogIntegrity Project. Your countertops are your own damned business, no matter how much we may disagree.
If you want an ugly synopsis about that sad little fuck’s online life, talk to Mark G. at Norwegianity. He’s been going round with him for years and can tell you stories that will curl your ears.
someofparts
That’s the first good idea I’ve hear about how to stop the smear merchants.
Wish I had the time or skills to turn that idea into a website.
andy
Anybody who reads a lot of Minnesota blogs knows what a piece of filth swiftee is. His MO is to troll everywhere, eventually getting kicked out. Very much one of those Libertarian “we got the guns” types, always looking to push people around. A real randian hee-ro…
Greyjoy
Pretty sure I’ve seen a user called “Swiftee” trolling the Star Tribune comments (Minneapolis newspaper with a prominent online presence). Granted, the Strib comments are a sinkhole of trolling on a good day, but even so.
arguingwithsignposts
feel free to delete this comment, but the little sitemeter at the bottom of the page shows IP addresses if you click on recent visitor activity. it’s not that hard to piece together if you’re not using a proxy. sitemeter/statcounter will also show recent visits by location.
arguingwithsignposts
duplicate fywp
Just Some Fuckhead
@Cat Lady:
lolz
Who the fuck can tell the cat ladies apart?
Sko Hayes
I was at that panel, and it was one of the most enlightening for those of us who use our real names online, and who might have to deal with trolls who threaten us and our privacy.
Pam Spaulding, of Pam’s House Blend, had to deal with a troll who contacted her employer and threatened to get her fired, but she was open and honest and her employer told the troll they had no issues with her blogging and he should get lost.
Would that we all had employer likes that.
Interrobang
While we’re on the subject of privacy, posting an ultrasound picture of your fetus is way TMI for the average reader, I think. Just because you can hang your entire life out in public for all to see, doesn’t mean you should. Keep those ultrasound pics in the family, folks (and don’t show me anyway, that’s fucking gross — I don’t wanna see your fucking insides). That’s way too intimate for a public forum. It’s kindasorta the digital equivalent of those creepy people who get right up in your face when they’re talking to you and won’t stop bloody touching you, either.