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So, another science blogger has gotten slapped with a lawsuit
( http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/chilly-climate-for-blogging/ )
and she isn't the first.
Do you blog under your real name? What would happen if your boss found your blog?
Does stuff like this make you worry?
Discuss :)
Is blogging dangerous? Only when I kick a power lead with my big toe, jar the wires lose and zap myself...
As I'm my own boss, I don't suppose I can sue myself and make a fortune. Unfortunately.
Stonehead and others - - follow her link and then the link to the blog she's discussing. It's not making a bit of sense to me. Yes, blogging seems to be dangerous. Unjust as it is.
If Kstaff comes by here - -
http://neurodiversity.com/weblog/article/150/
is the blog being sued. It's related to autismn.
The horse... and then owner of... Autism Awareness comes to mind. I may contact him re: this issue.
Nothing whatsoever prevents any of us from being sued at any time, and I'm not talking about blogging. To the extent that one has prominence, one is a target for potential lawsuits. Blogs add prominence. But it's not blogging, nor prominence that are dangerous.
Dissfunktional, I know what Mebracid is posting about. I follow her blog regularly and visit the blog she mentions as well. I was just throwing in a bit of asinine humour as a way of suggesting that blogging is not really dangerous because it doesn't threaten your life. My faulty power lead on the other hand was.
I wish I was my own boss! You do get a lot of freedom, Stonehead.
Of course, if things go south, there is only one person to blame :(
My husband is a freelancer, and it is both great and awful.
Especially at tax time :(
I was recently "outed" to a bunch of my colleagues, and I'm trying to decide what to do about it.
This lawsuit--and the similar ones in Britain--are not helping me decide.
I like having no one to blame but myself. It forces me to be focused and I've never had any problems with shouldering responsibilities.
Jokes aside, the main negative aspect of blogging for me is death threats and anonymous tip-offs to the authorities from the radical vegan/animal rights brigade. I also get some flak from the climate change/peak oil denialists, but they're babes compared to the hard-core animal liberationists (some of whom have a track record of violent and disruptive direct action).
Life's certainly interesting as a blogger.
Oh, yeah, the animal right folks are MUCH more scary in the UK.
eek!
I think in general, everything has risks, but it depends on the level of intensity. The question now, is when blogging become dangerous? when do we think we will be sued? when are we going to be blamed? since blogging is becoming a phenomena, we should be protected by laws or at least there should be laws that will protect our rights, as bloggers. Our posts has been copied by someone, what shall we do about that? what legal instruments can we use to fight our right? etc...
(whewww, am i talking with sense? hehehe)
OMG. I just found out someone I know is in a huge kerfuffle from something she did online. She's a faculty member, and was moonlighting for extra cash at a phone sex site.
She (probably not her best idea) had a photo on the site, and all hell broke loose when her department found out.
So....I guess my little "outing" to my colleagues isn't as bad as I thought!
I blog, my big bosses knows it too. but they love it and support my blogging. So it doesnt worries me, because im not doing anything that will put myself and the org at risks, I think.
I feel sorry to your friend.
Blogging itself doesn't seem to be that dangerous, but changing the user interface on the blogging platform could very well be.
It can be dangerous when it turns to stalking and death threats and harassment.
That is true--I have had a couple of commenters that I was genuinely afraid of.
Ok, another point for keeping my IRL identity hidden as much as possible....
I've had people threaten to kill me.
Gosh, thats scary...
Some people feel that because they are online and anonymous (sort of), they can behave very badly.
It's sort of like the way people get in a car and their personalities change, and they suddenly are angry and aggressive. The car makes them feel powerful; or the keyboard becomes a place to try to dominate and work out their issues.
Most of the genuinely mentally ill folks I've encountered online were not a threat to anyone but themselves.
A few others...well, keeping your full name and home address hidden, or at least obscure, is just part of being online these days, whether you have a blog or just are listed on your company website.
I hate that we can't edit posts anymore! I was going to say
The people I'm most afraid of are the white supremacist nut jobs, who show up every now and then at my blog. They might just be crazy enough--but they'd do that whether they met you in person, or online. Those dudes are MESSED. UP.
Your blog is a gardening blog right? I don't see white supremacists caring about gardening.
Oh, I blog about everything that comes my way :)
You can see Tom Metzger (or someone claiming to be him) saying hi here:
http://membracid.wordpress.com/2007/12/28/more-racism-in-michigan/
If you don't know who that guy is:
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Metzger.asp
I work at a Michigan University, and I find the resurgence of racism/white power in my students really upsetting :(
Membracid's blog is like a flower garden occupied by an intellectual butterfly. She flits from subject to subject as the butterfly flits from flower to flower, mesmerising with a dance that's simple and complex at the same time.
It's one of a handful of blogs that I actually make time for—even if I don't comment as often I should.
awwwww, Stonehead!
*blush*
Thanks!!
stonehead, that is really poetic. membracid is just one of the bloggers i like. :-)
if, lead from vaccines causes autism and other mental problems. then why is autism bigger now then when we had no laws banning the use of lead based products? lead was in everything. wouldn't you think china would have a serious problem on their hand? wouldn't there be more autistic children in china and third world countries.?
its my theory about autism. some childrens brains are not wired right to handle the rapid developement and stress put on in the first three years of an infant life. from having an empty brain ready to be filled with knowledge, skills, and many other things.
the child isn't mental prepared for all the growth. think about it? we learned to talk, crawl and then walk and many, many other things by the age of two. now what if, the parents are adding to the growth, their own stuff. maybe, they are pushing the child to far and too fast.
no, with the amount of lead our grandparents were around and our parents, especially fifty years ago. i think today with growing rate of autism. something esle is taking place.
so, much has changed today, then it was 50 years ago.
maybe, the people blaming the vaccines should look more at themselves. learn more about their genes. learn more about the things they did in their past and their parents past and so on. i just hope they don't get so wrapped up in blaming. they forget the one who is really suffering.
i growing up with a severely mentally challenged mind, my experiences has thought me not to look at myself in a bad way. these people may not know how to leave their legal matters outside. so, when they go home and talk about what happened today. as the child ages, that child will start to understand something in the wrong way. simple, because they were so, lost they couldn't see the damage they were causing by voiceing their minds out loud.
how many families have both parents working. twice the amount of problems are coming into the home. with over 40 something jobs under my belt. there isn't one job that runs perfect. parents will tend to talk out loud. shareing too much information isn't good for the child who accidentally over hears conversations on an adult level. but, what if that child is autistic?
that was very well thought out rusty. I hadn't thought of it that way before.
You could put this into your blog as a blog post, and then you could promote your blog post here:
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=7833&replies=3617
you would get more readers to see this that way, if you only placed the information in your blog posts. an idea?
Given that this is a thread about whether or not blogging is dangerous, are you expressing the view that blogging causes autism?
Blogging is dangerous only if you wake up in a hotel tub bleeding with both kidneys removed.
Is Tom Metzger that beat up Geraldo on his show? I have to go Google his name. But it could be him. Just be careful and never tell anyone online anything personal where they can eventually find you.
The woman who was threatening to kill me hasn't checked in for many months. I have to check my files to see the last time she did comment. I had saved everything just in case. Last time she said the knife is ready and she would cut me from ear to ear or something. She was also convinced that I called the police on her and that I was calling her home. I told her I had no idea who she was and just ran a stupid celebrity blog. She wanted to kill Tobey McGuire's fiance and her father. And then also me because I deleted her comments. I eventually banned her IP but her comments went to comment moderation first. But she kept on screaming about that I was deleting her comments.
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