RPGWW

So recently my fellow students and I have yet again been given the standard series of lectures on how to find jobs. How to be presentable, how to be friendly, why not to get drunk at receptions, why punctuality is important, and so on. But a point that keeps sticking out for me is the possibility (and in today's society, probability) that employers (or rather, human resource departments of employers) will try to find out what you've been up to online.

Now I don't think they're exactly going to be prying into private investigator territory, but it is fairly common for prospective employers to do a quick online search for your name, and to check the common social networking sites as well. Now I'm not connected to anything terrible and social unaccepted (such as some of the more disturbing perversions that seem to thrive online), but its quite easy for people to be able to trace me to two places that might raise questions: my old livejournal, and here.

The livejournal I think i can just edit out all my personal info so that it no longer turns up on google. But I'm not sure I want to do the same here. First of all, I'm in no way whatsoever ashamed of this forum or consider it something that I am not comfortable talking about. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that employers feel the same way, especially if they see my posts and that I post under the name "Suicidal Sprite," which I'm sure will raise some alarm bells. The result is, I have no idea what to do. I don't want to edit years-old posts just because they have my name in it, but at the same time I don't want to be barred from a potential job just because of my activity here.

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you had ever felt like your online life was reaching out and interfering with your offline life.

How many, if any, posts on this forum have your full name or other identifying information?

And a brief google search of your name turns up absolutely no hits for this site as far as I can tell.

Only 3. They're old, but they're there.

viewtopic.php?p=20302

viewtopic.php?p=21980

viewtopic.php?t=2028

Tempted to just go through and remove those references, but I'm still debating whether such action is worth it.

I'm lucky, I guess. Searching my name is entirely pointless. Employers will learn that I am either a 1930's detective, a Canadian politician, a Catholic priest, or an Ohio State football player.

It seems pretty improbable that it would come up, but if you want to edit a few really, really old posts nobody's going to object.

Yeah, so I went and took out my name or just my surname in a few of them. Sorry if it bumps them up in any way.

This feels silly.

No offense to you guys, but I think it is...

Then again, it's probably going to bite me in the arse when my future employers find me on the Guest List of Akane's Anime RPG Shrine or my post here on RPGWW about Resident Evil 4...


Wait... hold on... My DevArt pages link up here... *goes to edit away some old crappy drawings*

It's amazing how little regard for the difference between professional and personal life there is lately in the American business sector. Well, I guess it's a longstanding lack of respect, but still, it's a big WTF thing. More and more places I've been and worked, they tell me that wherever I go, even if I'm not on the clock or on official business, I'm considered a representative of their organization. Which is their way of saying, "even though you're to act as though on the clock, you're not actually on the clock and we're not going to pay you for this time that we're dictating your actions." What the hell.

So, I feel your pain, and in the quasi-likely scenario that this principle will bite me in the ass in the future, you'd better believe there will be lawsuit action. YOU HEAR THAT MY FUTURE EMPLOYERS? GET YOUR LAWYERS READY!

It almost makes me feel the same way that the idea of a "permanent record" does. Can you really hold 30-year-olds responsible for actions they committed when 15? Does your history come with you to your new job, like a shadow of past regrets?

I don't use my real last name on the internets. The only people who know my real last name on here know it through the RPGWW group on Facebook, and my Facebook is pretty tame.

Suicidal Sprite wrote:It almost makes me feel the same way that the idea of a "permanent record" does.

I dunno about the UK, but there's no such thing as a permanent record in the USA. Your juvenile records are sealed when you turn 18, and AFAIK they're basically inaccessible; you're not actually accountable for anything you did before then, so crimes you committed before you turned 18 can't be somehow used against you after you're 18 unless you're tried and sentenced as an adult and wind up getting penalized for a duration that goes past your 18th birthday.

Of course, IANAL, so take this as you will. You do have long-standing criminal records, but there's a clear line between juvenile and adult records, and the former basically no longer matter after you're an adult. So if you're going to break the law in minor ways that aren't likely to land you in jail, do it before you turn 18! :D

Archmage wrote:Of course, IANAL, so take this as you will.

I am amused and yet unsurprised that there is an acronym for "I am not a lawyer."

There's an RPGWW group on Facebook? Goddamn, everyone really is on Facebook.

Hah, changed name. That actually makes me feel a lot better. The old name was a reference to a stupid joke about 10 years ago, and I've regretted choosing it for a long time. Hopefully this one is clear enough in identifying me still.

zomg wtf hapend to SS? :((((((((

Don't worry, he's still forever captured in yalogank and the wiki.

Well, in yalogank at least.

Thankfully, i found out that apparently there is more people sharing my name that i could even imagine. All of them get priority over me on the net.

Evidently there's a doctor out there with my last name and whose middle name is my first name.

There is a man in Ohio who has my first name, last name, and middle initial, who is on the list of registered sex offenders in that state. The only thing I have going for me if I move there is they have his picture on record. x_x

A person with my name was born in Quebec in 1856.