RPGWW

So, years ago, I had an incident where a co-worker of mine, who's a bit of an ass, found out where the original forums were. One night, he posted something stupid about me. While everyone pretty much told him to screw, it's made me paranoid about people at work knowing what I do here.

Fast forward to today. Someone accidentally posted my AIM handle somewhere on the forum, and I asked if they could rename it. It then occured to me, I wonder what would happen if I put that handle into google? So, I did.

And pages and pages of links from old chatlogs and quotes came up.

This is really freaking me out right now, and part of me feels silly about it. I should know by now, that anything put on the intarweb is findable by people.

So... I don't know what to do now. I'm tempted to get new AIM handles, but I think I might be overreacting about this.

...so am I? =X

Well, to be perfectly honest, the GM of my WoW guild followed the internet trail for one of our guild members and found out he'd been buying stockings off ebay for quite a while, so being careful with your internets is probably prudent. I'd only be worried about your SN if it's connected with logged stuff if you saying important info that you don't want people to find out, though. In any case, if you get a new handle all you need to do is message your buddy list saying "this is my new SN" and the problem is sorted.

Some people from my school found a bunch of RP logs and such by searching up my last name. I know how you feel, and it sucks, but your paranoia will fade in time!

I don't know why it matters that a WOW(!) GM knows that you buy stockings, or that schoolmates know that you RP. But, like, if you have a superhero secret identity to keep up, or if you will actually face real repurcussions if someone learns of your secret kitten-kicking black market business, then you do what you gotta do.

I have to take the responsibility for that one in all likelihood, what with my massive piles of uploaded RP logs.

I'm not sure what you want done about this aside from removing and/or editing all logs that have your name in them.

I have to say that your approach is really different (and a billion times better) than Daien's. He messaged me to tell me (not ask: tell) to remove any RP logs containing his screenname. I believe at some point he threatened legal action, which was absolutely fucking laughable all things considered.

In your case, I would say that you probably are being too skittish about this. I don't actually know what anyone would do who found out that you do nerdy things on the internet, especially considering the fact that they'd be up against your internet cult of rabid adoring followers. =P

There's really nothing going on here that would affect your career, and anyone who tried to bring it up would be called out for being a stupid douche. There's also nothing any dipshit coworker can post here that will alienate or wig out the aforementioned adoring cult. I also don't recall you ever stating anything of a personal or compromising nature in any chat I've been in.

So hakuna matata.

I believe a txt file can be put into the directory/directories with chat logs which tell indexing spiders "don't index these files." That is, there's a protocol where search engines* will turn away from your site if you put in a file which asks them to politely.

Idran'd know more about this, I'd think.


*search engines whose spiders follow protocol, so it's not entirely infallible. On the other hand, most people we'd be thinking about would be using those search engines.