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>nothing matters but the content of my posts But the permanence of those posts can bite you in the ass. Over time your post history will grow and if it's acces

>nothing matters but the content of my posts But the permanence of those posts can bite you in the ass. Over time your post history will grow and if it's accessible to others (and they care enough to dig through it) they can potentially use what you said 6 months, a year, ten years ago against you. If you happen to let slip your real identity, all of that history is now linked to the "real life you" and if you said anything under the false expectation of anonymity you're screwed. This is one of the reasons I don't think I could ever go into politics. A savvy opponent would only need to do a few google searches, research my online history, find some stupid shit I said when I was 17 years old on LiveJournal or whatever, and there goes my campaign.

jablan 10y ago
I don't get why you would have to worry, unless you are some kind of psychopath or sociopath and it can be seen from these posts? We all say/write stupid things when we are 17, why would it affect your career in any way? Look it other way, would you really judge a politician based on what they said on some website when they were 17?
- iamatworknow 10y ago
  I was a teenager in the early to mid-2000's, so of course I was playing video games and throwing around slurs and insults and what have you -- words I've grown out of saying "for the lulz", of course, because I know they can hurt people and I honestly don't get anything out of saying them. But if you look hard enough there's a record of that online, linked to my real life identity, and in the court of public opinion that record would overrule any actual beliefs or policy positions I have as an adult. "This guy says he stands for gay rights, but look at how much he casually used the f-word as an insult on this Counter Strike forum." This isn't something previous generations have had to experience in politics or in the workforce and it'll only get more ugly with time. The kids today who are in their teens are churning out exponentially more troubling data than I ever did. Just imagine what kind of political mudslinging fodder that will provide in 20 years.
  - andyana 10y ago
    This holds me back from seeking public office as well... Reminds me of this NDP politician in Calgary that had some photo of her surface in which she was holding a joint and giving the flag the finger. It's completely irrelevant (and could have been a joke for all we know), but I'm sure the fact that it surfaced stung her like a thousand bees. I believe at some point in time we will have stop caring about these sorts of things because eventually everyone will be affected to some degree, but that time is not now.
- mindcrime 10y ago
  I know I've said some really harsh / mean things to people on football forums in the past. It was stuff that, to me, was clearly hyperbole and jesting between fans of opposing teams, but if somebody dug that stuff up and said "Look at what this guy said", I'm pretty sure it would have an impact. Luckily, the one time I ran for public office, nobody was arsed to go looking. Or I got lucky and they didn't find that stuff and realize it was me.
mynewtb 10y ago
As parent said: > You can be yourself in many different ways, one "persona" per topical forum. No one would know who you are or care about your sex, race or political orientation. Use pseudonyms! Be cautious about what you post online. There are so few sites that require your real identity that letting it 'slip' should not even be a possibility. There is no 'my online history', but 'nick1 online history', 'nick2 online history' etc.
- iamatworknow 10y ago
  >Use pseudonyms! Be cautious about what you post online. There are so few sites that require your real identity that letting it 'slip' should not even be a possibility. It's not like I'm doing that today at 30 years old. But when you're 15, the internet is relatively new in the mainstream, and these people are your "friends", maybe you give them your phone number so you can chat, or your address so they can send you something, and then someone else gets ahold of it, and there you go. Kids don't exactly think rationally and are notoriously bad at foreseeing the eventual impact their current actions have.
rapind 10y ago
I know of at least one very prominent politician who says stupid shit on twitter daily. Just sayin'
WhiteSource1 10y ago
Well, Donald Trump is president now. The stupid shit you said might be to your advantage.
ufmace 10y ago
I don't think I'd want to be the first one, but politics will likely be very different in 30-60 years when all of the candidates for every party have been on the internet since they were teenagers, posting all sorts of inane junk. Sooner or later, we'll have to get used to the idea that none of these guys and girls are super-human, and they've all done dumb stuff that they've hopefully learned from. I will say that I've been going to greater effort the last few years to use completely different names on every site I post on, and not post anything that could be traced back to my real identity in most places. Not so much here though.

jablan 10y ago

I don't get why you would have to worry, unless you are some kind of psychopath or sociopath and it can be seen from these posts? We all say/write stupid things when we are 17, why would it affect your career in any way? Look it other way, would you really judge a politician based on what they said on some website when they were 17?

iamatworknow 10y ago
I was a teenager in the early to mid-2000's, so of course I was playing video games and throwing around slurs and insults and what have you -- words I've grown out of saying "for the lulz", of course, because I know they can hurt people and I honestly don't get anything out of saying them. But if you look hard enough there's a record of that online, linked to my real life identity, and in the court of public opinion that record would overrule any actual beliefs or policy positions I have as an adult. "This guy says he stands for gay rights, but look at how much he casually used the f-word as an insult on this Counter Strike forum." This isn't something previous generations have had to experience in politics or in the workforce and it'll only get more ugly with time. The kids today who are in their teens are churning out exponentially more troubling data than I ever did. Just imagine what kind of political mudslinging fodder that will provide in 20 years.
- andyana 10y ago
  This holds me back from seeking public office as well... Reminds me of this NDP politician in Calgary that had some photo of her surface in which she was holding a joint and giving the flag the finger. It's completely irrelevant (and could have been a joke for all we know), but I'm sure the fact that it surfaced stung her like a thousand bees. I believe at some point in time we will have stop caring about these sorts of things because eventually everyone will be affected to some degree, but that time is not now.
mindcrime 10y ago
I know I've said some really harsh / mean things to people on football forums in the past. It was stuff that, to me, was clearly hyperbole and jesting between fans of opposing teams, but if somebody dug that stuff up and said "Look at what this guy said", I'm pretty sure it would have an impact. Luckily, the one time I ran for public office, nobody was arsed to go looking. Or I got lucky and they didn't find that stuff and realize it was me.

mynewtb 10y ago

As parent said: > You can be yourself in many different ways, one "persona" per topical forum. No one would know who you are or care about your sex, race or political orientation. Use pseudonyms! Be cautious about what you post online. There are so few sites that require your real identity that letting it 'slip' should not even be a possibility. There is no 'my online history', but 'nick1 online history', 'nick2 online history' etc.

iamatworknow 10y ago
>Use pseudonyms! Be cautious about what you post online. There are so few sites that require your real identity that letting it 'slip' should not even be a possibility. It's not like I'm doing that today at 30 years old. But when you're 15, the internet is relatively new in the mainstream, and these people are your "friends", maybe you give them your phone number so you can chat, or your address so they can send you something, and then someone else gets ahold of it, and there you go. Kids don't exactly think rationally and are notoriously bad at foreseeing the eventual impact their current actions have.

rapind 10y ago

I know of at least one very prominent politician who says stupid shit on twitter daily. Just sayin'

WhiteSource1 10y ago

Well, Donald Trump is president now. The stupid shit you said might be to your advantage.

ufmace 10y ago

I don't think I'd want to be the first one, but politics will likely be very different in 30-60 years when all of the candidates for every party have been on the internet since they were teenagers, posting all sorts of inane junk. Sooner or later, we'll have to get used to the idea that none of these guys and girls are super-human, and they've all done dumb stuff that they've hopefully learned from. I will say that I've been going to greater effort the last few years to use completely different names on every site I post on, and not post anything that could be traced back to my real identity in most places. Not so much here though.