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> Because so few people know about it, "reputation managers" are charging people like $500 a pop to "remove damaging information from Google results." And ALL T
by majormajor 5y ago
> Because so few people know about it, "reputation managers" are charging people like $500 a pop to "remove damaging information from Google results." And ALL THEY DO is fill out that form for free. Someone tried to hawk this service to my husband after he came under attack.
While that sounds like a high price, and you usually don't want to just hire the first person you see advertise a service, the concept of specialization there, and some people just not wanting to devote the time to becoming experts everywhere, seems perfectly fine and normal.
People often pay electricians even for tasks that are just "flip a switch and turn some screws," after all.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sombremesa 5y agoElectricity can kill you. Doesn't seem like a good comparison.
- amelius 5y agoEnding up in a Google search result can too, I suppose, in some indirect way.
- sombremesa 5y agoHelp me with how this is relevant. Is the person you hired to scrub your Google result risking getting doxxed?
- sumedh 5y agoI assume the point was that anything negative about you ends up on Google it can lead to mental issues and in a worst case scenario you might take your life so its better you hire a professional to scrub it for you.
- amelius 5y agoAnother scenario is a cop who's personal id is revealed via Google, and criminals going after them.
- theli0nheart 5y ago> People often pay electricians even for tasks that are just "flip a switch and turn some screws," after all. Not really. People pay electricians for their experience and knowledge that give them the tools to solve complex problems, simply, without messing up your wiring, causing a fire, or blowing something up. Removing a link on Google, on the other hand, involves clicking on a link and filling out a form. You don't need state licensing or problem solving abilities to fill out that form. Any "reputation managers" out there that are doing this are essentially defrauding people, and it's shameful.
- majormajor 5y agoLet's say someone wants to replace a lightswitch. Google/Youtube will show you how to do that safely in a matter of minutes. People pay because they're afraid of at least one of (a) their ability to be sure they're getting the right instructions, or (b) their ability to execute. In the electrician example, (b) could be substantial if you don't understand electricity. "Electricity can kill you" is basically the home-maintenance version of "the internet is confusing" that would prevent someone from wanting to find this Google form themselves. In the "reputation manager" example, (a) is going to come into play more, I bet. A good "reputation manager" probably isn't going to just fill out one form on google, I imagine there's a lot you could do to cover Bing, wikipedia, and various other sites and services. I don't know where employees go to get background checks, for instance, but maybe I need to have that covered, too. So now the problem still parallels working with an electrician - how do you know if you found a good one? Lots of handyman/contractor horror stories and scams out there too!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- amalcon 5y agoI'm pretty good with electrical diagrams and such, and I know exactly what one needs to do to stay about as safe as one can. I've fished (ethernet) wires before. I still hire electricians, because it's the only practical way to buy electrician's insurance for a project. I know a retired electrician. He hires electricians for anything nontrivial, for the insurance. That said your broader point has a lot of merit. I hire plumbers for anything more complicated than snaking a drain, and it's because of their specialty knowledge.
- gambiting 5y agoWhat do you mean electrician's insurance? I do have a so called "DIY insurance" on my home policy - if I damage something while doing a DIY project(drill into a cable or a pipe for instance) my home insurance will cover the repair. Is that not enough?
- akiselev 5y agoNo, that's just for incidental damage and probably legally mandated by your state. If your house burns down to due to DIY wiring, the insurance company won't pay out a dime (if the inspectors discover it). Electricians have liability insurance provided by an organization specializing in policies for practicing tradesmen. If an insurance company fails to disqualify a homeowner's policy and pays out, it will then go after the electrician and his insurance to recoup their losses. Residential electrical fires are extremely preventable so insurance companies almost universally refuse to insure homes with DIY electrical work because the homeowner is the one liable.
- vmception 5y agoAgreed, my favorite example of this is how people pay like $100 to get a tax-ID number for their new business, which is free from the IRS and with accidental form choices being consequence free, because they think its fraught with disaster or just too obtuse
- akiselev 5y ago> People often pay electricians even for tasks that are just "flip a switch and turn some screws," after all. The ultimate reason people pay electricians is liability. Unlicensed work is an easy way to invalidate your homeowner's insurance, lose everything, and get sued for any damage to your neighbors' property (by their insurance company, no less).
- version_five 5y agoMy view is that if the only reason you are doing something is because of the insurance implications, then you've surely made the wrong decision. Nobody's interests are less aligned with your own than an insurance company's. There are lots of legitimate reasons to hire an electrician, but making decisions solely based on what someone who wants you to perpetually give them money whole finding reasons to never give it back is never good practice.
- JadeNB 5y ago> My view is that if the only reason you are doing something is because of the insurance implications, then you've surely made the wrong decision. In this situation, I am paying someone else to assume risk for me. That is, I suppose, a type of insurance, in a very broad sense. However, I am not in any way relying on my interests and the other person's to be aligned, except in the sense of performing the work they are legally contracted to perform. All I am doing is asking this person to assume some risk for me, in exchange for which I provide them a fee. Short of "take on all the risk yourself", which, even if perhaps desirable (I'm not sure …), is often not feasible, what is a better approach here?
- version_five 5y agoI see those as separate. Paying someone to take on risk I see a clear argument for. Its specifically the "do it this way because insurance wont cover you otherwise" that I'm reacting too, because I think that had caused a lot of damage to society. Effectively nobody is taking on risk under the model insurance companies push - insurance won't let you do anything risky, and won't pay if you do. That's why I say it's a losing proposition to have your behavior dictated by an insurer. (Probably a prisoner's dilemma really, because inevitably some group gives in, then makes to worse for everyone)
- mattzito 5y agoI would say that the difference between your example and these reputation managers is that they are often themselves directly responsible for the problems they create: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/24/technology/online-slander-websites.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/24/technology/on... I guess this is more analogous to flipping someone’s breakers in their house and then charging them to flip them back on.
- ehsankia 5y agoYep, the reason they are so effective is because they own the very website that is spreading the slander. So you're really just indirectly paying the website who's blackmailing you to remove the blackmail.
- M11oop 5y agoHi is that the true you need to do a better job then the one you are doing now
- version_five 5y agoI think you meant that although it's easy to trivialize what an electrician does, in practice there's actually a lot of skill and experience in it. (I could be wrong, although it's always funny to see how what was probably an off-hand comment causes people to go down such a rabbit hole).
- CapitalistCartr 5y agoYeah, there is a lot of skill, much of which is knowing what we're looking at and what not to do. An attempt to read the codebook is enlightening.
- tialaramex 5y agoI paid a gas plumber full rates to in effect remind me where the tap is for the fill line for my boiler. Over time a boiler that isn't meaningfully "leaking" will still gradually lose internal pressure. Once the pressure inside the boiler is less than outside the boiler even when the water inside is hotter, that's not good. Eventually the system won't work and shuts down for safety, but before that it'll make a lot of noise while running. There's a pressure meter so you can see what's wrong if you don't understand boilers. My meter said about 0.4 bar. So that's too low, now I just needed to re-pressurize it. The regulations here say that, to avoid mistakes resulting in stagnant water flowing back from a boiler tank into the fresh water system, the two mustn't be permanently connected. So there'd logically be an input, you connect a temporary hose, re-pressurize. In practice, nobody does that, the installers will run a permanent line, in defiance of the rules, and use a tap, now you can re-pressurize by turning the tap. Except, many years after moving in and setting up I'd forgotten where that tap could be. It wasn't where I expected to find it, and I could not think there else they'd have put it. So after sleeping on it and still not remembering I called a plumber. Not an emergency plumber, but still plumbers aren't cheap. The plumber also couldn't immediately find it, it wasn't where he first looked either. But I can't actually tell how much time he spent "pretending" to look versus how long it really took him to discover it. Because it's embarrassing right? Even if the customer is up-front about the nature of the task, "It's under the kitchen sink - behind this panel, here" (yes, that's where it actually is) doesn't feel like a real job worth £80 or whatever it was.
- mackman 5y agoHuh, never heard of a manual one of those. I have some little widget that automatically refills the boiler when there's a pressure difference in the wrong direction I guess.
- shimon 5y agoYes, the modern solution to this consists of a pressure-reducing valve (refills when pressure in the boiler system drops) and a backflow preventer (for the safety issue).
- lostlogin 5y ago
- subhro 5y agoOn a related note, how do I find a list of electrical codes (or any code for that matter) for my area without going through an expensive subscription?
- markkanof 5y agoYou can get books that teach all the basics, for example there is one called Wiring A House that is pretty good. Then you can usually contact your local building department for the city where you live to get specific questions answered. Unless you live in a place like Chicago where all wiring needs to be in conduit and then that’s a whole different story.
- ravel-bar-foo 5y agoUsually visiting your place of local government / library and asking for a copy of local building codes will get you a hard copy at not much more than cost to photocopy.
- shimon 5y agoThese typically reference model codes that are often proprietary. You may still be able to get them from a library but if your question is along the lines of "how many receptacles can I put on one circuit" you need to look in something like the International Residential Code[1], not in your city/state statutes. [1] https://www.iccsafe.org/products-and-services/i-codes/2018-i-codes/irc/ https://www.iccsafe.org/products-and-services/i-codes/2018-i...
- Ntrails 5y ago> People often pay electricians even for tasks that are just "flip a switch and turn some screws," after all. My Grandfather used to tell a story about an old aeroplane that wouldn't start. They found a retired engineer who agreed to come out and look. Did so, had a listen when they tried, And nodded to himself. From his toolbox he removed a hammer and smacked the engine once sharply. Suddenly it started right up. Magic He presented them with a bill for £205. "That's absurd, all you did was hit it with a hammer!". "Ah yes", the engineer replied. "It is £5 to hit the engine, the other £200 is for knowing where to strike" (This would typically be as part of a discussion of the meaning of "knowledge is power")
- teddyh 5y agoThat is an urban legend, at least 100 years old: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/know-where-man/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/