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I see your point that the wording is not the humblest, most submissive, self-loathing etc. thing I could have written about it, but I was honestly expressing ho

I see your point that the wording is not the humblest, most submissive, self-loathing etc. thing I could have written about it, but I was honestly expressing how I feel about the whole incident. To be pedantic, the door WAS unlocked. You did not even need a user account to upload files. In hindsight, I probably could have argued that "authorized access" was never exceeded because the form I used was publicly accessible as part of a DotNetNuke design flaw, but I didn't want to drag to court battle out any longer. I was in the wrong, even if I wasn't the only one.

tptacek 12y ago
Well, here you get to choose your own adventure. You can publicly mollify your complicated feelings about what happened to you in angry posts to the Internet, or you can get an early start on repairing the damage you've done to your career. You are not a spectator for your own life. You aren't limited to expressing opinions about it. You are free to act that way. You can try to play a victim card that only a tiny fraction of people will even understand, let alone sympathize with. You can choose to make your life about this event. Or you can make your life about something else, and put this behind you. I'd just worry that you probably can't do both of those things. If you're going to do the latter, my advice is this: any time you talk about what happened with you and that stupid website, have a clear goal behind whatever it is you're saying. Make sure that goal squares up with your overall goal of getting this in the past. The Internet really, really, really, really wants you to pick it apart and debate it. That creates drama, and drama is fun. Personally, I think you've donated enough drama to the Internet, and you don't owe anyone any more of it.
- KB1JWQ 12y ago
  Amazingly well said. OP: Eventually the narrative will shift to "I was young and stupid, and it was a long time ago," which is exactly what you want. By continuing to defend what you did, you're actively delaying the time until you can begin using that line. Frankly, whether you believe you're right or not is beside the point; no hiring manager is going to care, and your current attitude towards it presents as toxic.

tptacek 12y ago

Well, here you get to choose your own adventure. You can publicly mollify your complicated feelings about what happened to you in angry posts to the Internet, or you can get an early start on repairing the damage you've done to your career. You are not a spectator for your own life. You aren't limited to expressing opinions about it. You are free to act that way. You can try to play a victim card that only a tiny fraction of people will even understand, let alone sympathize with. You can choose to make your life about this event. Or you can make your life about something else, and put this behind you. I'd just worry that you probably can't do both of those things. If you're going to do the latter, my advice is this: any time you talk about what happened with you and that stupid website, have a clear goal behind whatever it is you're saying. Make sure that goal squares up with your overall goal of getting this in the past. The Internet really, really, really, really wants you to pick it apart and debate it. That creates drama, and drama is fun. Personally, I think you've donated enough drama to the Internet, and you don't owe anyone any more of it.

KB1JWQ 12y ago
Amazingly well said. OP: Eventually the narrative will shift to "I was young and stupid, and it was a long time ago," which is exactly what you want. By continuing to defend what you did, you're actively delaying the time until you can begin using that line. Frankly, whether you believe you're right or not is beside the point; no hiring manager is going to care, and your current attitude towards it presents as toxic.