# Stories about how what a person did on the internet ruined their lives **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2013, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415 "2013-09-22T03:31:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![2L82Pray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/ee7513/32.png) [@2L82Pray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2L82Pray)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/21 "2013-09-22T20:16:42Z")
A woman in my company got peeved that a supervisor put her on an extra project that would cut into her personal time/appointments so she posted something extremely nasty about that supervisor. I ended up with the project, not her and was promoted very quickly. The supervisor didn’t punish her for the post, and said Supervisor ended up leaving the company not long after for unrelated reasons. 4 months later she was up for promotion and another Supervisor brought up the Post and how disrespectful and uncooperative this woman was, and how her FB posts showed a lack of maturity and respect of the Company as a whole. She didn’t get the promotion and she’s no longer with that company. Not saying it ruined her life. I’m sure she moved on to somewhere better where she could start over with a clean slate, but it shows how quick you can be judged by others and how it can effect you down the line ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/22 "2013-09-22T20:43:00Z")
> [@Hay\_Zoos](#): > > I recently read a story on a forum about this guy who was in Med School that used to make videos of him with dolls or something. Some guys found out his name, face pic, and where he went to Med School. Last I heard, he was kicked out, OUCH. A pediatrician who blogged (quite interestingly) about medical issues made the mistake of blogging about his malpractice suit - leading to him being crossexamined about the blogging [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/31/blogger\_unmasked\_court\_case\_upended/?page=full](http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/31/blogger_unmasked_court_case_upended/?page=full) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/23 "2013-09-22T23:02:20Z")
I’ve seen people blogging their divorces and custody issues. Not a wise decision either. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/24 "2013-09-22T23:08:24Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve seen people blogging their divorces and custody issues. Not a wise decision either. I can’t remember the details now, but we had a poster here who kept talking about how she was cheating on her husband, who was IIRC a police officer. Someone eventually pointed out to her that she’d provided enough information that it was easy to find out her real name, pictures of her family, etc., just through Google. I think she wound up being banned. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/25 "2013-09-23T01:21:51Z")
My friend’s neighbor was an ER doctor who did a foreign body removal that had amusement potential, so he took and posted photos. He lost that job. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/26 "2013-09-23T02:02:54Z")
I know any number of people who I think have hurt their careers and are totally oblivious to it. Not because of any one dramatic incident, but a slow chipping away of respect because they made public a persona that was significantly more sexual, or more emotionally petty/dramatic, or was more politically radical than what they present at work. There’s a reason we tamp those things down at work. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/27 "2013-09-23T02:09:26Z")
This: [http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/19/4494140/ku-rebukes-journalism-professor.html](http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/19/4494140/ku-rebukes-journalism-professor.html) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/28 "2013-09-23T02:31:56Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I can’t remember the details now, but we had a poster here who kept talking about how she was cheating on her husband, who was IIRC a police officer. Someone eventually pointed out to her that she’d provided enough information that it was easy to find out her real name, pictures of her family, etc., just through Google. I think she wound up being banned. Someone on another website was talking about how her ex-husband was about to go on trial for raping their daughter :eek: and it appeared to be a totally open and shut case because there was a mountain of medical evidence. This woman had posted numerous pictures of her daughter on this site (whose name was uncommon enough in itself to identify her) and in addition, her profile included the name of the town where they lived, and links to her Facebook and Twitter pages - in other words, her real name. Any suggestions that this was not a good idea got shot down. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/29 "2013-09-23T02:43:45Z")
Dusty the cat. Two kids video themselves abusing their pet cat, and post to YouTube. [http://www.kenny-glenn.net/](http://www.kenny-glenn.net/) Cooks Source Magazine editor plagiarizes many articles and graphics, claims the Internet is ‘public domain’. > **[Cooks Source infringement controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooks_Source_infringement_controversy)** > > The Cooks Source infringement controversy occurred in November 2010, when Cooks Source, a free, advertising-supported publication distributed in the New England region of the United States, became the center of a copyright infringement dispute after the magazine reprinted an online article without permission of the author. The controversy was fueled by social media and crowdsourced investigations finding additional alleged infringement and plagiarism. The incident became an international As re... ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/30 "2013-09-23T03:11:37Z")
What about that guy who during the Chick-fil-la thing posted that video of him bitching at the drive thru woman. Didn’t he lose his job over that? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/31 "2013-09-23T04:36:12Z")
A fellow teacher (American in Korea) disappeared quite suddenly, and e-mailed the rest of us begging for cash and job leads. I sent him a couple of the latter. Out of curiosity, I went back and checked his Facebook page. We weren’t FB friends and really, I barely knew the guy. Astonishingly, the page was public. Going back two months, all his posts were “I hate my job” alternating with “I love to get drunk.” Suddenly, it was “They want to fire me for drinking! Oh my God!” He went to another city, found a job and changed the privacy settings on his FB account and that’s the last I heard about him. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/32 "2013-09-23T11:18:52Z")
> [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](#): > > This: > > [http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/19/4494140/ku-rebukes-journalism-professor.html](http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/19/4494140/ku-rebukes-journalism-professor.html) For those that don’t want to follow the link: a U of Kansas journalism professor has been put on leave (I doubt he’ll lose his job) because he tweeted a pro-gun-control message in the aftermath of the Navy Yard killings, a tweet which implied a desire for harm on NRA members and which invoked God. Not to get political in this thread…but the issue here is more about conservative Kansas state legislators looking for reasons to defund higher education. As for the tweet and the professor’s job: yes, he’s free to express his mind, but his contract does stipulate that he do so in public fora in a civil manner, and he did cross some kind if line there. And, as with several other examples in this thread, he had a previous history of job-related incidents, including one within the academic department (details unknown) for which he was sanctioned. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/33 "2013-09-23T13:01:58Z")
[This guy.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Agk3kbDwEY)He loved COD and wanted nothing more to be a fighter pilot. He worked hard to attain his dream, and was well on his way there. A lapse of judgement and the desire for quick cash led him to do upload videos of himself partaking in a particular activity that cost him all that. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/34 "2013-09-23T13:02:26Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > There was a NYC restaurateur who was photographed exposing himself on the subway. Once it hit the net he was identified and it destroyed his reputation. [Suspected Subway Pleasurer Arrested - Gothamist](http://gothamist.com/2005/09/01/suspected_subway_pleasurer_arrested.php) Oh dear Lord, this guy was a former roommate! It was a long, long, time ago, but reading that was a bit…shocking I guess? Doing some searching he seems to be doing okay with his restaurant. Was this big news at the time? Seems like exposing yourself in NYC wouldn’t get too much attention. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/35 "2013-09-23T13:15:58Z")
[This guy’s meltdown with one customer which really exploded as on the internet.](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/paul-christoforo-ocean-marketing-emails) From [Penny Arcade:](http://www.penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html) > [@](#): > > From: Ocean Marketing > To: Dave > Dec 26, 2011 2:19 PM > > LOL Thanks for the Free PR I know the Editor N Chief of Kotaku , IGN , Engadget I’ll be meeting them at CES .The noise complaint was for people high up on the food chain in a corporate world of real estate you have no clue about. Thanks for the Rice Rocket Compliment too love me some motorcycle . Send that over to Engadget you look like a complete moron swearing and sending your customer service complaints to a magazine as if they will post it or even pay attention do you think you’re the first or the last what are they going to do demand us to tell you were your shipment is or ask for a refund on your behalf … Really … Welcome to the Internet ? Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up. Grow up you look like a complete child bro. I Don’t have my controller so im gonna cry to the world … Really ?? Hey take that free time and do something more productive. All you had to do was check the like everyone else , people have inquired but you’re the douchiest of them all J And it goes on… ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/36 "2013-09-23T13:29:28Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > Oh dear Lord, this guy was a former roommate! It was a long, long, time ago, but reading that was a bit…shocking I guess? Doing some searching he seems to be doing okay with his restaurant. Was this big news at the time? Seems like exposing yourself in NYC wouldn’t get too much attention. I remember hearing about it in the news. One reason it got so much traction was because he was on the subway jacking off while looking at a woman, rather than be intimidated, she took a picture went to the cops and when they didn’t really do much, she went to the NY Post who ran the pic in their paper with a typical NY Post headline. It struck a chord with people because so many women were sick of this kind of shit and they were doing something about it. The chef had been arrested for similar behaviour before, he definitely has a compulsion. If I ever ate at his place, I’d stay away from the cream based sauces. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/37 "2013-09-23T13:42:10Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > For those that don’t want to follow the link: a U of Kansas journalism professor has been put on leave (I doubt he’ll lose his job) because he tweeted a pro-gun-control message in the aftermath of the Navy Yard killings, a tweet which implied a desire for harm on NRA members and which invoked God. > > Not to get political in this thread…but the issue here is more about conservative Kansas state legislators looking for reasons to defund higher education. As for the tweet and the professor’s job: yes, he’s free to express his mind, but his contract does stipulate that he do so in public fora in a civil manner, and he did cross some kind if line there. Come on—it was more than just a pro-gun control message, and it did more than just imply a desire for harm on NRA members. Spoilered for offensiveness: > [@](#): > > The professor tweeted Monday that “blood is on the hands” of the National Rifle Association. > “Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters,” the tweet read. “Shame on you. May God damn you.” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/38 "2013-09-23T13:59:21Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > But a lot of people (myself included) posted stupid shit on the internet in the 1990s, never realizing that stuff was forever. Who would have guessed in 1995 that the stuff you posted to Usenet would still exist in 2013? Fortunately, most of my early internet musings are in the form of Magic: the Gathering card ideas, ASCII art and a couple tame quasi-academic comparisons (given the group alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die) between Barney & Friends and other PBS children’s programming. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/39 "2013-09-23T14:03:35Z")
I was laid off for 18 months before getting a new job. About a week into it, I sent out an email to a bunch of people making dumb jokes about the new job and the new boss. Most of the recipients were at my old job. Somehow, my email ended up with an HR manager at my old job. Since I mentioned my new employer by name, this HR person found the name of the HR manager at my new job and forwarded it to her. I was fired the next day, after just over a week on the job. It took two more years to get another job (just got hired in July). I am digging out of a mountain of debt, and still facing a foreclosure lawsuit, though I have hopes to settle it and keep my home since I have sufficient income to resume mortgage payments. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415/40 "2013-09-23T14:32:22Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I was laid off for 18 months before getting a new job. About a week into it, I sent out an email to a bunch of people making dumb jokes about the new job and the new boss. Most of the recipients were at my old job. > > Somehow, my email ended up with an HR manager at my old job. Since I mentioned my new employer by name, this HR person found the name of the HR manager at my new job and forwarded it to her. I was fired the next day, after just over a week on the job. What a tough lesson to learn. I’m sorry that that happened to you. Another lesson here is that HR people talk to each other and share data. A former co-worked once contacted me because he had applied for a job at the place where I was working. This dude was a serious disaster so I went to the HR recruiter and warned him not to hire the guy. The recruiter entered the name in a data base and said, “Oh yeah, I have information on him. No way he gets hired here.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-how-what-a-person-did-on-the-internet-ruined-their-lives/669415.md?page=3)