I’m not taking about being gross, but instead details about their personal life. There was another thread that mentioned people getting in trouble through Facebook.
When someone feels like they are anonymous , they tend to be even more candid. Many people here seem both very serious about their privacy online yet talk at length about personal matters involving their co workers, family, and friends.
What are some things people post that make you think, “She probably shouldn’t have posted that” / “I wonder what that person’s boyfriend/boss/kid would think if they knew who this person was in real life”
I’ve posted about my leanings toward agnosticism, and my pot use, here at the SDMB. If either of those things got out on Facebook, I’d lose about half of my friends that I used to go to church with, and my mom would be dead of shame before she hit the floor.
I’ve mentioned my atheism (praise Athe) and cannabis use, but everyone who knows me in real life knows about it. OTOH, I’ve shared stories about stupid things my friends have done, and it would likely hurt them to know.
Admitting using marijauna, which I have done here, isn’t going to even raise an eyebrow of local, state, or federal law enforcement. Saying you’ve got 150 plants in your garage could theoretically come np back to bite you. Even then, I’d be shocked if anything happened.
Indeed. I’ve participated in cannabis forums where everyone discussed their drug use. The DEA would have to hire thousands and devote nearly the entire jurisprudence system to their efforts if they wanted shit to get real. I was on Overgrow when they took down the site!
I wanted to find a site where they discussed odd side effects from cannabis, are you aware of any? I do know from experience that one side effect is posting while under the influence.
Message boards IMHO have the potential to be way more dangerous than Twitter or Facebook. It’s my understanding that once you post something on Twitter/Facebook, it doesn’t necessarily stick around for very long. Someone doing a google search isn’t necessarily going to find you talking shit about them if it was posted five years ago.
But the content of a message board sticks around on the internet for a long time. A poster’s history is readily available to anyone who registers an account. I always have in the back of my mind the possibility that my boss may one day become a Doper. Like any newbie, he may start a thread asking if there are any Dopers who live in his city. If I post to that thread and he looks at my post history (just to see if we have any common interests, let’s say), would he be able to tell that I’m his employee? Probably, because I know I’ve shared some specific information here (including my picture). This possibility concerns me because I’d prefer to keep my personal life outside of work. But it doesn’t frighten me, since I know I haven’t said anything that would be too embarrassing–not anything that would warrant me being fired.
But not saying anything that would warrant being fired doesn’t actually mean jack shit. Theoretically, my boss could fire me for any reason he wants to since I live in an at-will state (though as a government employee, I do have some protections). If a person can legally fire someone for almost any reason they want, then potentially anything you say on a message board (or anywhere else) can be grounds for dismissal. So with that standard in mind, most of us have probably shared too much.
Even looking at what is easily accessible to mere mortals (I would not be surprised if Facebook itself has tricks up its collective sleeve that they don’t tell mortals about) what you post on Facebook will at the very least hang around until you delete it (check your own timeline if you have been a user for many years). If somebody “shares” a post then a copy will hang around on that person’s timeline until that person deletes it (if ever). And so on…
Posters often request legal advice in this forum, and from time to time it’s over something real (not a hypothetical question) and potentially serious shit. More than once, such posters have been advised to STFU and not post anything more about it here.
Echoing what Senegoid said, if at any point you are involved in something that makes you need a lawyer, don’t post anything related to that subject online. Trust me, you’re not as anonymous as you think.
I’d explain why, but I’m under legal advice to never talk about it until the statute of limitations runs out.
Luckily I don’t have anything to hide or an employer to find the (non) information. I have no filter between my synapses and tongue. (I’ve worked on restraint; sometimes I’m able.) Sometimes that makes me quick-witted, sometimes an asshole, sometimes an idiot but it’s all the same whether real life or the internet. If a real life boss came to me about a post I’d made they would 1) already have heard it and 2) know I’d tell them to…
That’s why I would never have a Twitter account. I don’t even have a cell phone but if I posted my every thought people would come together to kill me for my own good. (Well, I’ve heard it gets a lot of people in trouble.)
Recently there have been many odd posts in this particular sub forum. A guy wanting to snitch on some family for putting their son in a good school. Another guy having an affair with a subordinate. Yet another person who wants to tattle on a co worker with a long rap sheet.
It makes me curious to think of what might happen if their peers knew what they were posting!
