Controversy broke out Saturday in the Second Life Plurk community only a few days after my initial post on the topic. Codie had taken the threads from her very popular Bold Sex Question of the Day (BSQOTD) and posted them on her blog. The response was swift and urgently negative. At least from a few concerned Plurkers.
Although the original pages are accessible on Plurk to the 400+ people on Codie's friend and fan lists, some participants were concerned that the reputation of their pseudonymous virtual identity would be damaged if their participation was archived on search-engine accessible web pages. Codie graciously pulled the archive from her site within the hour.
The tempest in a teapot made me realize that many people care deeply about the reputation of their online identities. I thought it would be in the public interest to put out a little guide to managing virtual ID reputation, with a special emphasis on the spectrum of private and public communication and activity.
Since I'm in the final stretch of taking care of a million undone tasks for Sunday's 11AM SLT opening of my art exhibition in New Caerleon, (shameless plug) I'm going to take it slow. But I was all hot and bothered about this idea and just couldn't help myself from getting started.
I really don't get it. If you say something on the Web then it will be visible. And Plurk is a part of the Web. And it is being cashed by Google (and whoever). There is no much difference between commenting on the blogs and on Plurk.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! I'm sure this'll be a very useful topic to read about, Botgirl, and I look forward to it.
ReplyDeleteDande poses a good point, though - often the key to maintaining any online privacy would be to remember that search bots are always watching. Keep that in mind and, although life would be less fun, you would have less to worry yourself about.
But hey, its not like I've ever paid that any heed, and I know I'll pay for it some day.
I wonder sometimes if people do not see Plurk as a sort of "group chat". Of course, Plurk does come with a warning. "This plurk will be viewable to the whole world." Privacy is a topic that I have pondered a lot. We put so much of ourselves out there for public consumption. I look forward to reading your thoughts on this issue.
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