Erie Bloggers will find this interesting… Blogging Integrity Issues Discussed
I received an interesting piece of email today from a visitor to this site because of referrences to their name on a post. This person has requested that I remove references of their name from my site so, as they put it, “Any future Google search on me, in my private, personal, professional life will pop that personal attack into view as a result of your blog post.”
The private email also says this:
In the event you find that unreasonable, there will be no word from me or rebuttal pending any future negative ramifications to me. At that point, I will forward a copy of this letter, and request to you this day, to my attorney for review, and notify him, that you are the only source of the remark in the search engines currently. I am grateful for your help in removing a potential damage to my reputation.
Since you are now in a business format blog, I am sure you are aware of how damaging Search Engine inquiries can be. I am grateful for your original effort; and I thank you for the correction in your blog to secure my professional reputation too.
This email was very interesting to me as a blog owner– and by someone who is interested in social issues related to blogging. I have a few questions that I need to ponder more:
- Is the spirit of the Internet based on free and open information sharing? Is it fair to manipulate Internet searching and content? Bloggers are not morally obligated to help people save face and they are not morally obligated to change content or be fair and balanced. One side may want the truth, and a record of recorded events, while another side wants others to see the situation as they would like it.
- I am a believer in personal branding so I can understand why people want only positive things to be published. Most people want a positive spin and that’s understandable.
- Am I being bullied (intentionally or unintentionally) into removing a name from my blog?
- Is it a reasonable request to remove the name?
So, moral question, should I honor this request because it’s a nice thing to do? Is it better to leave the comments as is? I’m sure many people say things online that they don’t think twice upon. Upon further refection, people may regret what they said. The risks of using your own name on the internet include embarrassment. Sometimes this is self-induced. Sometimes it’s not.
Is this just a pissing contest between two bloggers and now i’m in the middle of it because I had an opinion?
I hope we get a good, objective, and intelligent discussion on this– one that does not personally attack anyone involved.
Note: The purpose of this post is not malicious– it’s to foster discussion.
5 Responses to “Erie Bloggers will find this interesting… Blogging Integrity Issues Discussed”
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 am
I think you have become unintentionally involved in a pissing contest between two bloggers. In my opinion, just leave it alone and things will calm down - much the same with a violent summer storm.
Just ride this out and enjoy the Rainbow afterwards!
June 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
If what you said is a fact, leave it up. If it’s your opinion and you stand behind it, leave it up. I guess it depends on what you’re comfortable putting out there for others to consume.
It feels to me like someone is most definitely bullying you. Truth be told, whatever the original post was is already cached and available in search engines anyway so you altering the post doesn’t change a whole lot.
And if someone did something, wrote something or said something that damaged his personal or professional reputation and all you did was point to it or share the fact or your opinion about it, the bully needs to take a close, hard look at himself and his actions/words before moving on to harassing other people.
You might want to run it past a lawyer anyway but from what I can guess, it falls under the First Amendment and isn’t libel.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 am
Everything I read seemed to be personal opinion, and not a libelous comment, and I don’t believe this is the only site that this appeared on.
I vote for a pissing contest.
June 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
It sounds to me like this person should go back in the corner and do what they do best!!
If it were me I would not remove it.
ErieBlogs.com had a comment about someone and they later retracted it after so many people called him out on it. But it was already in my RSS feed and I just checked a couple news aggregation service(s) and the rejected smart ass post/sentence is still there.
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:29 am
In this situation, I would have to say that you have been put in the middle of the situation. With that in mind, if it were me, I would honor the request to remove the name from the comment, if only to avoid any future problems if legal action should occur.
Leave a Comment