My name is Rebecca Jean Petro. I was born at 8:35 a.m. on September 19th, 1985 at Ingalls Hospital in Harvey, IL to John and Beverly Petro. I have one brother, a cat and one living grandparent. I'm employed by DiaTri, Inc. I attended Olivet Nazarene University and Tinley Park High School. I have a Facebook account I haven't used in well over a year. I'm addicted to Twitter. I own an iPhone.
Oh. My. God. I put personal information on my blog. The truth is, this information was already completely available to anyone that wanted to find it.
I'm sharing this information to prove a point: There is no such thing as anonymity on the internet.
My readers may notice I've never allowed anonymous comments on my blog. I have two reasons for this:
- I think people should take responsibility for their words and actions.
- Nothing on the internet is anonymous.
I feel the first is fairly obvious. When I write something, I sign my name to it. I don't share anything with my readers that I wouldn't say to their face - and sometimes I do say it to their faces, because I know a good amount of my readers personally.
As to the second, I'm a pretty bright girl. My IQ doesn't break the bank but I can follow directions pretty well and my reading comprehension and problem solving skills are (not to brag) out of this world. And if this wasn't true; my brother's IQ DOES break the bank and he is actually educated in computer science. If you really want to leave an anonymous comment on my blog you should be bright enough to figure out how to get around my blog's security (which isn't that stellar, btw). If you can do this, you might be smart enough to cover your tracks well enough to actually leave an anonymous comment. MAYBE (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt; I'm kind of lazy, I'll probably get bored and find something else to do before I track you down.) If you can't do this, your comment won't be anonymous even if I did allow them.
This isn't the first time I've discussed anonymous blog comments but I hope its the last. My final statement to anonymous commenters (all of them) is this: I know who you are, Anonymous. I know where you live and where you work. I know the name of your spouse and your kids and your friends. I know what you do for fun and above all, I know you're not that bright because you honestly thought you could be anonymous. Remember in school when they talked about your permanent record? The internet IS your permanent record.
So readers, do you allow anonymous comments on your blog? Why do or don't you? Do you ever leave anonymous comments on blogs yourself? If you do: do you say things you wouldn't normally say if your name was next to those words?
And as I said, when I write something, I sign my name to it: Rebecca J. Petro.
word.
ReplyDeleteI'm still pissed about that comment
ReplyDeleteA-freaking-Men, Sister!!!
ReplyDeleteI ALWAYS sign my name. Sure, I am using my fake FruitFly name, but that is because I had my psycho internet stalker that seems to have a Google alert for what I used to sign. And said stalker has gone out of his pathetic way to post as Anonymous on my blog before - which resulted in a complete blog make-over and address change. Anonymous was a moron and I was able to see how obsessively he was looking at my page and knew for a fact he posted the comment.
However, even though I post as FruitFly I don't hide behind it. I will post my actual name, but not the double first and middle together since that is what the alert seems to be on. I have a link to my facebook page. I mean if you wanted to get to know me you totally could. This is because I am not going to hide behind anything. My words are mine and I'll stand by them and not hide.
And also, I pretty am just not going to be a total douche bag and write mean, pathetic comments to others and then hide. If I was dude I'd say I have balls. But I'm not a dude, so .... yeah.
Three cheers to us decent, honest people.
A three kicks to the ass to Mr. Anonymous.
hmm. Drama.
ReplyDeleteMore drama on your blog than a Jr. High Cheer leading squad. Aww... that takes me back.
No seriously, though... why so much snarky-post inducing drama on your blog?
I don't have drama. Nor do i have anonymous commenters. I DO however have people with no known connection to me subscribe to my personal blog which is... weird to me.
Isn't narcissism and self-indulgence what blogging is all about in the first place? An anonymous narcissist is kinda antithetical, don't you think?
I don't know. I'm tired. It's late and the hubs is playing video games. He is never LESS attractive than when he is sprawled across a chair with his mouth hanging open intently killing people on the TV. Oh, and he occasionally yells: "Eff me." I snagged a winner. I miss having you as my roommate...