I was just curious how concerned you guys were about being "outed" as being part of this site, and if any of you had ever been recognized by students or colleagues on here.
My department is pretty small. Some stories I'm afraid to tell. Something hysterically awesome-slash-infuriating happened to me yesterday, and I'd love to tell you guys, but I was so PeeOh'd that I couldn't restrain myself from fuming on the job and it's a particular enough story that if someone read it here and heard it earlier, they'd sure know who I was. That, and I sign "Callie" at the bottom of my posts. I should maybe stop that.
What's the story? What could conceivably happen to someone who got caught calling their students assmonkeys and their department chair a pompous wannabe? Bad stuff, methinks. So I didn't just say it. =)
Not Callie
They could discipline you for breaching confidentiality, but then you could go to the ACLU and repeat "Inherit the Wind." Keeping professors from talking about their asshat students, coworkers, and overlords infantilizes the professors and makes teaching miserable, because every job in the US has similar rules to keep the lawsuits down.
ReplyDeleteHey Not Callie,
ReplyDeleteI regularly change the number of students, the genders of people, and the references to things like the weather to make my story harder to trace. One never knows if your Dean is partial to CM or RYS, right? A lot of my stories convey conflicting information but that's because I tweak details.
You should VENT! I want to hear what happened. But switch up the details so we can get the sense of what happened without identifying yourself.
I tremble a bit everytime I hit "post comment" (formerly: send).
ReplyDeleteWhen I kept a blog, I had a student who would threaten to get me in trouble in the comments for mentioning student behavior. I traced his identity and sicked my bodyguards on him. No trouble after that.
ReplyDeleteWell, first, we all knew that Callie was a nom de plume. No one would be wack enough to use a real first name on this site. Cmon--Calico? Cash? Callie? Even Kalamazoo Katie wouldn't be, well, so bat sh_t Crazy to use her real first name, though I hear she sorta got outed here. And anyone who did drop her real first name would realize her mistake and...ahem... promptly create another online identity.
ReplyDeleteSecond, we've got our our gang signs, yo, so we can make each other on campus. Index fingers together and thumbs touching at the bottom to make a happy little sorta equilateral triangle--or a dunce cap. For realz.
And code. Just drop "snowflake" and "Wicked Walter" as if everyone knows what the frack you're talking about and look for spasms. That's a Miserian. Or an RYS refugee. Different street, same hood.
Look, if people are gonna get in your sh_t for stuff you want to say here, get your azz to your nearest lime tree bower and keep your heart awake to Love and Beauty. No sound may be dissonant which tells of Life, but you don't want it to be your life your colleagues are discussing in the men's room stalls.
I, too, would be concerned about being "outed" so to speak. For that reason I'm careful about what I write. Frankly, I'm not comfortable talking about current student crappery on a public forum. I am, however, willing to talk about past student crappery that I feel a enough people will have experienced since the event (thus decreasing the chance I'd be fingered as the blabber).
ReplyDeleteI've also found that sharing a past woe is as theraputic as bitching about the current one.
If I were you I'd edit my past posts to not include a real name. That way a coworker doesn't find an old post with your name on it. (I don't know if you are able to do that but you might try).
I too am nervous about posting some stuff. So, like Monkey, I change genders, numbers, details, etc (but never to make it worse, its usually bad enough). It's the only way I feel safe. And certainly Chloe isn't my real name.
ReplyDeleteAnd Perfesser Slaughter, I nearly pissed my pants laughing so hard at your comment. I am totally going to rock the hand sign on campus tomorrow. :)
I'm very careful about what I say in the comments, because this screen name links back to my blog, where it's all too easy to find my real name, and I have neither the time nor impetus to create a whole new e-mail address and Google account (I have one for my personal stuff and one for teaching; isn't that enough?). If I ever really need to unload, I'll be e-mailing stuff to Fab and having it posted anonymously.
ReplyDeleteHow is anyone going to prove that I am Stella from Sparksburg? And why would they want to try?
ReplyDeleteThe danger is wanting to take credit for being a participant here, and telling actual, real-life people about it. That would be very stupid.
This is an interesting discussion. We used to do wholesale anonymizing in a wide variety of ways at RYS; it was part of the training for moderators, in fact. For us, we erred on the side of caution.
ReplyDeleteUnless at times writers told us that they'd done it themselves, of course. Even then we might ask.
The question came up for us moderators as well. How cupable were we for what RYS was and for what the correspondents wrote on a site we ran. What if Compound Calico was found out? Couldn't I say, "Listen, I just swept up and took care of the monkey house."
I've not had to try that one yet, but who knows?
This is the reason I haven't told anyone I work with about this site. I'm afraid they might figure me out! I try to be generic in what I say, but the world really is quite small. This site is my way to deal with the academic world. I can't invite the colleagues in.
ReplyDeleteRandom person that posts using the handle FreudianQuip,
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, so long as you're not explicitly identifying a student, you're not violating any FERPA regulations. So, it's a coincidence the snowflake you're describing just happens to exhibit the same types of behaviours as one that's currently in your class. It's called plausible deniability.
Regarding your pompous d-bag chair, he or she is probably too full of him- or herself to read this blog. Good. More for us.
Finally, it seems to me that most of the fun and theraputic nature of this blog is twisting the situation into something so over-the-top ridiculous that is only bears a slight resemblance to the actual situation. With only this slight resemblance, no one should be able to cause any trouble for you.
I say, wasn't the main purpose of tenure supposed to be to allow faculty precisely this freedom?
ReplyDeleteI frankly wouldn't give a rat's hindquarters whether I was outed or not. But then, I have tenure. So, why don't I out myself now?
Well, as you learn from watching "The Prisoner," the poignant thing about innocence is that one can lose it only once. This is why there was never a sequel or movie to the series: it would almost certainly have fizzled.
Also, my effectiveness as a crimefighter depends on my secret identity. I always thought that was an odd thing to say, since real police have name tags and badges.
Nevertheless, I avoid posting anything verbatim that a student has written, no matter how shockingly illiterate, intellectually lazy, or laughably petulant. It's just not good manners to post anyone's work without permission, and one of the main complaints we keep making here is about the decline of civility. But then, it's seldom necessary to post anything a student has written anyway. Their ideas are so often so simple (disturbingly so), it's easy to paraphrase them.
I'm sure no one one in my department reads CM, anyway. I tried to get them interested in RYS by sending them this post, during evaluation season:
http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/2006/04/what-should-really-be-given-as_6940.html
I'm certainly not worried about any student spotting anything in CM, since come on, folks: they don't READ!
Wait... I'm supposed to use a fake name? Perhaps I should have used Englishsquatch?
ReplyDeleteMathsquatch...er...SportsManagementSquatch out.
I think it's much more dangerous to share colleague misery here because I know some folks who read this and I don't know if I could anonymize their stupidity enough to even fool them.
ReplyDeleteOn the perils of blogging:
ReplyDelete"Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs
When academics post online, do they risk their jobs?"
http://www.slate.com/id/2130466/
Oops. Maybe I should change my name to Finn in Fine Arts, Humanities Huckleberry, Basix Becky, or Native American Joe.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing- If you get outed for something that happens here, the person who outed you is READING THE SITE, TOO. Or at least they know someone who is.
It's interesting that this comes up now. I heard a doozy that went down yesterday, the specifics and context of which are necessary, otherwise it just doesn't work. I have been debating whether or not and/or how to post it. So... here goes:
Seems an enterprising student was running an underground tattoo parlor on campus. A client wanted a full-sleeve of Psalms 23 on their arm. Our Kat Von D wannabe (not a Religious Studies major) got the verses out of order. Cue Offspring "Pretty Fly."
I'm with the majority here: use common sense. I do not use my real name, the name of my institution, real names of students or even the real gender of my students, and I never post anything which could directly or indirectly point to a student. This is a place to vent, not to make the work of teaching harder by hurting people (me included). We all vent things that we would 1) never ever actually say to a student, and 2) that on occasion we would not really want to say.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the Internet brings up all kinds of things from one's past. Who in their right mind would not be careful about what does and does not get associated with their real name? (Never mind, all one has to do is to go to Facebook and see all the people who actually add real *details* and embarrassing pictures about their lives and who never think to use groups to separate colleagues, friends, netfriends, and acquaintances.)
Old tenured folks don't worry about much (dry cleaning that stinky coat, for instance), but I feel for the younger generation of scholars. That Slate article reference elsewhere is chilling.
ReplyDeleteI'm more afraid of being outed (with real name/address, etc.) to the CM bloggers, some of whom have expressed a vicious hatred for me, than of being outed to my employer, who has generally treated me fairly and would not fire me for commenting on a blog, as long as there is no potential for defamation or libel.
ReplyDeleteTex: I promise I did get it cleaned, at least a couple months ago.
ReplyDeletePatty: I've always enjoyed reading your posts and comments. Keep up the good work!
Shucks, Froderick, it is nice to know that at least one CMer doesn't want me banned. Thanks for the kind words! (For the record, I have never posted anything to CM, nor do I intend to. I only comment.)
ReplyDeleteI drop a small (very small) load every time I click the post comment or submit button. My rant about those fucks in IT worried me for about 24 hours.
ReplyDeleteI had one or three drinks (I lost count) before realizing that (A) they were fucks and (B) everyone should know my pain.
Yes, I do use a nom de plume or Mark Twain or what ever Italians call it when we disguise ourselves.
I'm with Wombat--I undergo several hours of anxiety every single time I post something.
ReplyDeleteI worry a bit, partly because, as my screen name indicates, I'm on a contingent contract. So far, I've only commented, not posted, partly for that reason. But I also feel that contingent faculty (and others in more vulnerable groups, such as graduate students and pre-tenure tenure track faculty) need to post, so that our voices are heard.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess I'm aiming mostly for deniability. The google account I use for commenting (and will use for posting) was created for that purpose. I won't log in to that account using a university internet connection (though I've been known to read the blog while in my office). When I do post, events from one semester may well be described as occurring during another, with other identifying details changed. And my real name isn't Cassandra (thank goodness; unless it were a longstanding family name, my parents would have something to answer for if they'd named me after an unheeded female prophet).
On the other hand, there are some fairly-identifying details about my job that I can't change while saying what I want to say. So I won't say anything that I feel would really undermine my professional credibility should it be linked to me. My university is generally very protective of its (growing) reputation, but there are plenty of schools that fit that description (or would like to believe they do), and I won't identify it by name, or any other truly unique detail, so I can't be seen as a threat to that reputation.
Finally, I am, to some extent, relying on the good will of colleagues (including administrators) who may be reading and/or posting here, too, and may recognize me (or think they do). Since my department and university are both quite decent in many ways, I feel comfortable with that -- but I'm still not sure I'll ever actually admit to more than reading the blog, or deliberately lead anyone to it, though there have certainly been posts I'd love to call to the attention of my colleagues.
I am not afraid of being outed at my current position because, aside from some filing disasters, the people are really nice here. Niceness is not the same as tidiness... But, I do still have a few doozies to post about previous positions which I have changed many of the details. In order not to be outed, I gave control of my personal blog over to a grad school friend. That way, I now only exist here. Well, I think he still has my original blog posts up. I should have him delete those.
ReplyDelete@Patty: I second Frod.
@Cassandra: I went to Jr. High with a Cassandra. She was a self-absorbed pest... Not that that has anything to do with anything. I just felt the need to share it.
Mathsquatch out.
I assume that everything that I do on the internet will be traceable to me and that everyone will see it. I am not worried about getting in trouble for posting on this site as I always keep this assumption in mind. I do disguise details in my stories.
ReplyDelete