Hidden Lives
In July of 2005 i wanted to make my site nicer, more organized, and more fun. To do this I added Tagging. Tagging is this really nice feature used by popular sites like Flickr, YouTube, Google, etc. Tags rule. They invoke a lot of coordination in a web site and are just fun.
I decided to use this to tag all my photos of people I have photos of. It was a huge task and took me a really long time, but in the end it turned out to be awesome. Everyone likes pictures of themselves, no matter how non-vain they claim to be. Also, everyone googles their name from time to time (no matter how non-vain you claim to be). So if I tag things nicely, my friends will probably find photos of themselves on my site.
Besides the advantages I've already mentioned, tagging has allowed me to get back in touch with some old friends, which has been really nice. They would have never found me had I not tagged them correctly. How often do you google all your friends? You don't. But because of my tagging, they found me.
Since I've added tagging, I've been emailed by various people asking me to take their photos off of my site or untag them. This always makes me upset. The reasoning is always "jobs, family, church, whatever." Don't get me wrong, I've worried about it from time to time as well. But why is it better to live a hidden life than be honest? Why can't people be honest with their jobs and family? I have been guilty of it.
It just really makes me sad when people tell me to censor my own site because they're scared of what people will think. I have a friend who just got a job making 6 figures. He has plenty of incriminating photos on my site. Did his company do a google search for him? Who knows. I hope they did, because work and play are 2 completely different things.
Am I scared about getting/retaining a job with the information about myself online? No. Because I rule at what I do. I am a programmer and I am a partier. When work knows about my partying, they might not understand, but they hired me to work. When my friends know about my programming, they might not understand, but they befriended me to party. It is ok to not be professional when you are not on the job!
That said. I am really against censoring my web site. I will take down your stuff if you ask, because I am your friend. But it's my web site and my photos. I hate compromising the integrity of my taxonomy, content, and fun for your fear. If you don't want people to think you act a certain way, maybe you shouldn't act that way. Or, if you don't want to change the way you act, maybe you should rethink the kind of life you are getting yourself into.
It's sad when jobs take over lives. Please understand that you work to play, not the other way around.
I decided to use this to tag all my photos of people I have photos of. It was a huge task and took me a really long time, but in the end it turned out to be awesome. Everyone likes pictures of themselves, no matter how non-vain they claim to be. Also, everyone googles their name from time to time (no matter how non-vain you claim to be). So if I tag things nicely, my friends will probably find photos of themselves on my site.
Besides the advantages I've already mentioned, tagging has allowed me to get back in touch with some old friends, which has been really nice. They would have never found me had I not tagged them correctly. How often do you google all your friends? You don't. But because of my tagging, they found me.
Since I've added tagging, I've been emailed by various people asking me to take their photos off of my site or untag them. This always makes me upset. The reasoning is always "jobs, family, church, whatever." Don't get me wrong, I've worried about it from time to time as well. But why is it better to live a hidden life than be honest? Why can't people be honest with their jobs and family? I have been guilty of it.
It just really makes me sad when people tell me to censor my own site because they're scared of what people will think. I have a friend who just got a job making 6 figures. He has plenty of incriminating photos on my site. Did his company do a google search for him? Who knows. I hope they did, because work and play are 2 completely different things.
Am I scared about getting/retaining a job with the information about myself online? No. Because I rule at what I do. I am a programmer and I am a partier. When work knows about my partying, they might not understand, but they hired me to work. When my friends know about my programming, they might not understand, but they befriended me to party. It is ok to not be professional when you are not on the job!
That said. I am really against censoring my web site. I will take down your stuff if you ask, because I am your friend. But it's my web site and my photos. I hate compromising the integrity of my taxonomy, content, and fun for your fear. If you don't want people to think you act a certain way, maybe you shouldn't act that way. Or, if you don't want to change the way you act, maybe you should rethink the kind of life you are getting yourself into.
It's sad when jobs take over lives. Please understand that you work to play, not the other way around.