i like to keep fairly anonymous

i'm not ashamed of who i am or my beliefs or my thoughts. i express myself freely to my friends, family and co-workers as i do on my blogs. i just don't choose to share my name with strangers. i'm rather private.

i don't think i'd get fired. i rarely blog about my work and when i do, it's usually in a positive light (i LOVE my job and my co-workers. i also think my company has some rather progressive policies - after all it IS european). my friends know about my blogs and most of them don't read them (why should they bother, they get ME mouthing off in person).

even on social networking sites i don't exactly use my real name. hell, i do NOT want to 'befriend' someone i don't like. i have no patience and i don't suffer fools gladly.


i try not to be cruel although i have attacked the right now and again.

The coming-out stories of anonymous bloggers

By John D. Sutter
CNN

- Blog fans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw PittGirl as their masked superhero -- a comedian and local commentator who jibed the mayor without reserve and ranted freely about her hatred of pigeons.

But despite her effort to keep her real name secret, people started to figure out who PittGirl was.

Feeling pressure to take control of her identity before someone else outed her, PittGirl on Wednesday posted pictures of herself on her blog and introduced readers to her real-world self: Virginia Montanez, a 35-year-old married mother of two who worked in the nonprofit sector.

"My friends and family call me Ginny," she wrote on her blog. "But you can continue to call me Your Majesty, because I've grown accustomed."

On Thursday morning, Montanez was fired from her job because of her online persona, she said.

Montanez's and other online coming-out stories highlight the complicated way people view anonymity on the Internet and the high stakes that come with trying to keep up an online persona.

The reasons people want to be anonymous online vary. Political whistle blowers fear retribution; employees want to separate the personal from the professional; artists want their work to stand up without an attached biography; and some writers like Montanez take on a sort of Everyman quality by keeping their real names off their posts.......

i don't know if i've ever reviewed

anything here (as in a PRODUCT review). i may have, especially on my craft blog. i know i've written about movies or books. let me tell the ftc, (and it's painfully obvious) i have NEVER been compensated for a product whether i've written about it or not.

i'm honest to a fault. if i don't like something, you'll know about it. if i do like something you'll know about it as well. i won't lie

FTC to monitor blogs for 'false claims,' payola

Associated Press -- Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.

What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

--Remainder of article continues below--

FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments

Can you trust that online review? FTC prepares to crack down on bloggers compensated for posts

DEBORAH YAO
AP News..................

this is pretty scary

i like being (fairly) anonymous on my blog. sure, some peeps know who i am. some don't. some i don't care if they know, some i DO care.

i'll use an example - pertinent to this story. i mostly support my town (except for black and blue square, the taxes, the town council) and my police department. the other day i DID complain about the police because i read a story about 34 or 35 burglaries in one apartment complex (rather close to my house). NOT that there were so many robberies, i was pissed the story wasn't released after a COUPLE of burglaries. the story wasn't released (as far as i can determine) for quite a while AFTER. that's NOT a good thing.

no, i didn't write anything horrid, but i could have. i suppose it would be safer for me to remain anonymous if i had done so.

i don't like the idea that my town or my police chief can ask my isp who i am. it's none of their beeswax!

(on the other hand, if i had private, inside information that was adversely effecting an investigation or something like that AND ILLEGAL FOR ME TO DISPERSE, well that's a horse of a different color)

Police director sues for critical bloggers' names

Site popular with citizens, officers

By Amos Maki (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal

Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin and the city of Memphis have filed a lawsuit to learn who operates a blog harshly critical of Godwin and his department.

The lawsuit asks AOL to produce all information related to the identity of an e-mail address linked to MPD Enforcer 2.0, a blog popular with police officers that has been extremely critical of police leadership at 201 Poplar.

"In what could be a landmark case of privacy and the 1st Amendment," the anonymous bloggers write on the site, "Godwin has illegally used his position and the City of Memphis as a ram to ruin the Constitution of the United States........

most of my postings

on THIS blog are from and about news stories. i'll write a little blurb, then link to the news story and also post a paragraph or two from that news story. so this is of particular interest to moi

AP, blogger resolve dispute over copyright

AP, Drudge Retort resolve dispute; blogger says broader copyright questions remain

SETH SUTEL
AP News

A news discussion site and The Associated Press have resolved a dispute over an AP demand that the site remove some of the news agency's content.

In a statement Friday, Rogers Cadenhead said he is "glad" the dispute over his site, the Drudge Retort, has ended. He said a larger conflict remains between AP's view of acceptable use of its content and the practices of many bloggers. Cadenhead declined to comment further, referring all questions to his attorney.

An AP statement Thursday night said the company had provided additional information to Cadenhead about posting its material online, and both sides considered the matter closed. It also said the AP was having a "constructive exchange" with a "number of interested parties in the blogging community" about the relationship between bloggers and news providers, and intended to continue the dialogue............