Carthage

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April 09, 2004

Problem with MT and a blast from the past

Jacob and I found a potential problem with MT last night, and here is the amusing story to go along with it:

I was idly obsessively checking my stats when I noticed I was being linked to by a page I'd never heard of which was not spam or a search engine. Naturally, I went to check it out. Imagine my shock to find a girl from high school. She had Googled her own name (we've all done it) and found my site, where I impoliticly (but I don't think rudely) referenced her a couple of years ago. Apparently, this creeped her out.

Not wanting to be a creep, I deleted the entry. Here is where the problem lies: the entry can still be reached by following her link to it, or by Googling for it. I confirmed it with Jacob: I'm not inept, MT just has a weird issue. This means that any entry you have created and deleted might still be out there. Hopefully there will be a fix for this coming from the Lad when he gets home, but in the meantime, be warned.

Anyway, hopefully this will not turn into some war of meta-blogging. I just wanted to 1) warn people about the MT thing and 2) reassure this girl that the entry will be down as soon as I figure out how to do that.

Posted by didofoot at April 9, 2004 04:31 PM

Comments

uh oh, that's a little scary. i've blogged some things that are better blotted from memory.

has the lad made it to greece or was dan meeting him in BF Egypt?

Posted by: cody at April 9, 2004 04:38 PM

she blogged about me again and referenced me as "the creepy girl from high school." i think i would rather she used my name than gave me that title.

i think the lad s/b with dan in israel by now. haven't heard from in a few days, which i think is a good sign.

Posted by: didofoot at April 9, 2004 04:42 PM

by the way: props to Kristin for not instigating a BLOGWAR

it's so tempting to be vicious, cruel, and inaccurate while using this psuedo-anonymous space, until you come across someone who knows you, or thinks that they know you, based on the little they knew you years ago...rambling...it's friday and clearly time for me to leave work

Posted by: cody at April 9, 2004 04:43 PM

how odd, we posted seconds after each other

the "they haven't changed at all" comment kinda bothered me, especially considering how crazy our friends have become traveling off to israel and greece at times like these.

Posted by: cody at April 9, 2004 04:45 PM

The fact that she referred to you again, and as the "creepy girl from high school," shows that she was more unnerved by your post than need be.
Clearly, the fact that she can't control *other* people's opinions of her on the web bugs her. Ahh, the wonderful internet.
You're not creepy.
She's just easily creeped.

Posted by: kati at April 9, 2004 05:07 PM

I also find it not terribly creepy. Maybe I'm just vain or insecure, but I much prefer googling my name and finding stuff about me than googling my name and finding that no one cares.

Posted by: Dianna at April 9, 2004 05:14 PM

Having gone through this same process about a year ago, albeit somewhat more seriously, I don't think you really did anything wrong, but, you also can't ever control how someone reacts to a mention of their name. I'm with Dianna in enjoying every little bit of pseudo-Google internet celebrity that anyone might want to bestow on me, but though I'm surprised at this kind of reaction every time I see it, I also don't think it's really wrong. I think removing the post, or switching it to "draft" status is the right move.

In this case, given who it was, the reaction was maybe not so surprising.

I think stuff disappears from Google once a little bit of time has passed since DELETION! It's not so much an MT flaw as it is simply internet lag.

I toyed with the idea of switching to exclusively ridiculous nicknames for any real people I might refer to, which Carthage already mostly has in spades. Since I had that thought I began blogging so much less that it never again came up. I have retroactively yet pre-emptively assigned pseudonyms in a couple of cases, after glancing through archives.

Where does the line between Google stalking and nostalgic high school curiosity lie, I wonder?

Posted by: sean at April 9, 2004 05:47 PM

Actually, I think it was a direct link. So it's not just Google's cache....The information of the post never goes away.

As for the creepiness, I was shocked and awed by your high school friend's response to finding her own name in someone else's blog. I think it's asking a little much to consider references to onesself licensible material. Asking someone's permission to mention their name on the internet? Ridiculous. Is it rude if I step out onto the street and yell someone's full name to the neighborhood? The internet is a little more far-reaching, but the concept is the same.
You shouldn't need a signed letter of approval to mention someone in print. This topic makes me incoherently rambly angry. Rar.

Posted by: Jacob at April 9, 2004 07:29 PM

so...if she deletes her link to the post, it will eventually disappear? is that what you're saying? meaning it is now up to her whether people are able to find her name via me?

Posted by: didofoot at April 9, 2004 08:07 PM

No.... She can link to it because it never really went away. As soon as it goes away, her link will be broken.

Wow...that sounded remarkably prophetic.

Posted by: Jacob at April 9, 2004 08:46 PM

try Rebuilding the site. It should remove that post.

Posted by: brian at April 10, 2004 05:21 AM

tried that. didn't work. alas.

Posted by: didofoot at April 10, 2004 05:43 PM

Is the plug connected to the socket in the wall?

Posted by: brian at April 10, 2004 08:15 PM

i'll sock you in the head, bunny.

Posted by: didofoot at April 10, 2004 09:31 PM

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