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Real Name: Skyler Visconti Address: www.ki6amd.com Murray, UT 84117 Gender: male Member Since: May 21, 2006 Last Signed In: November 05, 2008 Profile Views: 6663 Blog Views: 10946 Prop 8 non-sense... A complete change... UTAH as I see it. Road Warrior Ultimate Setup I should've moved earlier Leaving Bakersfield... The Windows curse!!! GNU/Linux: Growing still... The Google Phone (aka "Android") I ain't dead yet... Fred Thompson Announcement!!! July 06 August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 October 08 November 08 
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Free speech ain't that grand
Warning: your free speech rights are not going to interfere with my life! In very recent news AutoAdmit has taken the opposite stance. The Bakersfield.com website has a similarly effective policy.
It seems that Auto Admit has allowed free speech to interfere in a young woman's career life by allowing people to essentially "Google bomb" her name with hateful derogitory messages. When potential employers have searched for her name online (as many employers do these days) they find links to a website that has nothing good to say about her. I urge you to read the article. The Bakersfield.com website however employs a restrictive free speech policy. While good enough for some, it isn't good for others. When searching for my own first name, followed by Bakersfield, the first two results are Bakersfield.com links (the same applies to my first and last name when accompanied by "bakersfield"). While it may be good for Bakersfield.com's popularity it lacks in my customer's ability to find my site. Maybe others have this same problem? Well there is a solution! A simple line in a small file hosted on people.bakersfield would solve this. And for those who want to keep their name searchable on this site, there is a way of doing that too. I just thought I'd share this thought with some of you who might not appreciate having your every word publicized, or words about you. Anyone else interested in making some changes? ________________________________
While the proceeding was mostly my personal issue made public, what are your thoughts on the limits of free speech? 17 comments from 7 users
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posted by
randomfactor
on Mar 8, 2007 at 07:57 AM
I would oppose it, Skyler. The whole point of a blog is to document opinion and make it available. Searchability is a large part of that. It is important that people do realize, however, just how searchable the web is. If that bothers you, delete the comments the way Mocos1 has done.
. That said, I've been the target of such attacks personally in the past... My "real" name appears in the Californian's archives--somewhere--and I've never made a comment I don't stand by. posted by
ProgressivePete2
on Mar 8, 2007 at 08:32 AM
I'm a bit surprised that this wouldn't fall under the slander or libel category. I suppose a message board is neither spoken nor printed, so maybe that's why. It seems to me that a good lawyer should be able to get the comments removed. The school should do it if only to protect the reputation of this student that had to have given them lots of money.This is a fine example as to why a lot of us use a handle rather than our real names. I stand by what I say too, but I don't want it used against me either, or have a prospective employer judge me by my political opinions. posted by
TomW
on Mar 8, 2007 at 08:35 AM
There are a lot of ways to make yourself anonymous here and the paper provides for that. I think the seachability, as Random says, is the point of this forum. There are plenty of anonymous forums and there are plenty of ways to be anonymous here. For those of us who wish to speak publically, should we be forced to find another place?My name doesn't come up until page 2 on Google. Or rather, my name refering to me doesn't come up until then. But like RF, I stand by everything I say here. I think forums like this are important because they keep the trash to a minimum. posted by
rzaroch
on Mar 8, 2007 at 12:39 PM
free speech area...
isnt the whole united states a free speech area? posted by
randomfactor
on Mar 8, 2007 at 12:42 PM
Not any more. It's been limited to specific, barbed-wire enclosed areas (whenever politicians are in the area, at least. Funny thing is *THEY* don't have to go there to speak.)
posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 8, 2007 at 02:02 PM
My point is basically that I'd rather have my name (next to each comment I post) link to my website rather than my profile. The multiple links back to my profile make Bakersfield.com even more popular among search engines. But I already think having "BAKERSFIELD.com" provides a good rank for searching for "Bakersfield".TomW, I'm not interested in posting anonymously, I'm not afraid defending comments I post on here. Most of my customers feel the same way I do about the various topics I've commented on (shame on them I know), but I don't want to have my personal page rated lower than Bakersfield.com (when searching for my full name). Sure I could employ a special tactic each time I post by simply linking my name to my site, but that's still only going to keep the results where they are (since my name on the same post links to my profile). I've already asked Jason to just remove my profile by adding a line to the robots.txt file, but it sets a standard he's not (or the site maintainers) willing to employ. I wouldn't want to have to keep up with that either, but a simple "Make it private" button on one's profile could link to a perl script that adds a line to robots.txt could be used (so long as certain permissions are used). Again I'm not saying this is going to solve all of b.com's problems, in fact I'm sure it would add to their problems (as most features do). My whole point in writing this blog was to see if other people had the same problem or if it was just me. I see it is just me. posted by
pachecod
on Mar 8, 2007 at 02:38 PM
You have the ability to remove your name from public view. Simply edit your Bakersfield.com profile and uncheck the box next to your name. You can even change your name to something else if you like.We don't control what Google or any other search engine pulls in, and when content gets indexed there we suspect most people like that. Otherwise, why would they be publishing that content on a publicly available blog? posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 9, 2007 at 12:55 PM
Pachecod, perhaps you don't understand my intentions (get my google link above Bakersfield.com). I know you don't control that, but you do control what my name (handle) is linked to. If there were a way to change that, my page's rank would be higher, but B.com would still be fairly high. Adding the line I suggested to robots.txt, would still index all of my comments but it would only remove my profile (which can still be searched for using B.com search tool. I still want to be able to search google for comments I've made, I would just like my profile to be lower rated than my own site. posted by
dusty1215
on Mar 9, 2007 at 01:01 PM
The internets are a public place. Why would anyone expect privacy when they post on the internets? Are you just complaining that you want more hits or something and B.com keeps you from getting them?
posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 9, 2007 at 03:15 PM
Dusty, I'm not trying to keep my blog/comments private. I just want my website to have a higher rank. Did you read ANYTHING I wrote? My problem exists because of the way Bakersfield.com links my name. If I could link my name to my website (instead of my profile) my problem would be solved. Many other blog sites will link your name to your website (Slashdot), or a, e-mail address. I just want to have the ability to change that so, I can get searches (for my name) directed to where I want.You were given a fair warning. posted by
dusty1215
on Mar 10, 2007 at 09:12 AM
Nice of you to alter/edit the comments here. On a blog entitled "free speech" no less...
posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 10, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Dusty, I didn't alter or edit them, I deleted them. I warned you that I would if you kept up the childish comments and I kept my promise.
posted by
TomW
on Mar 10, 2007 at 01:23 PM
So let me get this right, you're asking a business to change the way they run their website so that your website outranks theirs on Google?
posted by
dusty1215
on Mar 10, 2007 at 01:26 PM
He's calling it a 'feature" Tom..but I thought the same thing as what you said above me. I also asked him roughly the same question and he deleted it.
posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 10, 2007 at 07:33 PM
No, Tom, I'm asking if anybody else had a similar problem and would want the same "feature" for any reason. My reason is to have MY website at the top of google. Others might want to keep their B.com stuff low on Google's results for other reasons (employers, friends, family, etc). This post is primarily to find out if I am the only one who wants to be able to either; change where their name (handle) is linked to, or remove their profile page from search engines. I know I didn't quite highlight my exact intentions with my original post, but I thought I had in my subsequent posts. Hopefully this clears the confusion for everyone (although I had explained it throughly to Dusty in posts that I eventually deleted because of the content). posted by
TomW
on Mar 11, 2007 at 12:18 AM
Why not just make your profile private? Wouldn't that do it?
posted by
ki6amd
on Mar 11, 2007 at 03:21 AM
My profile would still be indexed (still counting the number of links) and would put b.com above my own website.
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