Comments on: Keeping your Internet profile clean

By: Judy Jenner

Judy Jenner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:37:16 +0000

I completely agree; keeping your profile clean is paramount. While I do have profiles on Xanga, etc., all of them have a professional-looking picture (after I had my hair styled!), and that’s it. I don’t really leave comments on those sites; just on translation and Vegas-related blogs and on Facebook, which is all about friends. Even on my Facebook, there are no crazy pictures. I recently heard about a service on NPR — similar to the ones you mention — that clean up your internet life. It was pretty expensive, so of course keeping it clean and professional is a much better way to go! For Facebook (and all others), I don’t accept anyone as a friend who I don’t know in real life.

By: Ryan Ginstrom

Ryan Ginstrom — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:45:43 +0000

Very good post. I run an archive site for the Honyaku mailing list. Just a couple of weeks ago, a woman emailed me wanting me to remove some content she had written over 10 years ago.

I started my website as a joke, and my blog as a personal tool to polish my writing, but lately more and more clients have told me that they read my blog or use my website.

By: Susanne Aldridge III

Susanne Aldridge III — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:33:24 +0000

I keep thinking about that too. Just with my recent post about customer service I got a little worried because I have come to realize it is more controversial than I thought it would be.
I recommend an alter ego for spare time online activities. It is not because I am trying to hide anything (or maybe I am, ha), it is because “Susanne at Work” and “Susanne in her Spare Time” have the right to exist independently.
I don’t want the CEO of my company to watch me in my shorts on the treadmill – not because it is illegal or embarrassing, but because it private. Same goes for private online activities, be it a rant on a message board or a silly comment – but since this is not possible, an alter ego is a good idea I think.
I have a colleague who once posted a remark on a message board, something like “This guy’s suggestion is as stupid as he looks”. Well, guess what? For the longest time that was the top search result in Google for his name.

By: Corinne McKay

Corinne McKay — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:16:40 +0000

Great advice! I’ve taken to assuming that my clients can read anything I post online; I think it’s just a reality of working for yourself. Also, not that my life is that exciting, but I a) keep Facebook for friends only and b) keep my profile pretty minimal; I don’t fill out the status update or post pictures of my kid.

I read an interesting story a while ago about a college professor who, in order to bring home the point that you’ve made in this post, displayed compromising photos of his students that he had found on public websites and said “If I can find these, so can your prospective employers!”

By: jillsommer

jillsommer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:26:29 +0000

You know, I had almost included a sentence or two about how the Masked Translator had the right idea because he/she can rant about things with no worry of repercussions

By: MT

MT — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:14:02 +0000

This is an excellent point. Making too much personal information available (over the web, by phone, by e-mail, in person) to potential clients can be a big mistake. Plus, being mysterious can be really fun