[jonfw]

This seems like an exceptionally rare event- for a person to a) have nothing better to do than stalk your comments, going back 13 years, b) be in enough of a position of power that they could use it against you, and c) be irrational enough to not understand how dumb it is to hold a 13y/o internet comment against you.

My opinion is this- if somebody wants to stalk my Internet personality, so be it. I'm willing to sacrifice those relationships.

I guess the problem would be if I ended up with some leadership/management position and a subordinate saw it?

[goatinaboat]

I guess the problem would be if I ended up with some leadership/management position and a subordinate saw it?

Like this guy fired over an article written 33 years ago?

https://nypost.com/2020/07/03/boeing-communications-boss-nie...

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Reminds me of this story: https://www.wired.com/2007/04/canadian-psycho/

[quanticle]

The person doesn't need to be in a position of power. All someone has to do is tweet something you said a long time ago, out of concept, and then someone else in a position of power finds it. Or it gets signal boosted by other people until it comes to the attention of someone in a position of power.

[jjoonathan]

Like that time a Developer Evangelist overheard two developers exchange dongle jokes and got them fired for it. It doesn't take much.

[thristian]

> This seems like an exceptionally rare event

A global pandemic is also an exceptionally rare event, yet it's wise to be prepared for such things because sometimes they happen.

As for "be in a position of power", there's a lot of websites with enough SEO to show up in the first page of Google results for your name. How much do you care about what potential employers/co-workers/business partners/romantic partners think of you?

For "be irrational enough", just look at any click-bait headline or random sampling of tweets. There's a lot of people in this world who are quite happy to take things at face-value without thinking too hard.

[mellow2020]

> How much do you care about what potential employers/co-workers/business partners/romantic partners think of you?

If someone judges me based on some randonm old comment without even talking to me, I absolutely do not want to work with them or be their friend, ever.

[skinkestek]

> If someone judges me based on some randonm old comment without even talking to me, I absolutely do not want to work with them or be their friend, ever.

This is fine for you and me right now.

It is not fine for persons like one of the guys who was mentioned in the story in "the Atlantic" who had, for the first time in his life landed a good job only to be thrown under the bus at the first opportunity.

I'm fairly certain if a judge haf given him his job back he would have accepted it.

Why? Because I have been in a tight spot myself and while I wasn't fired (I moved to a new city to a job I was promised only to be told on Monday morning that they had reconsidered and wouldn't hire me anyway) I know the feeling of going -in a few hours - from a situation where everything looks nicer than ever before to a situation where I'm begging every nearby company to hire me.

[mellow2020]

> I'm fairly certain if a judge haf given him his job back he would have accepted it.

From that doesn't follow that one should just say nothing (that isn't utterly benign and impersonal) on the web. This would leave something like participation in public debate to the forever unemployed or bots. If we think that far enough, you could also not communicate with other human beings in private messages, because they might take a screenshot or record it, and so on.

This could very well lead to a world where having a well paid job will come with less freedom, dignity and happiness than even being unemployed does today. I cannot affect the world much with my decisions, but by them I can unilaterally decide what kind of world I would have deserved to live in.

[skinkestek]

These are good points. Have my upvote.