There's a buzz about the blogosphere today. Frequent commenter and friend of the blog Damn Good Technician has had to close up shop after being outted by the powers that be at Big Pharma. They were apparently unamused with the candor of DGT's blog.
Many of us choose to write under pseudonyms and I think it is a damned shame that Big Pharma reacted so poorly to DGT's blog. I think that blogs play very important roles in community building, information sharing, and mentoring. Also, some of them are hilarious. While blogs are becoming more mainstream in science, which is usually 5-10 years behind popular culture, the fact remains that many don't see their value. Worse, some view them as a waste of time or harmful to the institutions the bloggers represent. These people potentially have the ability to impact our careers.
Some choose to blog pseudonymously in order to discuss things they would not be comfortable having linked to their name in a trivial Google search. I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, provided one does not forget the thin veil pseudonymity provides. I think that people who choose to out pseudonymous bloggers are asshats who appreciate nothing more than their narrow view of the universe. But, that is not the only reason to blog pseudonymously. I choose to blog as "Isis the Scientist" instead of under my real name because it is my desire to keep my work and blog lives separate. Even though some may have tried to guess who I am, I do not want to give the impression that it would ever be acceptable to approach my real-life self uninvited at a meeting or after a talk to speak with "Dr. Isis." I love my bloggy peeps, but research time and family time are precious to me, and I try to guard it as fiercely as I can. I keep my Isis the Scientist email separate from my MRU email and don't co-mingle my domains.
Figure 1: Dr. Isis guards her science time and is totally hot while doing it. Also, her shoes are amazing.
That said, I know that many of you are new pseudonymous readers to this blog and may not have been around for the previous talk about pseudonymity in the blogosphere. I thought I would share the rules I try to live by when it comes my bloggy shenanigans.
- Anyone who could fire me/prevent my career advancement knows about my blog. I write with the knowledge that they may be reading it. Some of them do.
- I never, ever, ever write about my students. Ever.
- I never write about a colleague without their knowledge. My immediate colleagues and collaborators know about my blog. See "Dr. Buttercup" as an example.
- I never write things about another scientist that I would not say to them openly and in public.
- I don't divulge top secret MRU-related stuff.
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Kudos, Dr. Isis! Sharing valuable information with the freedom of blogging while keeping your personal/professional life separate is a fair trade.
I don't ever blog about my family excessively or in a negative way, and assume they read it (and with pleasure). I don't blog about my workplace itself or industry-sensitive topics, and know they read it. And I live by the same rule I always insisted my daughter follow in the cyber world: I don't write, email or text anything I can not say face to face.
Thanks for restating the rules - I just love the word "pseudonymous". Sounds like a Greek god.
Posted by: Mike | May 7, 2009 6:10 PM
Excellent points Isis. With respect to blog content and pseudonymity, I think it's really up to the individual as far as which compromises they want to make. Thanks for sharing your decisions.
Two points brought up on other blog discussions re: the same topic:
1 - Blogs can serve a useful purpose to those who are navigating the waters of academic intrigue - they can reach out to others for objective advice via a pseudonym...however, in order to maintain pseudonymity, some self-censorship is required and having to obscure details can reduce the efficacy of getting useful advice.
2 - Assuming that many pseudonymous bloggers are pseudonymous for the reason that honest appraisal of their working environment can be met with hostility, is it more or less professional/ethical/acceptable to air these appraisals in a pseudonymous setting among those who do not know the parties involved, or to snipe about colleagues around the water cooler with other colleagues - yours and theirs?
Posted by: ambivalent academic | May 7, 2009 6:54 PM
AA, I have never considered the question of whether it is more or less ethical to appraise one's work environment pseudonymously versus in person. I'm not sure I know the answer.
My decision not to discuss my colleagues specifically without their knowledge comes from the fact that I would hate for one of them to realize who I am as they read my blog and to realize that I am talking about them. I imagine that would cause them a bit of shame and embarrassment, I wouldn't want to be the cause of that. I wrote a couple of times early on the old blog about a staff person that was causing me some grief, but changed her position and the timing of the events enough that I was confident that she couldn't identify herself if she found it. Even though I was confident it wouldn't hurt her, it didn't feel good to me, and so I stopped doing it after a couple of posts. I'm not saying there isn't value in hearing others kvetch for people that are going through the process. I'm just saying that it's not a role I felt comfortable in.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 7, 2009 7:36 PM
I know what you mean. I find it very useful and cathartic to gripe about my advisor on my blog (and to read about others in the same situations). Sometimes I even get good advice in the comments on how to deal.
But I do feel a bit squidgy when I imagine him stumbling across my blog and realizing that it's me talking about him. He's not really a bad guy, but sometimes he drives me nuts - like any student-mentor relationship. Like you, I try to alter/obscure details to minimize that possibility, but there's always a chance, and I'm never sure that I do a good enough job of it. If I'm being careful I try to craft my complaints in such a way that they acknowledge the fact that he's generally well-meaning but misguided. There have been some posts which I almost hoped he would find and recognize himself because I think that he would realize what I've been trying so hard to say to him. It is so difficult to communicate with the guy in real life for all kinds of reasons.
When sniping is required for reasons of maintaining sanity, I think that the safest thing is snipe about situations rather than people...but sometimes it's hard to leave the people out. I guess if people are sniping about me, I'd prefer that they be doing it here with strangers, rather than with my coworkers. If bitching on blogs minimizes bitching in breakrooms, it seems to me that there's less harm done. But I don't really know either.
Posted by: ambivalent academic | May 7, 2009 7:49 PM
WHAT!?
I was supposed to use a pseudonym!?!?!?
I can't help that my parents were punky hippies and gave me a weird name.
Posted by: Toaster | May 7, 2009 7:49 PM
Posted by: Danimal | May 7, 2009 8:07 PM
I realized today, after this debacle, that if someone came across my blog that knew me they would know it was my blog. Even then, because of my small research area, it would probably be fairly easy to figure out.
I try to stick to the rules of not talking about specific people (only situations), personal things between DH and I, things related to DH's work, family stuff in general, or people I work closely with. I have bent the rules a couple of times and wrote about specific people (but not people that I work particularly close to). In the end, I just write with the thought that I have no idea who might be reading.
After this situation with DGT though, I think many of us in the blogosphere will be more careful than before.
Posted by: Mrs. CH | May 7, 2009 8:53 PM
Isis,
You have a point for sure, but there is a fine line between having the freedom to give and take advice in an open forum where no punches are pulled and self-censoring to the point that where no one learns anything. I've gone about blogging as a resource for new faculty and found along the way a huge resivoir of advice from people who have been there already. The give and take has helped me get through year one in a number of ways. If I were to remove any and all context to all of my posts, I'm not sure the result would be satisfying. At the same time, I realize that I would not want someone to feel like I am airing dirty laundry online, so I try to keep things as general as possible. I don't know that I have succeeded. I think DGT's situation, as horrible as it is, has made many of us think that much harder about what we post. Whether or not that is a good thing we will have to see.
Posted by: Prof-like Substance | May 7, 2009 8:54 PM
I don't think of DGT's blog as a dirty laundry-airer and I think this will be a bad thing. All I can do is share how I deal with my pseudonymity, for bad or worse.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | May 7, 2009 8:58 PM
Nice to see your guidelines. I have been thinking of blogging but have yet to make that leap. I don't like it at all when people try to figure out who you are, especially publicly!!
Posted by: gnuma | May 7, 2009 9:19 PM
Nooo!!! She was one of my faves. Dammit all!
The weird thing is, I thought she was doing an exceptional job about keeping BigPharma things confidential, frequently substituting words ("pencils") for the real research topic in question.
Once her husband gets a position and she works in that lab, I assume she'll be blogging all she wants. One would hope so, anyway.
Will be missing you DGT!
Posted by: Physiogroupie IV | May 7, 2009 9:19 PM
(Huh- first time I've left that URL spot blank.) Let me be clear: I made a big mistake by assuming that I could say whatever I wanted about people I work with. I can. But then I need to live with those consequences. The rules that Isis suggests are excellent, and had I followed them I would not be in this remarkably awkward sutuation. Another part of the issue here is that there are formal policies at my work regarding personal Internet use on company-provided computers.
I recognize that I messed up, not in having a blog but in what I said. Unpleasant terrible awkward lesson learned.
Posted by: DamnGoodTechnician | May 7, 2009 9:20 PM
Also, I have this fantasy that one day I'll meet CPP, and it'll turn out to be a colleague I already knew well. AHAHAAH keep dreaming 'Groupie.
Posted by: Physiogroupie IV | May 7, 2009 9:22 PM
It's sad to see DGT go because I loved reading her blog. It was always pretty damn funny.
As far as rules for keeping your pseudonym - well - pseudonymous, I think it really depends on why you don't want to reveal your identity. If you know me, it wouldn't be that difficult to figure out who I am based on clues I've dropped. I really don't care about that. The reason I won't blog under my real name is that I don't want that being the first thing that comes up when you google "FirstName LastName". So my main rule tends to be: Remember to use the correct email accounts when posting shit associated with this pseudonym. Of course, I've slipped up a few times because gmail sucks donkey balls and I'm careless, but never enough to do harm.
Posted by: LostMarbles | May 7, 2009 11:05 PM
i made some changes on a few parts of my blog. but openness is to an extent the purpose of my blog. some of the stories are personally identifying, to those who have heard me tell them. i was maybe a bit too open in the "about" page, so i got more general there, too.
it makes you think about what you say... this is probably a good time to remind me of what i need to be keeping under my hat.
Posted by: leigh | May 8, 2009 12:17 AM
When a person on the street asks you for his way, the name of a store or the hour, you are not going to ask him for his name. It is dialogue, information that is important. That you are indeed woman or man, or that you show the photograph of your dog matters not much.
Posted by: humorix | May 8, 2009 7:39 AM
I started my blog for my practice, so of course that's my real name and info on the profile. I post the link on the website for my classes. Needless to say, I am still careful about what I post and how, because people who might or might not be my topic on a given day have a right not to have their business put out on the virtual street.
Nevertheless, as I am self-employed, I have a good deal of freedom to express my opinions without worrying about whom I might offend. In two weeks, though, I am joining another practice, so recently have found myself thinking about whether to take down some old posts, whether to muzzle the political stuff, etc. out of consideration for the group as a whole.
And of course even before this move, I found that there are things I want to say, but couldn't for various reasons (private-personal boundary, person identifiable no matter what I change, opinions unacceptable to or repressive of clients/students as a whole), so eventually I started a pseudonymous one.
My new problem is that, in attempting to guard my pseudonymity, I find myself being so guarded that I hardly say anything at all. It's the textbook definition of neurosis: I frustrate myself.
Posted by: Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D. | May 8, 2009 7:44 AM
I still remember when one of my favorite medical bloggers was taken down because he went off about a lawsuit he was involved in, and then had it brought up against him in court. If I recall correctly, it was "Dr. Flea", and I frankly thought he was one of the best pro-vacine bloggers out there (a rival to Orac, even).
Orac's another good examle of separating blog and life. Sure, he's been "outed" repeatedly, but with few exceptions he's managed to keep things separate so that a web search for one doesn't immediately bring up the other. Hell, he's even managed to associate his real name with the same quality work on the same subjects, just minus the snark associated with his other persona.
I'm pseudonymous online, though not thoroughly so. Enough digging will get you a lot about me, mostly just because I'm lazy about email addresses. I try not talk about work, at least in detail (I work in pharma, as well). Maybe I need some better rules for myself.
Posted by: Ranson | May 8, 2009 8:09 AM
I have often thought that when I grow up, I’d like to be a blogger. If I had the quick wit of the goddess or was UBC funny (what do those crazy Canadians put in the water up there?), I would indulge my inner anthropologist, give my colleagues pseudonyms, and write about you crazy people. But, to paraphrase my father, I am not smart enough - nor do I have the time - to be a liar. DGT reminds us how high the stakes really are for those of us who do not have tenure or the status of “peer” to protect ourselves and our gorillas. Hats off to the pseudonymous bloggers who can bridge both worlds. Use your power wisely.
Posted by: PeggyOh | May 8, 2009 9:37 AM
This comes at a discomfiting time....I've been thinking about pre-emptively shutting down out of concern that such a situation could occur. I've tried to stick to stories that are about lab life rather than about particular people, but it's hard to do that and still keep it interesting. Scary stuff. I wish the best to DGT and hope that her workplace isn't giving her too much grief beyond the demand that she shut down the blog.
Posted by: Dr. Jekyll & Mrs. Hyde | May 8, 2009 10:36 AM
Yikes. I'd like to think that all of us follow proper bloggie etiquette and don't try to discover the blogger's real identity, so it's always shocking to hear of one that has been outed.
Interesting point regarding writing about students. Hmm...I'll have to ponder. I do often write about situations arising from an interaction with a student, so I'll really have to think about that rule.
Posted by: unbalanced reaction | May 9, 2009 10:59 PM
I am slowly outing myself to colleagues at MRU for reasons similar to what you've already said, Isis. Partly I want to control who knows who I am, and partly I want them to share in this part of my life, even though at the same time I keep the two lives very separate. I wanted to blend my blog with more professional stuff -- reviews of articles, discussions of my field, etc -- and have decided, instead, to start a separate blog on my lab website for this purpose. It's weird having to sign in two different ways to put up a post, and I hope I never screw up, but this is a sure way for me to recognize where my content belongs.
Posted by: Kate | May 13, 2009 11:24 AM
I am new in this game, but very careful to discuss only the issues which bothers me, and not the people. I want to use this medium constructively, and if I will discuss people, I will loose this opportunity. Therefore, I happily share my blog to my friends and other colleagues I know, but don't want to reveal my real name to others whom I don't know. A fair game, I think.
Posted by: Rainbow Scientist | June 24, 2009 6:43 PM