On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

I love you, little chickens. You know that I do. That's why I answer your emails. Still, some of you are making me lose my fucking mind!

Seriously, I love you, but some of you are making me crazy. I realize the finer points of the pseudonymous blogosphere are easy to miss, but some events over the last few weeks have led me to create a list of things to remember when you are emailing me. As soon as I figure out how to HTML this bitch, I'll put it up at the top of the blog, but for now...

1. I assume that anything you send me is fair game for use on my blog. Unless you specifically tell me otherwise, but you should still see my general policy regarding email. Dr. Isis is a benevolent blogger and generally operates with her muffins' best interests in mind, but sometimes she still #FWDAOTI for the greater good of the blogosphere.  She can't help herself.
   


2. I have no idea whether you want to be pseudonymous or not if you don't tell me. If you email me from an email address that uses your real name, and you sign the email with your real name, then I can only assume that it is okay to address you by your real name. I'm not a mind reader. Sign the email the way you wish to be addressed.  My policy on your pseudonym is here.
   
   
3. If one of the parties in your email is a reader of my blog, do not out them to me.  I don't want to know that JBrown6969 is your graduate student or BioBrain is your department chair.  PLEASE don't tell me their real name. It's not relevant to the answering of your question and it's a move of extreme asshattery to out another blogger. 
   
   
4. The internet is forever.  Once I publish your question, it's out there forever.  I can edit your letter locally on the ScienceBlogs site, but my blog is syndicated to RSS feeds, websites that steal blog content, your mom's house, and there is no way I can get every version back.  I can't guarantee that the original version won't be read by the person you didn't want reading it.  So, think very carefully before you hit "send" because I am going to assume that you thought out the content of your email.  For some guidance on things to consider when you craft the content of an email, check out my personal Rules for Pseudonymous Blogging.
   
   
5. Don't out your students.  Teaching is hard.  Really hard.  One of the most common things people write me about is how to deal with particular student issues.  But, you'll notice if you read my site, I don't frequently answer these questions on my blog.  The reason is that many of the letters contain a level of detail that I am not comfortable publishing.  One of the important things about teaching is creating an environment in which students feel relatively safe making a mistake and learning from it - that includes not publishing their mistake on the interwebz.  So, if you can phrase your letter in a way that does not lead to the identification of your student, I'll answer it.  Otherwise, you're just plain out of luck.