IRC, how to
I read, with some interest, Chris Parillo’s post (mostly a repost of rules for IRC from “Mikee”) and felt I needed to comment.
http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/09/18/how-should-you-act-on-irc-internet-relay-chat/
I’ve been on-and-off IRC since before eris joined. If you don’t know what I am talking about, then lets just say it’s been a very long time; longer than most people think IRC has even been around.
In addition, I’ve been on IRC continuously since 1999. Really continuously; my IRC client stays online pretty much 24/7. I don’t specifically disagree with anything in Chris/Mikee’s post with the possible exception of rule 5 “Be yourself”. Being yourself is certainly the easiest way to go and if you aren’t careful about NOT being yourself you’ll screw up. But, sometimes you don’t want to be yourself. SOmetimes anonymity is useful, or at least comforting.
Even if you are being yourself, you need to be careful not to reveal too much about the details of your life. If you don’t understand why, perhaps you should go watch The Guild episode 1 at http://www.watchtheguild.com. I have a friend who’s wife has revealed so many details of her personal life that anyone would be able to show up at their house, her place of work, her church, her health club, or several of her friends’ houses. She’s even had more than one person contact her based on information she gave them online. If you google yourself and any details you’ve given out, any information you see that applies to you is information that you need to assume *everyone* has.
If you’re on IRC, you have to ask yourself why are you there, and the answer needs to apply to the NETWORK, not the channel. IRC is largely anonymous, and you can easily be a different person on one network than on another; however, within the same network your persona will follow you in public channels. Be very sparring in how much information about yourself you give out, especially in ’social’ situations. If you’re on a mailing list that is related to your job, particularly if you’re an expert on the topic, it’s fine to reveal professional details about yourself (name, business phone, email, etc) but you should still be cautious about revealing any personal details. And if you are posting as yourself, remember that every single thing you say can be traced back to you. We’ve seen countless examples where someone has suffered real-life repercussions for something they said on line.
In fact, keeping separate emails for work and personal contacts is a good idea in general.
And that really leads into the main ‘cautionary tale’ that so many people forget about the Internet, and that is that you really do NOT know who is on the other side of the screen. I have a friend who’s in her mid twenties now, but was in her mid teens back in 1999, and I remember telling her way back then that EVERYONE on IRC was a 40 year old steel worker with a beer belly—even her.
Sure, she laughed, but the point is that you will do a lot better on IRC, and on the Internet in general, if you at least consider that possibility every time you are talking to someone online.
Now, there is a flip side to all this. If you are a bit of a celebrity online (An Adam Engst, Guy Kawasaki, or the aforementioned Chris Parillo) then, oddly enough, you have a little bit of extra protection. Yes, really. Since there is SO MUCH information about you out there, it can be hard for the casual stalker to find out where you live. Not hard, not impossible, just a bit harder. Searching for “Adam Engst” on Google yields over 50,000 hits. Searching for my full name yields less than 50 hits.