Blog Roll?

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by Corky

Still waiting to decide. Anonymous I hope. I would not even let a close friend coworker know if I wrote a blog like this. Nobody ever stays anonymous forever and a blog like that would be questionable to an employer......... But like I said I'll follow it for a while and see where it takes you

I got into "blogging" prior to Geocities on something Prodigy had, the name escapes me. Prior to that was dial-in BBS's. "Back then" everybody was operating under a pseudonym because...hell I don't know, I was 10 or 11 and just didn't know any better

For the last 15 years or so I've been non-anonymous and would have things like my resume with name/address/telephone downloadable from my site. There is no problem with using your full name online. Employers usually enjoy a strong online presence.

Oops, this all should be taken with a grain of salt as I'm speaking as a software engineer and not as a paramedic.

As a software engineer I can understand why paramedics would want to blog anonymously:

Old people have no idea how to use the internet. You know, the people who usually run hospitals/EMS agencies/Fire departments.

They only recently figured out VCR's when all of a sudden DVR's came along and made their life hell. Now we've asked them to deal with a series of tubes, tweeters, Facespace, Netflickering, or whatever else it is kids do these days.

The people who are most likely to have the power to hire or fire you are the ones who have no clue about anything technical...so a blog is probably going to be scary to them.

Terrorist scary.

I usually recommend anybody working outside of a tech company to avoid blogging under their real name. Hell, even the Fortune 5 company I work for asked me to "consider shutting down" my blog due to the potential for a conflict of interest.

Anonymous speech is simply easier. If they can't figure out who you are, you won't have to deal with awkward questions.

That being said, don't blog anonymously on company time. Don't be a dick about it either. Don't use anonymous speech as a means to be rude. Don't use anonymous speech as a means to identify patients ("that fat guy over on Spicer Street")...the list goes on, but it's all common sense.

Regardless of how you blog, whether out in the open or under a pseudonym, do it on your own time and keep it professional and you shouldn't have any problems.