I just read a blog by a college student who will soon be applying to grad schools. In the current blog entry the student names and says negative things about a rather well known university oboe instructor.
Bad idea.
Even though the student isn’t applying to that school at this point, the named person could easily run across the blog (one only has to google one’s name to come across “interesting” things) and other instructors might now reading the blog as well. In addition, google alerts can fill us in when certain names are mentioned, or certain instruments (gee, can you guess which instruments I might have put in there?).
It’s just not a good idea to bad mouth someone you may eventually run into, need as your advocate, or end up sitting next to when you play a gig. Really. And another teacher might read that and think, “Bad attitude!” or “Well, I really like that instructor the student wrote about so I’m not sure I want to take on that student.” You just don’t know.
And no, I’m not going to contact the instructor, nor will I contact the instructor the student really wishes to study with. I’m also not going to link to the student’s blog. (The student should really set that blog to private, though!) I can be mean sometimes, but not like that. Just like I won’t “out” an anonymous blogger even when I am distressed by what I have read. But someone else might …?
It is so easy to write things on a blog that one doesn’t fully think about. I know I’ve done that. Some of you have graciously contacted me to say, “You really want to have that there?” I appreciate that greatly. 🙂
I don’t think there’s anything wrong at all about linking to the student’s blog who, after all, made it public.
But I guess you probably would probably not want to link to it to avoid being pulled into any surrounding mess, should their be one. (And you already know it’s showing in Google.)
Ever since the beginning, I’ve been hyperaware of what I post (it’s actually part of the reason that I didn’t start blogging earlier), but for the most part I have a relatively carefree attitude.
But I know if I were to ever become a public figure, there would be SO MUCH dirt for people to dig up on me, both things that I’ve done and things I’ve said about other people. It would be quite distressing. 🙂
I might send her a little note saying, “you might want to remove that little bit” … I just don’t want to embarrass her publicly. I know how horrified I would be if someone caught me writing something like that when I was college aged. (Even at my old age I’d still be horrified!)
I can’t imagine ever becoming a public figure. But yes, people would probably dig up all sorts of stuff … so it’s good I’ll never be famous, eh? 🙂
Likewise. If a person had any sort of political aspirations, I’d warn him or her to be VERY careful about anything posted, even in other forums. And one might think a pseudonym would do the trick, but not always!
If you became a famous actor, that would be less damaging, but potentially still embarrassing!
And if you became a world-famous oboist…well, I don’t know what the deal with that is. 🙂
Hmmm. How many world-famous oboists do YOU know?
Even if there are some famous oboists (and yeah, I guess in our oboe world we could name them, but I’m guessing everyone else would say, “HUH?”), I sure ain’t one of ’em! 😎
You are the only “world-famous” oboist I know. You have your own blog! And peopel who read it!! Rock star!
Quick, name a world-famous harpist – no? Bassoonist? Viola? French Horn player? Trumpet player (other than Maynard, Doc, Louis A., Louis P….)? Tuba?
Still, horn and oboe parts often have some of the most dramatic emotional impact of any instrument, even if most folks don’t even know what it is they’re hearing, and that’s enough for me.
I could name a bassoonist and horn player that are at least “orchestra famous”, Tim, (meaning most orchestral players know the names), but yeah, we really don’t have that kind of popularity really, do we?
We just aren’t the famous sort, are we?
But thanks, SongMonk, for thinking of me as world-famous, even in jest! 😉
(Hmmm. I typed “world-family” first. I’m not sure what that means!)
And yes, I really used really more than once in a sentence which is really embarrassing.
Exactly – I’d mention Rufus in a second, for example, but how many people know the name of the person who played the bassoon in the movie Never Cry Wolf? Of those who’ve seen the movie, I mean. And, I guess, of those who even know what a bassoon is…