Maintaining your online presence

The Internet has a wide plethora of resources that you can leverage well. Many of these can be accessed passively and anonymously, but for some, you can squeeze a lot more value through active participation. This page lists some general tips for creating and maintaining your online presence to minimize later regret.

Look respectable

Choose a good name

Your online handles, including your email address, Facebook URL, Twitter name, or any other online public-facing user identity you have, should preferably be based on your real name. This makes it easy for people to locate you. Preferably do not choose handles that are related to specific political or religious beliefs or cultural icons. Your beliefs may change over time, and in any case, it's not good practice to make your beliefs and affiliations scream out at people every time they visit your profile. Under no circumstances should you use swearwords, exhortations to violence, or controversial cultural terms in your email address or online handles.

Don't post embarrassing photographs

Decide between two options:

• Not posting a photograph at all (this may be suited in the beginning, when you're mostly lurking, and to protect your identity somewhat).
• Posting a photograph that shows your face clearly and well, in a relatively sober expression (i.e., don't "make faces" to the camera).

It's generally unhelpful to post photographs of somebody else for your profile picture, even if that person is a known model or actor and therefore can't be confused with you. Choosing a photo of yourself while drunk or making funny faces to the camera sends a bad impression.

Use decent language, spelling, and grammar

Avoid the use of swear words, derogatory ethnic terms, exhortations to violence, or overtly confrontational language, even in private messages or posts to restricted lists. Unless constrained by space limitations (as in the case of tweets on Twitter) use grammatically correct sentences, proper punctuation, and correct spelling.

Think hard before raising controversial issues

Civil discussion of controversial issues is often admirable. But it should be done with care. Even if your original post is civil, the reactions to it (if you allow comments) could be uncivil. Even if you're not personally hurt by such reactions, these could get you into trouble. Colleges and potential employers generally steer clear of people who get enmeshed in controversies, even if those people aren't objectively at fault.

Privacy

Anonymity

Anonymity through the use of pseudonyms on some forums may be appropriate. However, the general naming rules apply to pseudonyms: do not choose pseudonyms that are perceived as offensive or insensitive. Choose pseudonyms only on fora where pseudonymous use is encouraged, and follow the general naming conventions of the forum.

Do not trust that the use of pseudonyms will be a foolproof guarantee of anonymity. Always write with expectation that some of what you write may later be associated with your real name.

Do not reveal "real-life" information

Avoid revealing the following outside of restricted-access friend lists:

• The names of your family members.
• Your home address.
• Your phone number (keep contact information restricted to an email address and social media accounts).
• The names of employers for part-time or full-time jobs that you are doing (unless the employer gives consent, or your public persona requires you to associate yourself with a particular employer).
• Information explicitly attributed to others that is conveyed by them to you in private fora (online or offline), unless they give you consent.

Basically, your online persona should reveal those parts of you that help people get an idea of what you're thinking about and your opinions on specific issues, but should not be a way for them to track you down or get information about your real-life friends (except if they contact you personally).

Join online communities

Lurk for a while

Each community has its own rules for engagement. Spend some time reading their formally codified rules, plus more time reading discussions of the sort you eventually intend to participate in. Doing this for a while gives you a sense for what sort of discussions work well and what sort generate controversy. You can then start participating in an informed manner.

Be polite and deferential to begin with, and don't try to "take over" the forum

It's better to err initially in the direction of being deferential and polite. Some concrete tips:

• Avoid participation in flame wars or in threads where there's trolling or trollbaiting.
• Don't make posts too short or too long.
• Don't post too frequently in the beginning.
• If you're uncertain of whether the post is appropriate for the forum, briefly indicate this at the beginning of the post, preemptively apologizing in the event that the post is inappropriate.
• When framing views that you think others might disagree with, preface with "I think ..." or "In my view ..." and end by asking others what they think. Show that you're eager to learn and exchange ideas, rather than just there to preach your views. If the forum penalizes such language, it may not be worth participating in.
• Always disclose conflicts of interest. If you're trying to stay anonymous), then do not post anything linking to work done by you under your real name, because that leaves two unpleasant options: (a) disclosing your identity due to conflict of interest (and defeat the purpose of anonymity), or (b) do not disclose your identity, and violate the conflict of interest disclosure norm.