Slashdot Mirror
Vulgar Comment On Newspaper Site Costs Man His Job
DeeFresh writes "ReadWriteWeb has an article up today discussing an incident in which a school employee lost his job after leaving a comment on the website of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. After the school employee responded to the newspaper's poll of 'the strangest thing you've ever eaten' with a feline-inspired vulgarity, Kurt Greenbaum, the site's director of social media, tracked down the commenter's identity through his IP address and reported him to school officials. When confronted, the school employee resigned from his job."
I say everyone on /. should head over the St. Louis Post Dispatch page and post variations on the word. There must be 100 words in the English language for it, so let's get started....
Pussy
Time to start using TOR: http://www.torproject.org/.
Here kitty, kitty!
You're employer just saw this and you're fired.
If you were pressured to resign, you didn't resign. You were fired. Be honest.
And yet Greenbaum seems to show no remorse...
Asshole.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
How bored was this guy? He worked at a newspaper and decided 'Hey, I don't like that comment, let me track down who it is, where he works, and report him?' What is this, the second grade? There are two real options, delete it as being offensive or leave it. Maybe a third option if it was a threat of some kind, which you could report to authorities. But really?
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
Not only that, but he's a fucking hypocrite. He called this guy's employer up with the goal of having him fired, and when cornered over the issue said:
"Yeah, you caught me! I made him log on to his computer at work, visit STLtoday.com's Talk of the Day, read the item, type a vulgarity and hit the "submit" key.
Interesting perspective. Thanks for your contribution.
Oh, I didn't say he was fired. I said he resigned.
"A vulgarity"? You mean the word pussy? OMFG WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK IF HE SAW THAT WORD? Guess what? People have sex.
P.S. Forced to resign is much the same thing as being fired, especially since in this day and age he could probably have been sued for sexual harassment over such a comment, thus completely ending any future employability.
Using the word 'pussy' on school time is simply not that bad. Of course, I can't attach these comments to the article itself, because comments are disabled there now even though the story is only three days old. Perhaps that's because most of the comments go something like this:
YOU are the director of social media? tools to be leveraged to get businesses closer to their customers?
what an awful story and it's even more embarassing that you squawk about it after the fact.
Kurt Greenbaum is scum, and I will do my best to avoid their website in the future.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Kurt Greenbaum should be ashamed. There is no place whatsoever for that kind of behavior in America.
Somebody simply wanted to freely express himself, and Kurt interfered. Absolutely pathetic.
Some one should track every thing Kurt posts and report back to his boss and wife.
So a guy loses his job and ability to pay bills and a mortgage because of a harmless blog post?
That seems pretty damn harsh. Yeah, the guy was silly for posting from a traceable work IP, but the consequences were waaay out of proportion with what was done.
Oooh, someone said "Pussy". Quick, somebody get the internet fun police! There's Immorality going on!
Kurt Greenbaum is a pussy who should be ashamed of himself. Nobody needs you being internet police man, just piss off. Pussy.
Every post he makes should have as many "Pussy" replies as possible for a week.
Wow! I'd say that Greenbaum should be reprimanded for not performing his duties. I wonder where - in the St. Louis Dispatch policies - it states for employees to track down the ip address of those making offensive (but not illegal) posts and then contact the work.
OTOH, why the heck did the teacher resign at first being contacted? I wonder how much more there is to the story than we're seeing.
Lesson learned: When making anonymous posts, use either a proxy, an anonymous posting service (COTSE.NET), someone's open WiFi connection, or a friend's computer.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
It's not fair that they tracked him down, but if he resigned then he gave up without a fight.
but a school employee who can't defend his free speech rights should not be working in a school in the first place...
It says, "San Diego, that's German for..."
Which, if you look online, is supposedly German for whale vagina.
I think it's a hoax, anyway.
For resigning, they would have taken that contract of out my cold dead hands! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure I would do the same with the IP-logs from that Greenbaum. Take them from his cold dead hands... The poll was asking for it. *yay finally an internethero*
He didn't know it was an employer but probably thought that maybe some student. Still an asshole and idiotic thing to do tho.
"""
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information.
"""
-- http://www.stltoday.com/help/privacy-policy
Maybe you should try the many current events news websites out there if you want more pressing stories. This is slashdot, not CNN.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Of course, "eating pussy" must be taken metaphorically here, otherwise it WOULD be strange to say the least. But how can anyone be "forced to resign" (which is what happened) for such a comment? Americans always mention how proud they are for the freedom of speech in the US. Well, freedom of speech my ass! You pussies!
Why did he feel the need to go and report him to his employers for righting something mean about his article? The man who resigned was stupid to do that, and should have called the schools bluff. And then when the school did fire him he could take both the newspaper and the school to court. This is ridiculous. cue the THIS IS AN OUTRAGE photo
Now consider the following (bold text by me):
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-editors-desk/the-editors-desk/2009/11/post-a-vulgar-comment-while-youre-at-work-lose-your-job/all-comments/
By mid-morning, a number of folks had commented about their experiences with Bird’s Nest Soup, octopus, cow brains and rattlesnake. Then, while I was in our 10 a.m. news meeting, someone posted in reply a single word, a vulgar expression for a part of a woman’s anatomy. It was there only a minute before a colleague deleted it.
A few minutes later, the same guy posted the same single-word comment again. I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail alert that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school. So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included. About six hours later, I heard from the school’s headmaster. The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot.
So we have an individual who was using work assets to make not one, but two vulgar posts. It kinda makes you wonder how intent was this guy in checking that web page over and over (like many slashdoters do), re-posting the vulgarity as many times as needed... not the type of activity you are supposed to be doing while on the clock (after all, they give you a paycheck for work, not because you are pretty or something.)
The school was in the right in asking the guy "what are you doing, ON THE CLOCK, with OUR COMPUTER ASSETS, posting the same profanity several times?
It is also worth noting that the school didn't fire him, but that he quit on the spot... or so says the story, but that's irrelevant anyways. The guy had it coming.
Now I can't way to see the juvenile posters making this a case of libertarian freedom of speech vs 1984'esque police control and the war on terror.
"A vulgarity"? You mean the word pussy? OMFG WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK IF HE SAW THAT WORD? Guess what? People have sex.
Oh no, this is all just a misunderstanding. The gentleman simply had cat for dinner. A Japanese Bobtail to be exact.
Oh, and this is a great reason to give those pushy salesman why I don't subscribe to their yellow Post Dispatch.
We reserve the right in our sole discretion, but do not assume any obligation, to refuse to post, remove, or edit any messages or postings sent to the Site.
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to and use of this Site if, in our view, your conduct fails to meet any of our guidelines. We also reserve the right to change these terms at any time.
Well, fire Greenbaum. STLtoday.com didn't reserve the right for him to track people down and harass them through their employer, nor did he use the agreed upon remedies outlined in the terms of service. I guess even the editors don't read those things.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
1. the Quit/Fired employee says that he was eating Chinese food and typing the only word for cat that he could think of at the time was pussy.
2. Get a litigator and sue both the school and the St. Louis Dispatch for discrimination. The St. Louis dispatch is obviously discriminating against Asians and people who like to eat Asian food.
3. Profit.
Great embarrassment among school administrator and paper.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Still on the site is the story of how some guy killed and ate a cat (is that even legal?), but that is ofc fine, however the guy posting an innuendo obviously went too far!
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
I have eaten many different animals (or at least parts of them), including rattlesnake, crocodile, alligator, iguana, turtle, and many different molluscs, arthropods, echinoids, and whatnot from sea or river. I have also eaten squirrel, bear, dog, and cat.
So, I can say I have eaten pussy, and you can interpret or misinterpret it any way you want. Oh, and woof-woof, too.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Clearly, the standards of journalistic integrity are going down.
I'm so sick to death on hearing/reading/learning of people who post something on the internet and lose their job over it. Regardless of whether the post was fictional or real, the man was not posting anything about the school he worked for. He kept the language to not use profanity, and whether someone reads it as 'pussy' or 'cat' doesn't freaking matter. There is no excuse for our society today for making people lose their jobs because of their personal life. A job is what the average person works for 8 hours a day usually away from home.
I don't have to read the comments. The guy posted with an anonymous name. I call Shenanigans.
Conversely, here is my message to the world. If you're going to post on the web with all the knowledge we have today about how it is used against us, then you subject yourself to scrutiny, right or wrong, you do.
Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
Using the word 'pussy' on school time is simply not that bad. Of course, I can't attach these comments to the article itself, because comments are disabled there now even though the story is only three days old.
I wonder if 4chan will catch wind of this. Kurt just opened a whole can of worms in this case. If he really thinks that one person being inappropriate is bad, imagine every AC from /. trolling his comment section.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
And yet that cunt Kurt Greenbaum has no problem using that in his dross reportage.
So, now that he is out of a job, perhaps he has need of the following hints on how to get a new job: http://www.helium.com/items/1556072-job-loss Another starving writer experiment post! Thanks!
From TFA
In his defense, he probably thought he was simply tattle-telling on a naughty student who would learn a valuable lesson about internet anonymity and would have to sit through a week's detention or something of the like.
From the sound of things, the guy was crapflooding the site. If you're responsible for moderating a forum, and you're being crapflooded from the local .edu, then why not call the admin up and complain? Probably just some kid with too much time on his hands.
And there is nothing to suggest that he particularly cared that the word was. He was an admin, he was being crapflooded, he complained. I consider that a much better solution than, say, blocking an IP address (which might well be shared.)
He was in no way responsible for the action that was ultimately taken.
There's no law against eating felines, at least in most jurisdictions. Ironically, in some places the laws probably do prohibit cunnilingus, or at the very least, did until recently. You're only upset about it because some people keep them as pets and you are culturally conditioned. Get hungry enough, though, and you'll go looking for a furry little pussy to snack on too.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
He didn't know it was an employer but probably thought that maybe some student. Still an asshole and idiotic thing to do tho.
Anonymous trolling is "an asshole and idiotic thing to do". Embarrasing someone for trolling might be as well, but at that point it's just eye-for-an-eye.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
He didn't know it was an employer but probably thought that maybe some student. Still an asshole and idiotic thing to do tho.
It was idiotic for the guy to do it in the first place. He should have just taken a formal reprimand and continued his job. Either he was looking for an out from that job or he had a lot more to hide and he didn't want the district digging through his access logs.
If we catch wind of a student commenting on a website with inappropriate comments, they have their permissions revoked and a call home to the parents. I don't always agree with this, but it does handle the kids who vandalize Wikipedia or troll Slashdot. Yes, I know who you are. Stop.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
you'll go looking for a furry little pussy to snack on
I prefer shaved pussy in both contexts.
pussy...
oh wait, I don't have a job
As far as I understand Kurts blog posting, he didn't threaten the school, but merely informed them of the repeated breaches of the sites policies by one of their IP addresses (which is the usual policy, I guess). It's not clear how the confrontation between the "offender" and the headmaster went - perhaps he was just looking for a reason to quit? Perhaps the headmaster put a lot of pressure on him? I cannot tell from the posting. But all in all I think Mr. Greenbaum is the least to blame in this constellation.
English isn't my first language so I while I read and write it pretty decently (enough to get the point across at least) wordplays aren't that obvious to me. I first thought "Uh... So did he kill a cat and eat it or what?" until I read your comment. :D
He made a funny comment that "the strangest thing you've ever eaten" is pussy. It was funny and we all have sex anyway, and it's not like he made the comment as a school employee. Jeez.
That's disgusting.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot.
Why do people assume the teacher quit because he thought he'd get fired? If I had a boss come to me at the end of the day and say the IT department has spent all day stalking someone who anonymously used the word "p*ssy" as a joke about eating and now it's been discovered that I am the culprit with any kind of incriminating tone I would quit too.
"The world is a tragedy to those who feel, and comedy to those who think." -- Shakespeare
Excuse my ignorance but, isn't a pussy a small cute hairy mammal?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
The issue to debate here is not whether someone should lose their job over posting a vulgarity on the internet.
The issue to debate here is whether someone should lose their job over posting a vulgarity on the internet while at work.
And if anyone would RTFA, they would have noticed that he made the post twice. The first time, they just deleted it w/o a second thought, but he reposted it. Again, he did it while at work.
And, does anyone know what else was he doing on company time?
He made a funny comment that "the strangest thing you've ever eaten" is pussy. It was funny and we all have sex anyway, and it's not like he made the comment as a school employee. Jeez.
I agree, but I could see that maybe Kurt thought a student was doing it. If I see a comment coming from a school IP block that is inappropriate, I'd assume it was a student and I wouldn't hesitate to e-mail their IT department about it.
I'm also playing devils advocate here. The guy who was fired should have actually tried to defend himself or just take a formal reprimand instead of resigning, unless if the school forced him out. Maybe he has a history of misconduct?
As people in the comments have said, we're getting third-hand information.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Guess what? People have sex.
I know for a fact that you won't be having any s*x when I get you fired from your j*b for blasphemy, Mrs. Hiram T. Washbucket from Nashville, Alaska. It's just a shame that saying something that the self-appointed religious/non-religious/power-hungry-maniacs majority don't agree with isn't punishable by death any more, as the world would be such a better place with all the objectively objectionable people removed.
Whether the guy was crapflooding the site isn't the issue here, folks. Crapflooding is just like being an arsehole - annoying, but not illegal. Ban his IP from posting if he's crapflooding. Reporting using the word "pussy" to his boss in the hope that he gets fired as a result is an plainly obvious vengeance burn. Yeah, the guy was a prick for posting "pussy" all the time, but at least he had a sense (albeit limited) of humour.
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
When studying abroad during college I took the opportunity to eat local cuisine. Many of the animals I ate were of the American pet variety. They were all very tasty. When I returned many of my classmates where offended that I would eat species that are common pets in America. It is sad how close minded many people are.
It's freedom of the press not freedom of speech ... oh wait ...
I'm not sure what pisses me off more, that this happened at all, or that the person ratting out his source was the newspaper guy. Incredible.
>"A vulgarity"? You mean the word pussy? OMFG WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK IF HE SAW THAT WORD? Guess what? People have sex.
Not in the US they don't. Decent people have their babies delivered by Fedex. Only European heathens have sex.
Pervert.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
Ok - let's read their privacy policy (which is here: http://www.stltoday.com/help/privacy-policy).
"What We Do With the Information We Gather About You
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information. In some cases, however, we may provide information to legal officials as described in “Compliance with Legal Process” below."
The "school’s headmaster" is NOT a "legal official" - this guy may have some grounds for a lawsuit, but I am guessing he'd rather go down quietly...
Should have used Tor
The biggest pussy is Kurt. Look it up.
That's what you get today for being honest. First asking what strange this you have eaten, and what could be more strange than a cat. Well some people eat dogs. In Sweden they have even these nice T-shirts with a fork, a dish, a knife (because they are civilized) and a cat on the dish. Maybe he should have added that the was in Sweden by that time.
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information.
I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
A shame that a professional who is protected under the freedom of speech cloak disrespects it with such behaviour. Well, guess you can all use you right telling him so at kgreenbaum@post-dispatch.com
In America at least, you cannot be arrested for saying something stupid or even treasonous on the Internet. But that's it. That is the sum total of your protection. You can't be arrested, that's all there is to it. You CAN lose your job, lose any prospect for meaningful employment, lose your wife, lose the respect of your family, friends, and co-workers.
Never write anything anywhere on the Internet, "anonymously" or not, that you would not want your wife, boss, friends, or children to read. Period. It's not difficult to understand, yet we continually find ourselves trying to defend these losers as if they are some kind of free speech champions. They're not martyrs, they're morons. Giving these guys an Anonymous Login is like giving them a bottle of Tequila. Sure, it's their right, but you hope they have enough self-awareness to know how stupid and ugly they appear after they indulge.
I think the key fact here is that he was using school resources when he posted. Most private companies would consider taking action for misuse of company resources (time, computer, network). Also, the newspaper guy did not get this guy fired. The guy got himself fired. If he wants to post stuff (like that or otherwise not work-related), do it on his own time at his own place. D.
Maybe you should try the many current events news websites out there if you want more pressing stories. This is slashdot, not CNN.
If CNN showed the same stories posted to Slashdot with the same depth of coverage as found in the comments (on most days), it would be an improvement. As it is, CNN is the equivalent of a Slashdot user reading the story submission, and stopping at the Frist Post.
Maybe it's a good thing they stick to their own choice of stories. Watching Anderson Cooper pose uninformed questions (with the usual mumbling and fake interest) to guests championing their choice of a text editor would never meet the standards of Must See TV.
Well, for most people. I'd probably watch it, and maybe even yell at the TV screen. ;-)
What the fuck is a "Director of Social Media", and what the fuck does such a job entail?
True social media can't be "directed" or managed in any way. It arises naturally from a wide community of people expressing their ideas and opinions freely. If society doesn't have that freedom, because some "Director of Social Media" is actively limiting what can be expressed, then you don't have social media in any way.
Based on this situation, a better term for such a job is "Director of Censorship and Harassment".
And make me a sandwich, bitch. Seriously, what the fuck is the point of stupid comments like "mod that guy up and that guy down"? First, do you think you have enough clout for the mods to do whatever the fuck you say? Second, it adds nothing of value to the conversation, only the fact that you're a dick, which we probably could have figured out on our own. If I had mod points I'd mod you down just for being a dumbass.
If this guy was posting from home I'd be more defensive of his free speech (although I still think that something that would be inappropriate as a Letter To The Editor is still inappropriate as a comment on a general purpose newspaper). But the rules for personal use of computers at work usually includes not doing anything that will bring embarrassment or legal action against your employer.
This is something he should not have done, but even then termination seems excessive. There's a concept of "escalating discipline" in which an employee is first given warnings and minor punishments before escalating to major punishments and termination. That gives them fair warning that what they did was wrong and allows them a chance to reform. Immediate termination is reserved for infractions that are extreme and indefensible.
So maybe we're missing part of the story. Maybe this guy works in a situation where vulgar sexual expressions are really creepy. I don't mind the fact that teachers reproduce, but my 8-year-old daughter's soccer coach doesn't need to be talking about oral sex in the locker room. Or maybe this guy had a history of misbehavior, and the IT guy was happy to have hard evidence to catch him red handed.
Try the St. Louis Post Dispatch for news. They are busy with important stuff like news.
Just checked his twitter account (Kgreenbaum) and his last update (which was regarding this silly affair) is 15 hours ago. Since which he has been /.ed. His twitter is going to be megabytes of @replys!
back on topic... Since when was the right to free speech limited by the non-existent right "to not be offended"?
I don't get it.. What was the word? Cunt?
Actually, the word was not pussy, it was the C word.
Also, it's not as if he tracked the person down by the IP. The hostname showed the name of the school, as most schools do, so he called the school because he did not know if it was staff, guest, or a student. The school did the rest and the employee resigned right away when confronted. Doesn't sound forced to me.
Was it the right thing to do? Probably not, but the least you can do is get the facts straight.
Mod parent up -- this is an extremely relevant point and I am surprised that nobody else has mentioned it yet.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
the number of euphemisms for male and female body parts in the english language is staggering, for lack of a better word...
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
When working with young children, who are innocent, there are certain things which you just cannot say or do. Referring to "private parts" in a vulgar way is one of them. This person, as a professional educator of small children, should have known better and used the proper words.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
You meant FedUps din't you?
Kurt was acting like a Kunt. And now the Internet knows how to find him.
Blar.
Seriously, -1 wtf-angry-hypocrite
I mean, I can see taking this action if he was getting repeatedly spammed by some of the trolls we see out there today. But someone saying 'pussy'? Twice? That is so mild by Internet troll standards that it's not even funny. It's not like he was getting buried by the 'N-word guy', or the violence against women guy. Hell, he wasn't even really getting spammed. The dude was wrong to be using school computers inappropriately, but this Kurt Greenbaum dude has to be one of the most uptight prudes you could ever hope to not meet. If he can't handle those comments he should not be on the Internet at all.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
Let's flood his flickr account by a HORDE of PUSSIES!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kgreenbaum/2557337810
YAYY!
Because students don't have rights to anonymity or free speech?
Come on - the privacy policy of the site states that personal information won't be shared with third parties. That applies whether the site user is a child or an adult, unless there's some good legal reason. A teenager posting the word "pussy" is not, as far as I'm aware, a crime in the US, so why on earth would it be okay to report them to their school if they did that?
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Kurt Greenbaum is scum, and I will do my best to avoid their website in the future.
You could pretty much guarantee success in that mission by redirecting requests to their domain (stltoday.com) to 127.0.0.1 -- or your own choice -- on every machine you use.
I am not a crackpot.
'Pussy is an English word meaning cat. It may also refer to the female genitalia in slang.' Pussy was used in the context of food, on a quality newssite, no slang there. As for eating cat, nothing wrong with that, I have eaten many rabbits (I think).
I think this story is made up.
Anonymous trolling is "an asshole and idiotic thing to do". Embarrasing someone for trolling might be as well, but at that point it's just eye-for-an-eye.
The difference is that Kurt Greenbaum was paid for doing it. He is a professional asshole.
I am not a crackpot.
...for talking about a fish taco? That stinks!
Greenbaum is the social media editor at the newspaper. A while back he posted the results of a survey which showed that:
61% of his readers did not want the editors deciding what comments were offensive
Given his response to the comments on the article, I don't think he's any closer to understanding what he was told the first time.
Excuse my ignorance but, isn't a pussy a small cute hairy mammal?
If you're lucky.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
There's plenty of them available out there. Use them.
>"A vulgarity"? You mean the word pussy? OMFG WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK IF HE SAW THAT WORD? Guess what? People have sex.
Not in the US they don't. Decent people have their babies delivered by Fedex. Only European heathens have sex.
Pervert.
You use FedEx? You latte-drinking, book-reading, Harvard elite liberal. Real Americans use the USPS.
Pinko.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
I expect the reaction to this will be the ability to add TOR as a firefox extension (and other browsers will follow with similar efforts).
I agree, but I could see that maybe Kurt thought a student was doing it. If I see a comment coming from a school IP block that is inappropriate, I'd assume it was a student and I wouldn't hesitate to e-mail their IT department about it.
Why? Plenty of students have had sex, and all of them are old enough to make a joke about it (spot the innuendo!).
I put a sexual joke on my school Internet page many years ago when I was 10. I didn't really understand it, but sort-of knew it was funny somehow. About 6 months later someone complained (plenty of kids knew about my jokes page, but eventually one decided she didn't like me). The IT teacher spoke to me: he explained that the joke was more vulgar than I'd realised, deleted the page and told me not to do it again.
To all of you who think that it's some kind of social repression to frown upon people who make a habbit of unashamedly expressing themselves in a vulgar and crass manner, I suggest you go see the movie Idiocracy, because it's about YOU.
You talk like a fag, and your shit's all retarded.
Apparently, mods who have not seen Idiocracy do not apparently see your comment as apropos of the GP.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
Why is eating a cat worse than eating a cow, a pig, or a chicken? You are biased as our society happens to keep cats as pets, that is the only reason.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
> You also need to be careful what you say on the phone at work, or who you talk to.
IIRC, the US courts ruled that you do have an expectation of privacy for your telephone conversations from your workplace, even though it is "company equipment". And at the same time they ruled that you don't have any expectation of privacy for anything you do with a computer owned by your workplace (like sending email to a friend criticizing the boss).
This always struck me as totally bizarre. However, I think it was during an era where the use of (desktop) computers for (ephemeral) communication was much less ubiquitous. I'm waiting for someone to get fired for criticizing the boss over VoIP (or even IM) to see if the legal system will eventually fix this mess....
I'd probably watch it, and maybe even yell at the TV screen. ;-)
Yeah, Sunday round-table programming is like low-impact aerobics for me; my respiration and heart rate go up dramatically from all that yelling, and my upper body get a nice workout from pounding my chair arms.
Not great for my blood pressure though.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
I have eaten many different animals (or at least parts of them), including rattlesnake, crocodile, alligator, iguana, turtle, and many different molluscs, arthropods, echinoids, and whatnot from sea or river. I have also eaten squirrel, bear, dog, and cat.
So, I can say I have eaten pussy, and you can interpret or misinterpret it any way you want. Oh, and woof-woof, too.
Do you eat Cock and Hen as well?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
My town is on slash dot! yay! hooray for the Lou.
IANAL, but it seems that regardless of the "appropriateness" of content of the message, there is an issue here of what is basically breach of contract. The terms-of-use for that site apparently spell out that they WILL NOT release your information to third parties. The IP address combined with nickname was apparently enough information for the school (a third party in the posting process) to identify the individual.
Now that he's been fired, I'd imagine that a lawsuit will - and should - be forthcoming. T
Furthermore, there are plenty degrees of "acceptable" censorship - many of which are used here - such as moderation, or just plain deleted undesired content (which they did). Tracking somebody down and telling their mother/employer/friends/whatever is a pretty far step beyond that line.
It doesn't matter whether he "had it coming" or not.
Contacting the school violated the stated privacy policy of the site, whether it was a student or staff. We're talking about a newspaper, for god's sake. A newspaper should be the first to stand behind their privacy policy. Reporters have gone to jail to maintain the privacy of their sources, and while the online equivalent of "letters to the editor" isn't quite in the same league as "Deep Throat", this was still unacceptable behavior.
The St Louis Post-Dispatch needs to step up to the plate and bat for their own goddamn rights. If they DON'T do something about this violation of privacy, they weaken their own ability to protect their sources.
Grounds for a civil suit?
Wow, that is surprising. What an unethical action to take on Greenbaum's part. Is there somewhere we can report this?
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
at that point it's just eye-for-an-eye.
We realised that was bullshit thousands of years ago. Try to keep up.
Of course, I can't attach these comments to the article itself, because comments are disabled there now even though the story is only three days old.
There is another food-related story on now, to which you can still post: Have you ever truly gone hungry?. Just post your comments and followup jokes there instead. Just use a suitable proxy if you value your continued employment.
There are likely other circumstances surrounding the employee's resignation. Certainly, using the employer's computer only for purposes related to the assigned task can be a requirement of employment. We really don't know what the employee's task assignment may be. Could the job-task truly be: "Read and respond to stupid editorial questions on a internet blog". I suppose many slashdot participants would describe their job that way.
It's all made up out of thin air by that one guy.
Meep.
What did you expect? It's the USA. Violence is okay but anything to do with sexuality is not. Yet somehow, even though Americans see sex as a terrible, terrible thing, they still manage to reproduce.
Cory Doctorow talking about cloud computing makes as much sense as George W Bush talking about electrical engineering.
anonymous trolls have better things to say than you do.
and they're smarter.
Wow, can you say lawsuit/settlement time?
I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
I am amazed at the responses here on /. This is completely not about this moron's use of vulgarity. Of course he's an idiot, that's a given. More important is the fact that a paper gave what was supposed to be an anonymous poll with an obviously baiting question, and then used that information to track this guy down and ruin his life. In this case it was about some obscenities, but what's to say this couldn't have been about say, late-term abortion, or gay rights? Would you want someone tracking you down and exposing you over that information? Those topics are AT LEAST as enraging today as a couple of obscenities. The school employee was an idiot, but the guy at the newspaper is the one who should be arrested.
Why is eating a cat worse than eating a cow, a pig, or a chicken?
Because it was a domesticated animal and this one had rabies, but even if that were not the case I think the idea of killing an innocent animal* at a party is much more vulgar than going down on a girl.
*I'm not a vegetarian or anything, but this cat was neither bread for food nor a pest.
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
What Greenbaum did was against the privacy policy of the site:
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information.
Arguably, no. The privacy policy also says this:
"We may disclose personal information...to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our web sites".
And obscenity is one of the misuses they list in their Terms.
But it's still incredibly lame that he did this.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/leaving_a_vulgar_comment_online_might_cost_you_your_job.php#comment-169397
The comment on the article above is spot on in their observations. A line was crossed by Greenbaum and he should be sued and his employer should fire him.
Read the comment. He violated the terms of service.
The man at the newspaper who tracked the ip address, and identified the poster, should be fired. A newspaper should not be in the business of discouraging free speech. If the comment was offensive, it should have been moderated before publication (assuming there's a published policy against posting offensive material).
I am just guessing at what the man said, but unless it referenced some criminal act, tracking him down and getting him fired is inexcusable. The newspaper should issue an apology, and give him a job with an equivalent salary and benefits for life.
My other sig is extremely clever...
In this case it was about some obscenities, but what's to say this couldn't have been about say, late-term abortion, or gay rights?
If you're not prepared to be called out by your boss/wife/kids for the controversial opinions you find yourself venting "anonymously" on the Internet, don't vent on the net. Save it for the local pub, or the diary you keep under your pillow. If everybody put their money and their reputation where there mouths were, civilization might just lurch forward a little bit.
You're only upset about it because some people keep them as pets and you are culturally conditioned
Actually It's more the killing of a random animal off the street at a party that i find vulgar. I've been hunting and eat meat, but i draw the line at killing domesticated animals (in part because they trust humans).
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
The whole thing should have been a non-story. The newspaper should have just written it off as another day in the world of reader comments. The principal of the school should have just made a verbal warning. The employee shouldn't have made the comment. Any one of those shoulds could have broken this trifecta of stupid.
Of course, it's been a long time since schools could actually be expected to show a sense of proportion and it didn't take long once I entered the "adult world" years ago to realize that adults are not nearly as "grown up" as they would have kids believe they are.
Sup lol?
You call THAT living? /joke
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
I feel bad for the site. Now probably everyone who hears about this is going to be making repeated 'pussy' comments on every single story. Some deranged madman might even make a Firefox extension to expedite the process.
in the wow forums, repeat offenders are simply banned. that would have been a more civil solution imo.
The headline is misleading, and it looks like many of the commenters didn't read the article. (surprise, surprise)
1. The editor probably thought they were going after a student abusing school equipment.
2. The employee was not fired, he resigned.
3. The newspaper didn't actually track the IP address to the individual - they just notified the school.
I think someone at the Newspaper should be fired for having a whole section dedicated to sporting .... (see Gen 26:8)
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The dude did it on a government, ( school ), computer; anywhere else, and I think he'd have a solid case for Criminality. If this "Single" word used relates to a woman's reproductive area, then the School Guy definitely has a case for a Big Grin. I can only imagine the phone calls, from women, this guy will get. Most people, newly out of work will be depressed this Holiday Season; School Guy may have to hire an answering service, and a Scheduler for the next few weeks.
*I'm not a vegetarian or anything, but this cat was neither bread for food nor a pest.
Of course it wasn't bread for food, it was cat for food. Silly rabbit...(those are good too.)
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Seriously, how many times do you see some assholes posting on a forum and want to strangle them through the computer. I see this as an asshole that got what he deserved. If only more people got fired for this childish comments.
CAPTCHA: privacy
-patpat- I find their comment being modded insightful to be grossly ironic given the situation.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=183274233292
Just as useful to the topic as "first post" or people posting anonymously to yell at people for doing whatever they are sick and tired of, I'd imagine. It's more along the lines of "I used up my mod points but want to try and draw attention to the post that I saw to be good-moddable/bad-moddable". But uh, yeah, dick and fuck and bitch and all that too.
First, we had letters to the editor. If the editor was concerned about the sanity of an anonymous writer, he had to examine the postmark, drive over to the post office where it was mailed, talk to the postmaster and ask if he recognized the handwriting, and then visit city hall to find tax records and find out where the writer works. Then type up and send a letter to the writer's employer.
Then we get phone-in comments. The editor has to arrange with the phone company to trace incoming calls, then wait for the unwanted caller to call again and get his phone number. Then pay or get a warrant to obtain the address for that phone number. Then call city hall, find the homeowner's employer, and call that employer to explain the situation.
Fast forward to online comments. Somebody makes a comment that you aren't comfortable publishing in a public forum on your private, for-profit web site. The editor delete that comment. The commenter submits a duplicate. The editor takes ten seconds to see the domain the comment was made from and another sixty seconds to forward that information to that domain's webmaster.
It's not like the editor spent days and thousand of dollars to hunt down and prosecute the man who said a bad word. He probably spent less time firing off an email than the poster did reading the article, posting a comment, reloading to see it and giggle, finding it gone, and posting again.
The editor did take the time to write up a description of the event (with names withheld to protect the mildly guilty). But it's his job to write things that people are interested in reading and discussing. And in that he succeeded.
The Chinese eat cats, maybe he was Chinese and didn't know English well enough to understand that the word pussy (which means kitten) can be misinterpreted as something other than a kitten.
The paper did not release any information to a third party. The contacted the registered owner of the IP address which sent the message. Most definitely a "first party".
While I agree, the comment was actually traced back via the IP address to the local school not the individual who posted it. He was either using their equipment or their network - the article is not specific. But either way, he posted this comment from work.
Fully read the article, then discuss the following summary:
A fool used the equipment at the school where he works to do something publicly ugly. The person accountable for dealing with the foolishness contacted the fool's employer. The employer spoke to the fool. The fool quit his job. End of story.
Have your discussion address the following points:
A fool's rights over his/her own personal property rights versus the same fool's rights over *your* personal property;
The obligation of a public communications medium like a mainstream US newspaper with a web outlet to provide a generally acceptable content;
A fool's rights to public sympathy and support for his/her personal stupidity. (HINT: This is the point where you can actually make a case the fool was right all along and has been horribly wronged!!!)
Seriously people, the government did not screw this guy over, the newspaper dude (even though I think calling the school is jerky) did not screw the guy out of a job, the school principal didn't fire him.... HE/SHE QUIT! They felt their actions were profoundly wrong enough that they left there job.
There is nothing to see here, move along. Address a real issue like Chinese net censorship or Iranian nuclear arms, thanks!
What a waste of time for a big-league newspaper to bother with strange foods readers have eaten! It's a stupid question, crying out for stupid answers, and then they pay someone to cull through them and classify different kinds of stupidity. The paper doesn't deserve the freedom of the press!
Details of the story don't make sense. How would he know the IP address belonged to the school? And worse:
The story is a hoax. Especially since if it were true, the guy who quit could sue the ass off the newspaper for violating their privacy policy. He had, according to their privacy policy, a belief that he could post w/o what supposedly happened, happening.
So, either a hoax, or someone's lying about something ... like maybe spyware on the computer that made the post, and the school trying to cover up.
to their latest poll in the same section. Unfortunately the poll about strangest foods is closed...
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/talk-of-the-day/talk-of-the-day/2009/11/have-you-ever-truly-gone-hungry/
Would the school be a third party? Or a 'second party'? Assuming it was their hardware, etc.
Yes. Mod parent up.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
I don't know where the submitter got the idea that the word was feline-inspired. The word that was posted was one of my personal favorites, "cunt."
That makes the school an intermediary. The primary parties are still the user who did the posting, and the site (actually the parent entity) on which it was posted.
Let me put it another way. When you use a site, you - and not your ISP, school, or public library, etc - are the one who agrees to whatever registration requirements and/or privacy agreements. Therefore they apply between you and the site owners. Otherwise, by my clicking an "I Agree" box on a website registration form, I would be applying that agreement to all the applicable intermediary parties. I am not (unless I am doing so in a capacity as legal representative of the provider), as the agreement is purely between myself and the entity which operates the site.
Again, IANAL, but holding that the school - essentially which operates as a carrier - is a not a third party would open a much bigger can of worms.
OK, let me clarify, since y'all are in a vicious mood. Aren't there more important thing going on in the world of Slashdot? I think we get it right for the most part - I am definitely not a /. basher. However, I read the "Recent Submissions" quite a bit, and I've seen some pretty good quality articles passed over. Then every once in a while, something like this comes along, and it just boggles my mind that an article like this could have a higher priority than some of the other submissions.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
The paper did not release any information to a third party. The contacted the registered owner of the IP address which sent the message. Most definitely a "first party".
And this is the key, isn't it? He didn't go to law enforcement or the ISP even. He went to the owner of the system and let them know that someone (probably a student at the school) was misusing one of their computers.
This wasn't internet vigilanteism, it was courtesy to the system owner. Regardless, if you troll someone, there should be no righteous indignation when you get trolled back.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information.
It does not say that they will not share equipment owner's user information with third party -- it says INDIVIDUAL USER INFORMATION. That makes the school undeniably a third party, and that means that Greenbaum's actions were absolutely in violation of the privacy policy.
To the haters: You can't win. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine
I have to agree with an earlier post:
"Never write anything anywhere on the Internet, "anonymously" or not, that you would not want your wife, boss, friends, or children to read. Period."
I believe Greenbaum just made this incident up to drive traffic to his blog. Looks like it worked too, didn't it? I find it very difficult to believe that any school isn't using a firewall with NAT or IP Masquerade enabled, and furthermore that any school IT department has the spare time to track down an individual user with a few hours. By Occam's razor, an invented incident is a much simpler and more likely explanation.
As far as moderation, in the early days of AOL they had "guides" in the chat rooms that could ban any user for violation of the terms of service. One day, knowing a guide was present, I related a long rambling story about how whenever I sat at the computer, my significant other's cat would jump up and try to come between me and the keyboard to get attention, but that was ok because I enjoyed the cat's company and "everybody needs a little pussy now and then". I then turned to the guide and said, "Ok, go ahead and TOS me!". He declined to take any action, stating that the comment was appropriate in the given context! Unfortunately, Greenbaum claims he is not mature enough to make the same judgment...
Dude didn't know he was ratting on a teacher. The local highschool was posting obscene comments on his website. He bends his sites privacy rules a little bit, and sends a notice to the local highschool. If he recognized (or had flagged) the school IPs addy, than what had probably happened was that this isn't the first time the school had been posting nasty stuff on the newspaper. Normally it's students messing around in a lab somewhere. Forward any info you've got to the school, and if they've got a decent tech admin, he can probably figure out what class it was going on in. Then just give that lab supervisor/teacher a heads up to watch for kids on the local newspaper site, check out what they are doing. Maybe let them know ahead of time that 'post annonymously' doesn't really work so well, and that your actions on line can have concequences. Of course, the newspaper dude didn't know that it was actually a teacher doing this. He probably figured he was just ratting out a few kids.
don't vent on the net. Save it for the local pub, or the diary you keep under your pillow.
Fuck you and take your anti-democracy attitude with you when you leave. You don't belong on the net. Get out.
Most countries have codified the right to religion and expression. Not just for the ones you, Robot, agree with, but the right for everybody.
A lot of companies would like to censor the net. It's cheaper than programming products that work. Don't give them ammo. It has repercussions for other countries, if not your own. Democracy depends on the ability to make informed decisions and that ability is contingent on open and multi-faceted debate. You can't have that if only One True Way is approved.
You have the right to say your views, no matter how wrong they are, but it stops there when it starts imposing on other people.
"The right to swing your fist ends where the other man's nose begins."-- Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841 - 1935)
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Are you gonna register that sucker? 'Cause if not I'm gonna fork it off your plate and git 'er done.
Turning a single comment into a thread (by responding to it) draws attention to the comment, making it more likely to get modded up.
It's still a fairly rude waste of space if the comment consists of nothing more than "mod parent up".
He posted it after they deleted it. I would have done the exact same thing if I was in their shoes.
On slashdot pretty much anything goes. Not so much for most other sites.
Besides, maybe I misread but he resigned. The article wasn't clear on if he was getting fired or not. I would have expected he would have gotten a slap on the wrist and maybe banned from using computers if it was his first offense.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Wow, whooosh! I'll say it again, slowly. The guy was an idiot. He should not have been using a school computer for personal use. BUT that is so completely not the point! We, in this thing we call civilization, have laws and procedures and authorities so that when we suspect that someone might be doing something we deem as "wrong", we can pass that feeling on to those in charge and THEY can decide if action is required. ANYTHING else is called a "witch hunt", or a "coup", or even a "revolution", but it is hardly something to be proud of or paraded in front of the public as a shining example of community good. This moderator basically bypassed not only his own employer's TOS, but may very well have opened them up to a civil lawsuit. But even more importantly, he violated the trust of the readers and posters of his forum. He took it upon himself to decide what was "right" instead of taking it to the authorities, and he did so in a legally binding work environment. Sure, the guy at the school got what he deserved... Karma's a bitch, but the moderator's actions border on the criminal and are certainly grounds for dismissal in any professional work environment.
Mod this up!
The topic of open discourse and freedom of expression is such a fundamental part of democracy that it is written in the constitutions of most countries.
So while we're at it, fuck off.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
If everybody put their money and their reputation where there mouths were, civilization might just lurch forward a little bit.
And where does a newspaper gloating about making someone lose their job for posting a single vulgar word twice on their site fall in there? I expect papers to have more ethics than that in a civilized society, so I think they've set civilization back a bit with this, not forward.
Won't help, in the followup post, the guy claims that:
Did I reveal private information? No. I had none to reveal and wouldn’t have if I had it. From me, the school learned three things: 1) That the comments were posted; 2) When the comments were posted; 3) That I knew they came from the school based on the DNS information that accompanied the IP address. The school knows its own IP address. Knowing when the comments were posted allowed them to track them to a specific work station through its own server logs.
So he apparently doesn't think sharing the time and IP address of a poster is "private information". Or he's trying to cover his ass and not lose his own job. Whichever you think is more likely.
Maybe "bearded clam"would have been a better choice.
I wonder if 4chan will catch wind of this. Kurt just opened a whole can of worms in this case. If he really thinks that one person being inappropriate is bad, imagine every AC from /. trolling his comment section.
You know, if you want 4chan to do this, you could start it yourself, instead of trying to "subtly hint".
4chan is not your bitch, and trying to connive all the various actors into doing something would be like herding pussy.
Cats, I mean. Pussy. Cats.
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
The guy's name is Greenbaum and he wants to control what you say and think?
Well I guess that's appropriate.
I hate how stuff gets buried on Google. Type in "Greenbaum Speech" a week from now, and you'll get this idiot's blog and the issue of "Free Speech" coming up instead of this.
-FL
They may not be legally disallowed from calling the poster's employer, but one could make the argument this violates their privacy policy.
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information. In some cases, however, we may provide information to legal officials as described in "Compliance with Legal Process" below.
In some cases, we contract with third parties to provide services on our behalf, including credit-card and bill processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analytics or promotions management. We provide these third parties only with the information necessary for them to perform their specific services. These service providers are restricted from using this information in any way other than to provide services to us, and they may not share this information with any one else nor may they resell this data.
Compliance with Legal Process
We may disclose personal information if we or one of our affiliated companies is required by law to disclose personal information, or if we believe in good faith that such action is necessary to comply with a law or some legal process, to protect or defend our rights and property, to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our web sites or to protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public.
this guys makes http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/talk-of-the-day/talk-of-the-day/2009/11/whats-the-craziest-thing-youve-ever-eaten-and-did-you-like-it/ and gets annoyed at a vandal, calls up the school the IP came from, kurt brags about the outcome here http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/the-editors-desk/the-editors-desk/2009/11/post-a-vulgar-comment-while-youre-at-work-lose-your-job/ but backpedals later on here http://twitter.com/kgreenbaum and I have to say, the netadmin at the school is just as much a jerk for outing the user. He had more control than this Kurt guy did.
And then the headmaster of the school calls kurt up to tell him the guy was fired. That's sorta private, too. So it's three dbags trying to out-dbag each other.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
Yes, I understand that you don't have the legal right to post anything you want from your work computer, and that the editor was within his/her legal rights to report him. But I continue to think that actually turning the guy in was a little over the top, and further, that getting fired is a disproportionate punishment for the "crime" (yes, he resigned. He almost certainly didn't have a choice in the matter).
Where "misuse" is defined as "whatever we say it is". That's a loophole big enough to drive a truck through.
The website 1) is designed for the general public to publish comments, and 2) apparently allows "anonymous" posting, so it's hard to know what "unauthorized use" even means. "To protect against misuse" is ridiculously vague, and in practice, means "to protect against anything we decide we don't like". So this doesn't change much - yes, revealing his identity was probably strictly legal. It's still a crappy thing to do.
:)
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Like South Park put it "Fuck you dolphin!! And Fuck you Whale!!" err... "Fuck you chicken!! And Fuck you cow!!"
Put things in the proper perspective-
he did not like the comment
he chose to single this one individual out
you can bet this was not the only comment he did not agree with now or ever but yet he chose this one
Kurt Greenbaum is a rat informant that parallels being SS or Stazi or ISI or whatever the fuck they are called in China.
This is America you fucking clueless feckless dolts!
Actually a "truly free country" is an anarchy.
You need rules in human interaction and a combination of a few pretty important of said rules is "you do not hunt down and stigmatize someone for making a sexual joke".
I do congratulate you on your subtle twisting of words, though.
I can't think of many schools who have their own IP range. They have a single IP, the entire school is behind NAT firewall, and the IP belongs to local cable or telephone company. It is very, very unlikely that reverse DNS would have yielded anything usable at all. The whole story is highly implausible and we all got taken by it.
Recall that Common Sense was originally published anonymously. While it can be a big pain in the butt to deal with, anonymity is not valueless.
Also, we should get Greenbaum's IP address and scan all of our logs to see if he's ever looked at anything naughty or posted anything non-work-related during working hours. Good for the goose, good for the gander. It looks like he violated the paper's privacy policy, as well.
Even if this is fake, it seems people take things waaaaaaaayyyyy too seriously these days. Who gives a damn if some guy makes a sex joke. I still wouldn't care if my kid went to that school. Now, if he had said he sampled hobo, and police found dead hobos in his house missing their tender hobo hamstrings, THEN I'd understand if people freaked out.
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
"What Greenbaum did was against the privacy policy of the site:
We will not share individual user information with third parties unless the user has specifically approved the release of that information."
Maybe he should sue and get Greenbaum fired.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
While I am a fan of saying stuff in the open, I am able to so because the society I live in allows me to do so.
Apart from the fact that a boss has _no_ right to know your personal beliefs (obvious exceptions apply), what if your wife is a spy from the government or if your kids might beat you up. Both _can_ happen.
So while you probably enjoy the same luxury as I do, please be more considerate when making such broad statements.
You know, if you want 4chan to do this, you could start it yourself, instead of trying to "subtly hint".
4chan is not your bitch, and trying to connive all the various actors into doing something would be like herding pussy.
Cats, I mean. Pussy. Cats.
I couldn't give a fuck less what 4chan is up to. I was merely hinting because one person trolling a website is nothing compared to the legion of /b/.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Using the word 'pussy' on school time is simply not that bad.
Of course it's not. Only Americans get upset about this kind of thing. Sure, the school guy was a dickhead, and the newspaper guy was an asshole, but the school principal should have had the guts just to thank the newspaper politely and inform them that the matter would be dealt with, and then reprimand the OP.
Instead you've got the civil liberties crowd indulging in a lot of bleeding-heart willy-waving about "rights", and the politically-correct crowd going all anal-retentive and thin-lipped about "abuse" of an employer's PC. Any wonder the country's gone to the dogs^H^H^H^Hcats^H^H^H^Hpussies...
It all depends on how you parse it! The use of the word "or" initially led me to parse it as follows, with two lists (notice the "or" in each list) and the implication being (IMO) that there should be an "and" between them, not another "or" (which would make the first "or" seem redundant):
Note, the only thing I added was the [and], which makes sense, to me, because if not it collapses into this, note the strangely out-of-place "or":
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
I wonder if 4chan will catch wind of this.
Is it bad that I kinda hope they do?
This professional asshole needs to meet some professional trolls. He hasn't seen anything yet.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
14393 Rainy Lake Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63017
US
+1.3148780398
Verified. Called and spoke to his wife. :]
Actually, the word was not pussy, it was the C word.
Are you sure? TFS mentions a "feline-inspired vulgarity", and I can't see how "Cat" is a vulgarity.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
"Our web servers automatically collect limited information about your computer's connection to the Internet, including your IP address (but not the e-mail address), when you visit our sites. Your IP address does not contain personally identifiable information, nor does it identify you personally."
"Of course, even if you want to remain completely anonymous, you are still free to take advantage of the wealth of content that is otherwise available, without registration, on our sites."
Seriously people, the government did not screw this guy over, the newspaper dude (even though I think calling the school is jerky) did not screw the guy out of a job, the school principal didn't fire him.... HE/SHE QUIT! They felt their actions were profoundly wrong enough that they left there job.
Well, we don't know for sure exactly what was said to this guy, that might have caused him to quit, but it might have amounted to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal. Don't get too hung up on who -- employer or employee -- formally initiated the "separation of employment", since oftentimes the law is actually capable of looking beyond formalities to the truth of the situation. It's quite possible that he was threatened with consequences that would have made his continued employment at the school unbearable and/or intolerable.
I anticipate a series of lawsuits culminating with Wordpress being sued for supplying Greenbaum with the user's IP address.
Clearly, nobody is to blame here, just the tool. Wordpress is evil and should be eradicated.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Wrong. The IP-address is PII (Personally identifiable information). Aside from the legalities from not enforcing the site's privacy policy, many companies will terminate employees that misuse PII.
FYI, this is why in logging IP-address you usually anonymize them by just retaining the C-class and dropping the last couple of bits.
I have read through these comments and I agree to several points. Being forced to resign in this economy is like being shot at dawn for Jay walking. A resignation in the eyes of the unemployment department is basically saying , Yeah I quit that job. No unemployment for you , they say. Is the guy an idiot for posting a one word comment repeatedly , yes. Is Kurt a douche, Yeppers... Is eating pussy a weird thing to eat, Not in my book and not in the books of many a lesbian. Hell! eating pussy got my nose broken, and yes I am proud of that! Eating pussy may be a weird thing to eat if you are a guy and your boyfriend disapproves. But to everyone else , great he knows cunning linguistics, to some women the question might be , is he any good at it? Should crude and crass speech be protected by the first amendment. Fuck YES it should. if you disagree , that is your choice and you miss what living in the United States should be about. Being politically correct is for those who is afraid of who is listening and what other people think. If you don't like what I have said, Mod me down. It only matters if I care.
We cannot solve problems with the same thinking that got us there - A Einstein(paraphrased)
I wonder what % of people would kill over something like this. If some piece of shit like this cost me my job over a word I'd probably shoot him in the face.
Lesson learned: When making anonymous posts, use either a proxy, an anonymous posting service (COTSE.NET), someone's open WiFi connection, or a friend's computer.
Some friend *you* are...sheesh.
One last thing: Sometimes I wonder; "Is that someone's signature? Or do they type that at the end of each post?"
It's probably legal to eat your own cat, but I suspect it's illegal to sell butchered cat meat or cooked cat meat. County health departments are remarkably picky that way.
Yet Greenbaum repeatedly insisted in the comments on the site that he did not violate their privacy policy, using the (in this case) absurd notion that the IP address and the timestamp of the comment were not personally identifiable information. If that's the case, why call up the admins over at the school and hand them what little information he had, if not to unmask Pussyman?
I love how on one side, we have media companies trying to convince judges that an IP address is PII because it's convenient for them to do so -- and pointing out things like NAT are rather inconvenient to such legal arguments -- while on the other side, we have a different kind of media company trying to convince the court of public opinion that an IP address is not PII. So, which is it? Well, in this particular case it was enough of an identification that Greenbaum knew which school to contact, and giving them the timestamps of the two postings let them identify the poster. Just because the website has its own definition of what constitutes PII doesn't mean that a court will agree with their definition.
The issue to debate here is not whether someone should modded down over posting on the internet.
The issue to debate here is whether someone should be modded down over posting on the internet using an electronic device.
And if anyone would read the above post, they would have noticed that he used bold tags twice. The first time, it was just for emphasis, but he used bold tags again. Again, he did it using an electronic device.
And, does anyone know what else was he doing on that device?
I'm about tired of this bullshit line of thinking. This is the 2nd or 3rd story this week I read about teachers being fired for "conduct" outside the classroom. The other one that stood out was a domestic violence against the teacher and she was fired. We already have a shortage of good educators and with "no child left behind" I fear for the future. Thinking of the children is going to create the dumbest, ill prepared children in history.
18 USC 871
a Federal crime or offense for anyone to willfully make a true threat to injure or kill the President of the United States.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
penis
crap hope i dont lose my job
They closed the comments or I would have left my favourite word for that particular piece of anatomy, so I thought I'd send an email instead. Sure, it's nothing on the scale of things, but it really exemplifies the decline of our society. Newspapers - once infulential, once worth reading - reduced to this 'social media' bullshit. And a guy involved in this worthless pursuit contributes just a bit more intolerance to a culture full of it. So depressing...
Anyway, here's the mail:
Hello,
I am from Perth, Australia, the other side of the world to you. I am just so disturbed by your actions in tracing some guy and calling his workplace just for using a word that offended you (I assume) that I had to write and tell you that I consider you much lower as a human being than that guy ever could be. In fact, his joke was slightly amusing. But you, with your intolerance of something so slightly off colour, are a real non-entity. It's people like you - not just you, but all of you in the millions - that are dragging down our liberal western societies. Small minded, mean spirited, and easily offended.
I may have wasted my time sending you this email, but it's less than the amount of time it would have taken you to take out your pathetic vengeance on that poster. Not to mention that you'll be wasting yet more time writing further moronic blog posts - after all it's your job! Actually think of the irony of a guy like you, who basically adds nothing to the world (I mean those ridiculous blogs are available at every newspaper's website in the world, same tired old topics recycled every day) getting a teacher fired. A teacher, someone who actually helps people, who contributes to society. I mean, you're not alone, the vast majority of us basically toil on nothings, it's just a shame that you took out one of the few who actually does do something. Over nothing.
Well, that's about it. Thanks for making me lose yet further faith in society...
Jacques.
p.s. if you want to call my workplace go ahead. I'll make your snooping a little easier: it's an IT consultancy in Australia. Now go!
// It had been Fat's delusion for years that he could help people. --Philip K. Dick, Valis
He resigned rather than stand up for his right to talk the way he wants when he's not on the job? Real ballsy.
Why don’t you just disable “offensive” comments from being posted as many other sites do? I would think that would be the responsible thing to do. Also, since there was not any crime that was committed why would you feel the need to track down the sender of the comment and report it to his ISP which was in this case a school system? I would think that this would be the only allowable reason to attempt to identify your visitors. The poster in question, merely posted the word “pussy” twice on your poll, that surely you knew would be a target for off-color comments. Surely you knew that saying the word “pussy” is not illegal and would be protected speach under the 1st amendment, and you would be violating your your own privacy policy by attempting to identify the poster in question. Hypothetically, your poster in question could have been someone that refers to felines as “pussy” and that would be a strange and uncommon food, but felines are eaten in some cultures. His answer to your poll question I don’t think it could even be considered offensive in the context of your question because the poster could have been referring to eating a cat which would indeed be a strange food to most people. In short, I think that your reaction was unwarranted and could be libel, for you personally and the St. Louis Dispatch. Interesting to see if the “victim” in this case will seek legal advice for your overreaction and the consequences of your actions.
Use a proxy or vpn next time dude
There's no law against eating felines, at least in most jurisdictions
Actually, in the state of Victoria, Australia, a few years ago, they made it illegal to eat cats and dogs. That really annoys me because there are so many stray cats and dogs put down every year, but instead of allowing people to eat them they make it illegal and continue to allow other animals to be killed specifically for food. I hate the ridiculous double-standards that people have!
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
but i draw the line at killing domesticated animals (in part because they trust humans).
All common food animals are domesticated animals; some new-old favorites are not, like buffalo. Nothing's been done to 'em. They're fairly tractable once they get used to you, and then once they trust you, you can handle 'em (and later whack 'em) with little to-do. You're making a distinction without a difference.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I can't mod you up, I can only agree here.
The guy quit after being found out...so the phrase must be true!!
If you look in a cat's eyes, do you not see more intelligence than when you look into a cow's ?
Requiem for the American Dream
yeah, you know, I am not an American, I am European. But of course I heard from this pussy Greenbaum. I think this incredible, where are privacy rights?
So lets use our power on internet to show these pussies where it leeds, when they treat people like that!!