Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls Do you worry about being googled?

Nah. I guess it's better to be prepared! And more time to lie my way out of it LOL.

What's this Lois & Clark you speak of???

JenD? Who? What ARE you talking about?

Omg did someone steal my email?!

-OR-

Yes, I participate in different groups online...
No mom, for the last time, they aren't axe murderers, and they don't even know what city I live in! (Which is true hah. I commute.) I have a better chance of getting shot downtown...

Jen

Wanna bet? I've gotten right into nfic stories without a password. Somebody told me that was because I must have set my computer to remember the password. So I tried it on another computer. Guess what? Same result.
~~~

I don't care that anyone knows that I write fanfic. I've actually been telling people. The nfic would embarrass me, though.

It's interesting, though, that my best friend never knew until recently that I was a huge Superman fan. I didn't think I was hiding it. I just didn't think she was interested. (I was right.)

Well, I'm a fairly new (posted) author, and if I google Classicalla, I find my stories (after I get past the classical references). The first one I found doing that was the nfic.

I found it pretty freaky to google my real name, and I found another RN with the same name (not extremely common.) And she lives about 150 miles from me.

Edit: Interesting. I just googled Classicalla again and was led to feedback (I was the 2nd one on the list.) that I'd left rather than one of my stories. The feedback included Chaabreh's: The Girl's Not Attractive and Lara Moon's: All Weathered Out. How about that one?

Funnily enough, it's just occurred to me that when those authors email the Archive wanting their stories removed, they never mail the Admins here wanting the same. Some of them must have posted their stories here first, before submitting them.

Hmmmmm. Must remember to mention that they might want to change their name here, too, next time I get one of those emails in.

LabRat

I've used my nick for quite some time (1990?), but not too many people in RL would have a clue that that was me...so I've never cared if someone googled that. My RL name, however (which I've never hidden either) is so common that I've never found anything on Google for me.

I did get "busted" at work (during lunch!) Friday while on this site by a gal in my department. She looked a the "Lois & Clark" and laughed at me. But I briefly showed her around the site, explained I'd been around here since shortly after the show started, showed her the archive, even told her I was an editor there. She was suitably impressed by the time I was done (still thought it was a little odd, tho). But I never did tell her I had actually written a story that was on there--so apparently I have some shame!

Julie

It never really bothered me before, though I suppose it should have - until a couple of years ago, I was working at a university and I would have hated either students or colleagues to find my fandom involvement. And, since I do use my real name on the archive, it wouldn't exactly be difficult. Yes, I'm not the only person with that name, and there's a famous British actress with a very similar name, but some of my early stories even have my work email address, because it's the only address I had then and I knew nothing about web mail...

In my other fandom I use a nick - the same nick as here for live-journal stuff and WMR for the archive. I don't use my real name, but some people know it, especially if they've emailed with me.

And, as I said, none of it bothered me especially - until very recently.

I'm moving into the career of employment counsellor and taking a qualification in the area. One thing I discovered recently is that employers will sometimes Google prospective employees to check out their online activities. So things like myspace, Live Journal and other active online stuff can be examined to see if there's anything embarrassing or that the employer disapproves of.

Think that's far-fetched, or that employers wouldn't really care about fandom activity? Well, I know someone in my other fandom, a fanfic writer, who had to delete her LJ, her account on the fanfic archive and other evidence of her presence on the internet because she's job-hunting and all this stuff turned up in a search on her and did her damage.

So... something to think about.


Wendy

Wendy beat me to my biggest concern. Job-hunt google searches. It happens all the time in my field. Someone applying for a job? Google them. It's almost the first thing they do - sometimes even before they've completely read through the resume/cover letter.

I haven't asked to have any of my stuff pulled or changed, yet. It's a big worry, however.

I never thought about it, but it doesn't bother me. I have a nickname and if someone try to google "Poussin", he'd find so much things before me, that'd make me almost invisible ("Poussin" means "chick" in french - that's the why of my avatar ).

That's awful, poor girl! Scary, thought, definitely. Some of the employers should learn to chill a bit and appreciate the fact that the people they're hiring have some degree of imagination and creativity. It's usually a plus to have, in just about any job I can think of...

When I was hired here, I know they checked out references to me on the web, because it came up in the interview. However, luckily this turned out to be a real advantage, that I did 3D images and that I had my own webpage and what not. Of course, this is a software company, so they do like people who happen to spend their off time doing computer-y stuff. Personnally, if I ever went job hunting and found that an employer thought my online activities were questionnable (which, seriously, they really aren't!) then I don't think I'd be that bothered -- that is not a company I'd want to work for anyway. Too stiff and straight. I have a lot more fun here, where people think outside the box! You'd be surprised at the activities we organize here...
Check this YouTube vid, for instance -- these are all people I work with. The guy who *won* the competition is my *boss*. And half the guys there have read my stories, too, so... hey, life's good for now.

Long before the arrival of the net or Google I used to work for an employer who would make the most prejudiced assumptions about people based on the facts in their resume, which were just unbelievable and completely without logic.

And, of course, we all know that women of a certain age can be rejected out of hand because the employer assumes that they will be having kids in the next few years, whether they intend to or not!

So this doesn't surprise me. I suppose it is convenient for an employer and a cheap, quick and easy way to get a snapshot of potential employees. But it is a shame that people can be so thoroughly pigeonholed in an instant, this way. It's a shame most employers can't see fandom activies for what they are - a sign that the potential employee is creatively minded.

LabRat

Could someone explain to me why fanfic writing would hurt someones chance to get a job, more the say bonsai gardening? Surely people allowed to have hobbies?

To Labrat's point:
One of my last job interviews I was actually point-blank asked if I was planning on leaving the company in the future because I might get pregnant. My jaw about dropped. And regardless that it is an illegal question to ask; you still have to answer the question with good grace or you "fail" the interview anyway. I didn't get a call back to the company even though I was more than qualified. Needless to say I didn't do more than send the obligatory thank you letter with that company.

I just went a whole round of interviews and was amazed at what people asked about and got away with asking!

Julie

Absolutely - but there's an *impression* that the world outside of fanfic have of the people who participate. I admit, I even have that thought about certain fandoms. <insert show name> Really? People write fanfic for that show?

Which is why I don't want people in my RL to know about my hobby but I'm okay with my family and one old friend knowing about it. It's the people who don't know me very well (or those who just think they know me) who might make an unfair snap judgment about me.

Then again, maybe they're right and I am just a tad too obsessed...

Sue:

Obsessed? You? ... Nah.

BTW my inbox is looking empty

<DJ - who is in total denial about her own obsession>

-- MR

I don't worry about being googled. I've never used my full name, just my first and second name because in Brazil we have really long names (I had four before getting married, counting my first name of course I just have three now like everyone else in USA ). If you google Raquel Guimarães you'll find a lot of people with the same name before finding my fanfics, not to mention that most of the pages are in Portuguese anyway I didn't know it was that commom of a name in Brazil until I googled it. I didn't care before and I care even less now that I got married and I got rid of all the other names I wasn't used to sign and added my husband's name. The funny thing is that when I google my "new name" google gives me pages with not only my fanfics but Adam's as well

I did have one guy at college who decided to google my name to find out what kind of fanfics I write because when I was introducing myself to my English class and teacher I said that I wrote fanfics about a TV show but I didn't say which TV show and everyone was curious about it He came to class the next day telling everyone it was Lois & Clark I didn't mind it at all because it kind of made me popular... everyone started calling me Lois Lane, including my English teacher

You'll also get the results of my tests to get in college and the college I went to but that's only if you know all my maiden name And trust me when you get 902 results you will be tired before you even get to me

So all in all I don't care and I'm not ashamed about people finding out that I'm part of the FoLCDom but then again I've never written Nfics

Raquel

I have to admit I do have a problem with people finding out that I am part of the fandom. Like Sue said, I am afraid of snap judgements. How can I not be afraid of them when I still think to *myself* that this hobby is weird? So the fear of being Googled is pretty much the entire reason that I don't use my last name on the boards. (No, Mosley isn't my last name. )

Yes, and if that Google search turns up your name on pregnancy message boards, then they will really be scared away. All the more reason to use a pen name in your internet life.

Funny, they say to hide info about yourself due to all the crazies out there. But despite Caroline's excellent point about sorting out the crazies from the non-crazies, I am not hiding from all of you. I am hiding from the "real world".

I can think of a few possible reasons, most of which I really don't agree with, but they might seem compelling to a potential employer. So, to play devil's advocate a little:

1) "Fan" is derived from "fanatic" - if you're writing fan fiction, you're probably a little fanatical about the thing you're writing about. Many people think this is weird, as Sue pointed out. Personally, I don't see why being a little obsessive about a book or TV show is any weirder than being obsessive about football, but there's no telling my husband that.

2) Full participation in fandom takes lots and lots of time, which is why I'm no longer a full participant in fandom. But if you do the whole thing - writing, reading, reviewing, beta-reading for others, participation in discussions, chats, LJ, etc., you're spending huge amounts of time on it. If an employer knew how much time it took (and some probably have an idea) they might well be suspicious that some of that time might be coming out of the work day. Not that anyone here would read or write fan fic on company time, of course. I'm just saying...

3) Fan fiction is on the shady side of being legal, and some employers might have problems with it for that reason.

4) Fan fiction, as you have pointed out, has a (largely undeserved) reputation with some people for being synonymous with pornography.

There are probably others, so feel free to add to my list. However, I am here on "company time" at the moment, which means that my children are currently running wild instead of doing their Latin lesson... I should probably do something about that

Caroline

I wonder, to me fanfic have more of the connotation cute rather then weird, how many people even knows what fanfiction IS?

I have difficulty imagining that that level insight would be anything but exceedingly rare. And to those so well oriented would most probably be glad to find a kindred spirit. Unless they are vengeful recovering ex-fanfic writers or something.

Well perhaps, even though synonymous is a little to strong but of course the spicey stuff sticks out. But even though Star Trek erotica may be explicit and badly written it’s not that weird by cable TV standards. Personally I assume everyone has some interest in porn, I’d be more worried about those the that claim they don’t and make me believe them, but that might be my sinful eurocommie ways.

But I can understand people not wanting their prospective employers to read their steamier stories, then again who knows maybe that will land you the job!

I've wondered this, too - like if maybe I have friends who read fan fic but, like me, won't admit to it. Or if they've even heard of it at all, what they think about it. But of course, the only way to find out if my friends know about fanfiction is to pop my head out of the closet and ask, and I'm not willing to do that, so I guess I live on in ignorance.

As for the 'cute' - I've never really thought that, but a lot probably depends on what your first exposure is. I think you could easily, if you just made a random pass through a huge and unedited archive like Fanfiction.net, leave with the idea that it was all very, very bad, unless you just lucked out and hit a good fic on your first try. Or you could hit a site with lots of adult fic and leave with the idea that it was all smut. Or you could happen upon a flame war between people who were arguing passionately about some minute detail of characterization and decide that fans were just weird.

Does it really take tremendous insight to look at a novel-length story - or collection of stories - and determine that the author spent a great deal of time on it? Or a LiveJournal that's updated daily and contains lengthy conversations with a huge f-list? Or a name on a message board with 2000 posts appended to it? You wouldn't really have to know the ins and outs of fandom to be able to tell pretty quickly with a Google search that the person you're considering hiring has a time-consuming online hobby. Again, I'm not saying this is a reason not to hire someone (still just playing devil's advocate). Other people could have equally time-consuming hobbies that might not show up on a Google search, and it shouldn't take much checking of references to determine whether or not the person you're considering hiring has a decent work ethic.

Hee! That gave me a chuckle. I was one of those for a while (well, not vengeful, but the other part was true). I fell off the wagon and landed here.

Caroline

Well, there are still a lot of people out there who simply don't understand the online world. To them, people who socialise online are, quite simply, wackos. And not just wackos, but socially inept wackos who are poor judges of character.

If that's a prospective employer's perspective, then you can understand why they might not want to employ such a person.

Yvonne

Cute as in childish, immature, not weird as in having snakes for pets, or writing newsletters for bsdm groups. Or so I would have thought a year ago.

OK. I concede that is a reasonable assumption, if you look at say Wendy’s portfolio. But some people can write a novel in practically no time and I don’t believe that someone who never tried serious writing can accurately judge the time, and some fanfic novels take years to produce so on a weekly basis, it doesn’t necessarily have to be that time consuming.
And most people have some leisure activity that consume great parts of their free time, like say golfing.

Well there is that. I was just thinking of the stories as such. An depending on the job even those kind of things could have their advantages.
Those job recruiters I know of barely have time to read your resume, unless you have a very sensitive position I doubt many recruiters will score message boards they never heard about, to get an accurate picture of your hobbies.