Saturday 14 January 2012

Blog Writers of the World unite and take over

On my lunch break at work I was reading the imaginery world of Twitter on my phone app and stumbled on a note that my good blogging comrade, Dumpling, was considering the very future of their blog.

Dumpling, say it ain't so! I have just got Google Reader, for heavens sake.

Dumpling, you explained that a new work policy banning blogging freedoms on personal social networks is making blogging almost too difficult to negotiate.

Well I say, don't ever let yourself be silenced by The Man.

My work says in a legally binding regulation appended to my contract that I am not allowed to blog/send letters to the press/talk on public transport about all sorts of things. But when the occassion arises then I use a simple little trick I learned on the streets. Streets that had Wi-Fi.

Instead of saying something clear like: Louise was back typing about pirates again. What is it that fascinates Louise with pirates?

I will blog: CODENAME Louise was back typing about CODENAME pirates again. What is it that fascinates CODENAME Louise with CODENAME pirates?

I call it the CODENAME mirage.

The Man might well realise something about those couple of sentences is amiss, but will they have the evidence to prosecute? I very much doubt it.

Dumpling, I do hope that this small act of defiance in solidarity with you and now my patented CODENAME mirage techinique will both help you feel you have the armoury to continue with your blogging.

Regards,
Greville Tombs

2 comments:

  1. It is difficult Greville, I have had my twitter feed censored even though I thought I had it covered by creating 2 accounts and only tweeting library stuff from one of them. Now I have had to make that account really boring. I have also created 2 new blogs to try and stay on the right side of my boss. One for work stuff and one about me and other stuff that interests me. I try to keep the 2 non work accounts anonymous. and now I can't decide which account to sign this comment off with ....

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  2. spacelib, I think that employee policies for blogs etc. are sensible to have. However, I also think that given most of people's lives are based in work then the policies should have some acknowledgment of the "real world" and allow some leeway. No employer wants trading secrets exposed or defamatory things written, but I would argue that some policies are too blanket wide and over paranoid with some even creeping into freedom of speech issues.

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