Be careful what you post on the internet

[hawtsean]

Many people who post here fail to appreciate the potential longevity of their words and images. GH staff may be very careful to remove any objectionable material, and good marks to them for that. However, that does not prevent saved copies of web pages (images and all) from finding their way onto people's machines, and more importantly onto cached search databases.

Just as a quick example, web spiders or bots (we know them as search engines like Google, Bing and so on) constantly scour the world wide web to classify and store site addresses and data about those sites, including html code for the actual pages. Google stores pages (cached) of many sites at the specific time when its engine encounters the URL. The refresh rate of those cached data may vary, and sometimes the image of a page can last for months at a time...............and any words or images you post that you later edited or had removed, may still be present for the public to view if they access that cached page.

Just a word to the wise, about thinking twice before posting stuff that could prove problematic at a later date.

 

[gb2000ie]

Just to under-score Sean's point - if you're not yet familiar with it, check out the way back machine: http://anonym.to/?http://web.archive.org/

Can you remember this very first ever google search engine? http://anonym.to/?http://web.archive.org/web/19981202230410/http://www.google.com/

 

[jeansGuyOZ]

The first time I read about someone losing their job because they bad-mouthed their boss on Facebook, I thought "Wow, that's freaky". Now, having heard of many such cases and continuing to read or hear about them nearly once a week, I think "Is there no limit to people's stupidity?"

To suffer the loss of a job through something happening that you could not have foreseen, is perhaps misfortune. To have it happen to you, because you did something that is known to have cost hundreds of other people their jobs, but you went ahead and did it anyway, is beyond stupid. i would have to say that I agree with your employer, he/she is better off without you.

 

[RafaelNoiret]

Good tip...thanks.