Newspaper columnist gets man fired for posting a "vulgar" comment

lizardboy

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2000
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Repost? Searched, didn't find anything.

Stltoday.com editor Kurt Greenbaum yesterday posted a lengthy reflection on why he outed a commenter on the Post-Dispatch website that cost the commenter his job.

The person had twice published the word "pussy" in the comment thread for a story that asked stltoday.com readers to name the strangest thing they'd ever eaten.

After the second posting, Greenbaum saw that the IP address of the commenter was registered to a computer at a local school. Greenbaum then called the school, and the headmaster confronted the guilty employee. The man then resigned on the spot.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/da...nd_explanation_for_outing_pussy_commenter.php
 

MoPHo

Platinum Member
Dec 16, 2003
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I can see having a problem with posting something like that from a school computer. Kinda inappropriate if it was staff. I dunno if Zero Tolerance was appropriate in this case.
 
Feb 6, 2007
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I work for a private school, and anything posted from a school computer can be considered grounds for termination if it falls outside the school's acceptable use policy. That's fairly typical for most businesses; the computer is not yours, and if the IP can be traced back to the business, it can reflect poorly on them.

So just generally don't be an idiot when posting from work.
 

MoPHo

Platinum Member
Dec 16, 2003
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I work for a private school, and anything posted from a school computer can be considered grounds for termination if it falls outside the school's acceptable use policy. That's fairly typical for most businesses; the computer is not yours, and if the IP can be traced back to the business, it can reflect poorly on them.

So just generally don't be an idiot when posting from work.

I was going to ask if this was a private or public school. My friend did a news story where they had a group of people drink and their BAC was taken the following morning. They never mentioned my friend was a substitute teacher for a private school but they were removed from their lists because someone from the school saw the news cast.

Public schools in my area don't seem to take such drastic measures, however.
 

ShawnD1

Lifer
May 24, 2003
15,987
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I work for a private school, and anything posted from a school computer can be considered grounds for termination if it falls outside the school's acceptable use policy. That's fairly typical for most businesses; the computer is not yours, and if the IP can be traced back to the business, it can reflect poorly on them.

So just generally don't be an idiot when posting from work.

But what you can do is Remote Desktop to your home computer and post hate speech from there. You're still breaking the rules but the IP traces back to your home, not your work. It also won't show up on the work computer's browser history.
 

DangerAardvark

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2004
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He has something against eating pussy? What a tool. I predict an influx of vulgar comments on his articles... from private IP addresses.
 

lizardboy

Diamond Member
Dec 3, 2000
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But what you can do is Remote Desktop to your home computer and post hate speech from there. You're still breaking the rules but the IP traces back to your home, not your work. It also won't show up on the work computer's browser history.

That's what I do to have access to unfiltered surfing at work.