I was mean to someone tonight, but it all worked out and I made a new blogger friend instead.

He’s Jun Loayza from Living the Startup Life. I noticed him after one of his posts came up on the Brazen Careerist homepage.

When I clicked over to his blog to leave a comment, I was pretty shocked by his original title.

The editor for the Brazen Careerist network (of which I am a member) decided that “In My Experience, Sex is Probably Overrated” was a stronger title than the original “Sex is Overrated.”

Really, Brazen Careerist editor? Really?

For one thing (and correct me if I’m wrong, gentle readers), “in my experience” is already implied. The Brazen Careerist is a network of personal bloggers. Just about any post on the network could theoretically be prefixed with “in my experience,” but that adds no meaning or value. It only adds extra wordiness to an otherwise eye-popping, attention-grabbing title.

But the bigger crime is the “Probably.” What a surefire way to sound like you lack confidence! In the edited title, it sounds like Jun is unsure of his central thesis when in fact he is opinionated and articulate.

However, this isn’t an attack on the Brazen Careerist editor(s). (Even though they never feature my witty, witty posts… grrr.) I’m sure they’ve got a lot of blog posts to deal with and didn’t give this title much thought at all.

This is a life lesson. Really.

The lesson is this: Other people do not care about you. Not as much as you do. At the end of the day, you’re the one who looks dull when your article/report/blog gets edited into mediocrity.

Is this particular an example a big deal? No… well, not to me. But that’s the point: Maybe it’s a big deal to Jun. What if this blog post had been his personal shining moment of glory?

I run into similar scenarios nearly everyday at work, where I help our clients develop websites. There are generally two types of client.

1. The “you deal with it” client
2. The take-charge control freak

Guess which one ends up with the awesome website?

It’s the control freaks, of course, but not necessarily because they have undiagnosed OCD. They’re the ones that care about how I’m crafting their online reputation. They’re the ones that argue with me about their sites.

It’s not that I purposefully don’t try as hard for the lackadaisical clients. I try to build everyone the best website possible—but the client’s business is not my business. I can’t possibly know their businesses like they do.

It’s the same with you and the middle-men with which you choose to associate. Every time you join an organization, get a new client, or start a new job, you’re handing over the keys to a little piece of your personal reputation.

Sometimes it’s not such a big deal. Sometimes it is. Either way, it’s your butt on the line when interlopers muddle your own personal brand.

From the Guppie Life

Don’t Let Interlopers Muddle Your Message

Over the course of the past two days, I have received over 200 emails from PRWeekJobs.com urging me to “Upload Your Resume at the New PRWeekjobs.com for a Chance to win an iPod.”

As if the email overload wasn’t enough of an annoyance, each email contained the actual email address and password for the PRWeek account of the intended recipient. These email addresses and passwords were sent to hundreds of other strangers with PRWeek.com accounts.

I personally did not receive an email containing my own email and password, but I have no way of knowing if my own personal information was sent to others.

That is an utter disaster and a colossal security risk, considering that many people use the same email address and password for dozens of internet accounts.

PRWeek’s response? A lame apology on the PRWeek website from Adicio, the company apparently responsible for the technical glitch, and a similarly lame email from the editor of PRWeek:

From the desk of Julia Hood, Editor-in-Chief of PRWeek

Date: January 30, 2008

I am writing to personally apologize for the error that caused your PRWeekjobs.com user name and password information to be distributed externally. I am also sorry if you received our job site email multiple times and that your email address was cc’d to other respondents.

I want to provide you with background on how this happened; what we have been doing to fix the situation; and what action you may be able to take to limit the extent of this inconvenience. The error originated with our vendor, Adicio, via a technical error, during their work on our behalf with an automated software migration package. When this problem was discovered, just minutes after the project began, Adicio immediately took mitigating action ceasing the transmission and disabling all user names and passwords. This problem impacted a limited portion of registrants to a PRWeek service. Adicio’s explanation and apology is currently on our website:
http://www.prweekus.com/Adicio-issues-formal-apology-regarding-PRWeek-e-mail-problem/article/104713/

Unfortunately, I know that some of you may still be receiving emails. If that is the case, it is likely that these emails are being bottlenecked at your ISP. Please refer to the list below for obtaining advice on how to stop this from happening in your individual system.

- Contact your ISP and request they remove the spam emails
awaiting delivery from you (the top ISP contact details
are included below). PRWeek is also alerting ISPs of this
problem
- If your company owns an email server, contact your Systems
Administrator and request that they block the specific
email address in its Spam filter
- Block the senders email address on your system
- For peace of mind, change the passwords for other online
services you use for which you have been using the same
password

I know you have been inconvenienced and, even more importantly, are concerned about the privacy of your information. This error may have also shaken your confidence in working and engaging with PRWeek. Again, I offer my sincere apology, as well as my promise to you that we will do everything possible to ensure that this never happens again. I realize it will take time for us to earn your trust again, but we value our dialogue with you and hope it will continue and that we can move past this very unfortunate occurrence.

Please feel free to contact me directly with further questions and concerns. My information is at the bottom of this email.

Best Regards,
Julia Hood
Editor-in-Chief, PRWeek
114 W. 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
P: 646-638-6031
mailto:Julia.hood@prweek.com

Well, gee. They feel really bad about this mix-up. They explained how to stop receiving the emails, but only 2 days after I began receiving them in the first place. Worse yet, PRWeek didn’t mention how they intend to make this right. To me, the most immediate and automatic response should have been a few years’ of free subscriptions and some sort of credit report monitoring (in case the email and passwords also granted access to bank or credit card accounts). Honestly, I don’t think monetary compensation is entirely unreasonable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re faced with a lawsuit.

Luckily for me, the password associated with my PRWeek account was unique.

But what can you learn from this PRWeek privacy debacle?

• Use a dedicated email when signing up for new accounts with various websites. The email address should be nonsensical and should not contain personally identifying information. I’d be in a lot of trouble if I had signed up for PRWeek with “firstname.lastname@mycompany.com.” Instead I used something along the lines of “random-words-and-numbers@gmail.com.”
• Use a different password for each account. I know it’s a pain, but so is having your online accounts hacked.
• Don’t give out personal information without a valid reason, even if the company seems reputable. However, keep in mind that even honest people make mistakes.
• Don’t piss off people who blog ;)

From the Guppie Life

PRWeek Makes Public Relations Disaster, Violates User Privacy