WTF, Bozeman?

Just another reason (0.00 / 0)

why anonymous blogging and email accounts is paramount for anyone wanting to retain any privacy online. Otherwise, you're just walking around with your pants down. Fine if you've got nothing to hide, and don't care about anything you may have said. But privacy laws have a long ways to go to catch up. And the Montana Constitution was written before the word "email" was even coined. A lot of untraveled legal terrain yet to be traversed.

And for personal email and websites, owning your own servers is soooooooo nice. ;-) And private!

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by: JC @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 13:18:45 PM CDT

Bozeman is a kind of nexus, I think: (0.00 / 0)

Where Montana's rightwing politics switches to Reagan democracy just before moving on to the more nuanced repressions of Great Falls, Helena, Butte and Missoula...

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by: jed @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 14:53:53 PM CDT

Jed, you're too kind. (0.00 / 0)

What you've described is a transition zone.  There is nothing transitional about it.  Bozeman is Montana's version of Sybil.  Who had the state's largest (by far) turnout for the teabagging?  We're number one!  We don't have quite the infestation of liberals that Missoula does, but ours are certainly more rabid.  Take a look at any of the liberal-conservative rankings of the Montana legislature over the past 3 sessions and you'll find Gallatin valley residents ensconced in the top (or bottom) spots on both ends.  The people here aren't crazy (we know because we put all of those on the Greyhound to Billings.)  But the place is certainly psycho.

It's nexus, alright.  A place where frothing ideologues gather to hunt, hike, ski and fish.

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by: Wulfgar @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 16:16:37 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

A place where frothing ideologues gather to hunt, hike, ski and fish. (0.00 / 0)

Classic!

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by: gerik @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 16:24:35 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

really disconcerting (0.00 / 0)

I really don't understand who is calling the shots on this one and why they think this is appropriate at all. Perhaps there is a generational divide as to what social networking sites actually are, but it's no excuse. Not only is this incredibly invasive, but if they follow through with it there is going to most-likely be a large number of younger applicants who reconsider applying because of concerns over their own privacy, which will reduce the qualified applicant pool.
There seems to be some serious concerns of privacy coming from Bozeman city government, as the traffic light cameras have also demonstrated.
Just dumb.

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by: derfjohnson @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 14:54:07 PM CDT

It is just dumb Derf (0.00 / 0)

and you're right, it will drive away qualified young applicants. Two more points.

One, it reminds me of the bullsh*t argument supporting government surveillance that says if you don't have anything to hide you shouldn't be concerned about invasions of privacy.

Two, it's a wake up call to teens and twentysomethings (as if they needed one) that facebook is no place to hang your dirty laundry. It's the public domain pure and simple.  

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by: gerik @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 16:22:56 PM CDT

Several thoughts. (0.00 / 0)

No one has ever removed his or her name from consideration for a job due to the request, Sullivan added.

People lie.  That's the part of this that is absolutely the most humorous.  Here the city is thinking that they're getting the most moral and virtuous employees, when they've just given folk the perfect opportunity and excuse to LIE.

I have to wonder why the author of this article didn't ask Greg Sullivan for real facts.  Who established this requirement?  Was it Kukulski? Was it the city commission?  Somebody has to be responsible for this requirement?  It seems rather difficult to believe that a story can explore the legality of a requirement without ever trying to suss out who required it in the first place.

This requirement is one of the most wasteful I think I've ever heard of.  It would take literally days to thoroughly research my online background, even if I provided log ins and passwords.  Even your average person in this modern world would require hours spent surfing the tubes.  Who gets paid to do this surf, and can I have that job?  This is waste of the highest order.  In the never ending Ouroboros that is the tea party movement, one might think they'd a have a piece or two to say about this junk.

Does anybody bother to track one's online activity once they have the job with the city?  has this same requirement been made of all city workers, even if they started before this requirement magically appeared out of no where?  If the city is looking for moral people, isn't it incumbent on the city to make certain they remain 'moral'?  Isn't this the most self defeating bullshit you've ever heard of?

Finally, I guess it's pretty clear that I'll never end up with a job for the city.  I'm too damned easy just to Google.

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by: Wulfgar @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 16:39:20 PM CDT

Really Bozo (0.00 / 0)

Some human resources types think if you can make people pee into a bottle for a job, you can make them do anything...
Bozeman better be ready for a slew of lawsuits, especially after Boing Boing reported it:
http://www.boingboing.net/2009...
Also, the applications for public jobs are probably public documents and thus open for public review under freedom of access law.

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by: JAYoung @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 16:42:04 PM CDT

Bozeman is an odd mixture ... (0.00 / 0)

We have the right wing, the low brow quackaducks and their guns and notaxnotime "philosophy". And we have the comfortable liberals, usually somehow connected to the college or some NFP or green company. They like to march on MLK day and consistently vote for Democrats like Baucus.

And we have a few progressives. Missoula, it seems, has a whole lot more progressives than any other place in the state, and Bozeman is far more redneck than we'll ever let on. But Bozeman is an odd mix.

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by: Mark Tokarski @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 19:56:37 PM CDT

sullivan's my pick for legal work.... (0.00 / 0)

when i'm needing a brief written and my life is on the line....brilliant....gotta have a guinness now.

United we stand, divided we fall.

power to the polite people!

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by: wolverine6 @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 at 23:26:42 PM CDT