Shorts and Flip-Flops

[NCASAUmp]

Sometime last year, one of our own forum members had made a post on eteamz, chastising a Tournament Director or UIC (I forget which, but that's irrelevant) of a then-recent tournament. He made no attempts to conceal either his identity or the identity of the person whom he was publicly "calling out."

This umpire was, as a result, effectively blacklisted.

Now, I'm not here to debate whether the consequences were justified, or if his actions were appropriate. All I'm saying is that while things are relatively "anonymous" on the internet, they're not as anonymous as we would think.

I'll admit I've been guilty of making mention of a particular league where I don't like to call, but I've never been afraid of conveying my opinions to this individual who runs the league. If my actions should result in consequences, then so be it.

Now, this person whom we're discussing is probably not a member of this forum, but Google is not our ally (even though it's my best friend at work). I've seen simple search results point back to statements made on this forum, and that set off warnings for me.

I'm not attempting to stifle free speech, and I certainly think this umpire was out of his friggin' gourd. But I'm just casually reminding us all that what we say here can easily be found, and can easily be misinterpreted or worse... used against us.

/soapbox