Ross and I were invited down to Atlantic City this past weekend for a mini blogger meetup sponsored by the four Harrah's casinos there. I'll write more about that in this week's Return to Sender, but for now, I'm only mentioning it to set the scene.

In all, there were ten of us in attendance. The two of us from Philly, two others from Chicago, and the balance from New York City. During dinner, the blogger immediately to my left turned to me and said: "So, you work for The Dobber, huh?" The Dobber being, of course Jake Dobkin, and while we don't exactly work for him, he is our publisher. Turns out that a couple of people who were at the table that evening know Jake, and know him well.

Now, had I previously been bitching to anyone in that room about our publisher—not that I would, Jake; I'm just giving an example—things could have turned very ugly very fast. Word would have gotten back to Jake, possibly instantly (everyone but me had a smart phone of some type and could have sent an email between courses), and Phillyist might have disappeared, extraordinary rendition-style, from the Internets. Okay, that's really a far-flung, worst-case scenario. Jake and the rest of the Gothamist folks do not resemble the Office of Homeland Security. (That I know of.) The point of all of this is: be careful before you talk about people in public. Any people. (Except celebrities and politicians. And even then, if you're hanging out somewhere they frequent—like Mexican Post—you may want to find another topic for your discussion.)

As the internet gets bigger, the global community gets smaller, so you don't even have the safety net you may once have had. The safety net that allowed you to say: "Of course it's okay to talk about this here. Who would [person about whom I am gossiping] know at this party?" Because while there's a chance that nobody at the party has met that person in person, they might read her blog, or play World of Warcraft against her, or post on the same political message board. The internet may be largely faceless, but it's not nameless. And whether you're at a dinner full of bloggers or a party full of orthodontists, word can, and probably will, get out that you were going around telling everyone what you really thought about a person who may be much more important than you are. Or much more sensitive.

Bottom line, don't talk to, or even around, people you've just met about your boss, your co-workers, or your major competitors. In this day and age, it's almost guaranteed to get back to you, and you really don't want that.

Image Credit: Flickr user nicasurusrex