Disclaimer:
I like to read about pages. You know the page that a site author uses to inform/brag/warn you about themselves. Wait, warn you? Yeah, it seems odd to me as well, but sometimes you’ll find a disclaimer here.
Now I get the general idea behind this. Things posted on the internet can sometimes have unexpected and unintended effects, and this is an attempt to protect the writer from some of the repercussions. But is there any actual protection in a disclaimer?
Here’s the general feel for most of the disclaimers I have seen.
The things that I write are my own ideas not of anyone else. So don’t hold anyone else to them but me, especially not {insert organization here}.
Honestly I wonder, what purpose do they serve? We know whose ideas they are but when you are affiliated with an organization your ideas/values should probably line up, especially if you are someone who can ‘communicate’ for said org. It seems to me like a cop-out to just say don’t hold them to my ideas. I think if you represent something you should probably not start off by trying to distance yourself from it. Own up to the responsibility, if there is a disparity between you and your organization it should probably be dealt with.
Also, who would be reading your blog and thinking; “I can’t believe this is posted. it goes against everything that…..Oh wait now I see these are just his/her ideas and no more. I guess that it’s all fine then.” It won’t happen like that.