Table of Contents
Question:
Dear Steve,
I am a reputation manager whose job is to try to give any person a chance to relive his life to full.
My humble question is if you have covered any case and that is 5 years old coverage is there any relaxation for that person to have its complete removal from your website?
Thanks.
Tooba
Answer:
Dear Tooba,
I completely understand you are trying to do a job and professionally manipulate search engine results. You might be totally awesome at doing that but you can’t rewrite history.
Can you imagine asking a big media outlet to go back and remove a story? Not going to happen. I’m sure some people would like to get this history removed when they tried to use tricks to have posts removed from GetOutOfDebt.org.
We Can’t Change the Past But We Can Change the Future
I think in situations like this the person interested in manipulating history is really missing the golden opportunity to create a very favorable public impression of them by being contrite for pasts acts and showing the world they’ve learned from their mistakes. I mean, who doesn’t love a good redemption story?
I always give people the chance to submit a post to tell what they learned from the past situation and how they have changed and why they are now a different person. That’s powerful stuff. Otherwise, aren’t they just a person that wants to hide the past instead of learning from it?
But this point of view I hold is not unique. In fact in a court case involving Andris Pukke, a former debt relief industry name who has appeared on the site. It seemed to me to be a similar scenario and an opportunity for redemption was presented to him by his prison mentor.
Meeting Andris Pukke
Here is what I read the other day.
A) Prison Experience:
“In 2011, Movant Michael Santos was approaching his release date from a 45-year federal prison term. Movant had been incarcerated for longer than 25 years and authorities transferred him to the federal prison camp in Atwater, California. During the 25 years that he served in prison, Movant built a record showing his commitment to reconcile with society for the bad decisions of his youth. He was incarcerated when he was 23 years old. To prepare for a law- abiding life as a contributing citizen. Movant earned two university degrees, published more than a dozen books that university professors relied upon to educate students, and he built a strong support network with both business and academic mentors. In 2003, he married Carole Santos inside of a prison visiting room. With Carole acting as a liaison to the world, Movant continued living productively and industriously while in prison, paying taxes on income earned through his publishing projects.
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B) Meeting Andris Pukke:
On the first day that Movant arrived in Atwater, Defendant Andris Pukke (“Pukke”) approached him. Pukke told Movant that he had read some of Movant’s writing and it helped him prepare prior to his confinement. When Pukke told Movant about his business experience, Pukke made a favorable impression upon Movant; Movant met many people that led successful businesses prior to their imprisonment and he had reason to believe they intended to return to society as law-abiding citizens.
Pukke told Movant that he wanted to put his problems with the law behind him and resume his career of building businesses. Movant recommended that Pukke write a book as a strategy to begin rebuilding his life. By providing readers with his story, Movant suggested, Pukke could begin laying the groundwork for a new career. Further, the effort would help him work productively through the time he served in Atwater.
Movant assisted Pukke in writing his story. By assisting him, Movant learned from what Pukke told him about his business experience. Further, Pukke learned more about Movant’s experiences, and the writing skills he developed. In that context, they formed a friendship. Movant believed Pukke when he told him that after he served his sentence, he would be finished with the criminal justice system and move on to live a positive, law-abiding life.
Movant relied upon his experience of interacting with more than 10,000 people in federal prison to make an assessment of Pukke. Based on Pukke’s work ethic, mannerisms, and lessons he learned from his prior experience with both the FTC and the criminal justice system, Movant had reason to believe Pukke’s stated commitment to reconcile with society and move forward as a law-abiding citizen. His manuscript was supposed to be a first step toward rebuilding. By telling his version of events of how and why he went to prison, Pukke would show a commitment to living transparently and also document his efforts to make things right.” – Source
So What is Your Client Really Going to Do?
If your client is really sorry for whatever it was they got involved in, will write about their experiences, what they learned, and how they have turned around or are doing better – I will gladly publish that to help rehabilitate their reputation.
If your client won’t do that and just wants to rewrite history then you have to ask yourself if they’ve really changed and rather than being a reputation manager you are now an unwitting accomplice.
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Steve, I don’t disagree with your answer, but there are good/honest people and companies who have been smeared because their competition, and/or scammers they exposed falsely maligned them on places like Rip Off Reports and other places where anyone under an assumed name can make up false allegations against them. Regrettably, their are many places where this occurs and is quite common trick used by unscrupulous individuals out to get them.
I allow all to have a voice and for anyone falsely accused I encourage them to respond and set the record straight. Let’s clearly hear from both sides of an issue if they want to share. If there is an error then I even have a form for that https://getoutofdebt.org/report-an-error
From my point of view, I took the question as being about something I had published rather than a comment from someone. I work very hard to make sure the facts I report are correct.
Question asked about how to get a post removed from getoutofdebt.org
Answered.