"That stuff on the internet? Yeah, it stays around forever."

This is a wide spread myth. I'm on the web since 1997 (I know, I was late). Back then I started with publishing poems online. Most of them are sadly lost and gone forever. I relied on the Web to keep them and was quite sure that by posting them on mailing lists, forums and publishing on websites they will make me a famous poet one day (no, I hoped at least that they will stay available).

Searching today for some of the most ofen published ones yields zero results.

So back up your stuff and don't believe the stays forever thing. I never shun away from an argument online and I'm quite successful on the Web. Of course I do some ORM (Online Reputation management) myself but on the whole I don't have to hide much about me.