Heathens hoard reputation like christians horde converts, and what better way to build reputation than the internet. This space is perfect for sharing ideas, and pushing your own ideals. When we use this tool to build reputation, and bring honor to our people, that delete button is quite tempting, did a forum deride you for sharing your “woo?” just delete the post and revel in your new found cleanliness. Too many comments deleted, people starting to recognize you as “that guy”? Delete your profile and start fresh! No need to temper your attitude, there is no accountability on the internet. As a heathen I view reputation as the most important thing that can be gathered from ‘outsiders’, reputation is the key that opens new doors, the introduction that grants respect on a first meeting, it is the way you make your people known. Your reputation is not just a reflection of you, but also of those people you come from. It is my assertion that a heathen should eschew anonymity in favor of reputation.

I am not saying that you need to reveal your real name to the internet, nor am I saying that you should open your real identity to those you don’t know well. That poses risks that are ultimately not beneficial to you or your tribe. Rather I am saying that if you are a user of social media site, like Reddit, FaceBook, or Tumblr you should own your words. Over the past 19 years of internet use I have said some supremely stupid things, and each of those things have contributed in some way to my reputation on the various sites I exist on. The metamorphosis that I have undergone is there for people to see, and I am proud of who I am. My posting history is verification of who I was, and who I have become.

I am sure that it sounds ludicrous to many to take one’s internet reputation seriously; however for much of the heathen world the internet is the only place where an individual has interactions with heathens outside of their own tribe (or indeed with any heathens). This is how we know one another, my interactions with the users of reddit and facebook have shown me people who by reputation I know that I can trust to some degree, and others i would not trust to any degree. I am able to make this distinction because these these people have developed a reputation, one that I have seen. Thus when one of them pops up in real life I can say to my people, “I know of this mann, they are of good reputation.” Through me my people know which heathens are racists, which are hippies, and which are wearing a hammer because it is edgey. They know these reputations because I know these reputations.

There are benefits to building an online reputation, usefull ones at that. We know that there are groups that thrive on the reputation of being ass holes, this allows them to filter society in such a way that those who stick around end up getting along as they share enough stubbornness and heartiness to power through the inevitable shouting matches. The flip side of that coin are the groups that tend to be much more polite to one another, and garner relationships with the… softer side of heathenry. These groups end up building individuals with reputations, who in turn build relationships, and these relationships begin to shape ideas, which are then taken back to the diaspora, and this in turn furthers the ideas and culture of one’s people. This dispersal of ideas allows for the growth of your tribes reputation, as they come in contact with the other tribes in their area their reputation will precede them because of your work.

On top of building and propagating your tribes reputation, you will also see that by spreading your own reputation you are creating greater opportunity for yourself. Boasting and pride are virtues for most heathens, they are also great tools for social progression and mobility. By building a reputation for being one of sound character, strong work ethic, and sound mind you have a foundation upon which success, by whichever metric you use to measure it, can be built. Success, academic, monetary, social, etc… is something that we as heathens also use to better, and build our folk. That isn’t to say that one must have a PHD, make six figures, and hold public office, to be a good heathen, merely that a good heathen uses their reputation and their work to benefit their people. Social media provides an ability to not only build this reputation but also to share it with the various circles you exist within, sites like LinkdIn and About.me allow you to share your works with not only employers, but also colleagues, contemporaries, and strangers. We have an opportunity that the elder heathens could not have visualized, nor would they have recognized it, we should be leveraging this.

One cannot build their tribes reputation, nor their own, if one has embraced the anonymity of the internet. You cannot build a reputation if you delete your words, you cannot share your work if you won’t own your words. A heathen knows when to be quiet, and when to take pride in their work and words, if you are deleting your words perhaps you should learn when to be quiet and learn.