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If you want to guarantee you don't get hired by a railroad, or don't get promoted, or don't get a raise, or don't get permission to come on the property, just bad-mouth them on a forum. See what happens! Or say you're a fan, and you want access to get on a railroad to photograph some new locomotive, or do an article, or something. Try doing that after you've been all over the forums bad-mouthing their management or paint scheme or operations. People don't appreciate being judged by amateurs. If you work for the railroad, you don't even have to be negative if you start commenting on their practices or success. Just merely attempting to speak for the company, even positively, may be seen as presumptous and overstepping your authority. Basically, if I go beyond "I like working for my railroad," I'm playing with fire. Or, if I'm trying to be helpful to an enthusiast who has an operational or traffic question, my efforts can be construed as giving away proprietary information. My safe course is to point them to the company's website, and stop right there. Even if what I'm saying is something that can be pieced together from trackside observations, I've just confirmed that for your company's competitors, and that makes the information like gold. Even bad-mouthing a company I used to work for is a bad idea; it gives potential new bosses reason to wonder if I'll later say the same thing about them. It shows I let my emotions do my talking, not my brain, which doesn't say anything good about my judgement and control. And what would be the point of saying anything? It can't possibly help you. But it can definitely hurt you. Look around in here and ask yourself this: How many people do you see that ID themselves as being in the industry that also say what their real name is, and even if they do, look closely to see if they say anything that implies an opinion about their company? Ask yourself if they have any ambition about a promotion into management. I see a lot of people who are protecting their seniority and their job. I guess the original question asked if there was someone at a railroad detailed to monitor forums. Yes: the PR department! Don't you think that if they see you saying something nasty for about the hundredth time, and you work there, that this information will never find its way to your boss? Or if you're a well-known railfan and you want access to the property, do you imagine they won't remember your name? And there are plenty of people at railroads who check forums quite regularly to see what's being said about them, and who's saying it: people like me check them. I make the circuit once a week to see if there's any new bad actors to add to my list. And those people wonder why they never get beyond the parking lot ...
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