If you haven't noticed, I've been terrible at updating this here blog. Since last August, I have been on quite the roller coaster of school craziness. And now with the impending birth of Baby X, I'm sure things aren't going to slow down.
But I've decided I miss writing on this here blog. Not for you. For me. Writing run-on sentences about inane details of my life is strangely fulfilling. So I'm going to try to be better. And K and I have been cooking some more lately, so I may even post something onto our eating blog, which is super neglected, but, in my opinion, a cool idea waiting to happen. [We made Raspberry Fool this weekend, in tribute to the Rimsky Korsikoffee Shop. It was beautiful and tasty.]
No promises, as who knows what will happen next with life. But I am going to try to do something with this here blog. Maybe even Cole will get a chance to post something.
Showing posts with label bloggin'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bloggin'. Show all posts
08 June 2009
19 April 2008
Blogging the un-bloggable
There have been a few conversations recently (in person, online, on the phone, on this very blog) about what to post and what to not post and where does the line between public and private fall. I thought I take up this conversation and turn it into a post of its very own. Perhaps the other semi-anonymous and completely public authors we know could chime in and relate their decisions about what to post and what name or identifiable statements to include...
For me, one of the most important elements is that my identity here remain un-google-able. As a student and teacher, I don't want this blog and the things I say here to come up in the first 10 hits of my name. I don't post things here that I'm not willing to say in public, but I don't think my random musings about life in Iowa, world travel, or the cat should be what my students, colleagues, or potential employers should see first. This means that I obfuscate details (school names, my own last name, my program of study etc) so that people typing in those key words don't find the blog. Other folks have created much more public blogs, and have good reasons for this. Blogging is an emerging field of communication, and as it evolves, there will be a lot of flux and change until a standard (or standards) emerge.
It's also very important to me (and PEter) not to identify people who haven't chosen to be public. This means that Sissy remains Sissy, CultureProf remains CultureProf (unless she herself uses her name in a comment) etc. The people in our lives haven't chosen to be public, and it's important for us not to "out" them without their permission.
Finally, there's the issue of internet safety. Some things, while not identifiable, are facts that could be important to online banking and other online identification (hometown, high school, first grade teacher's names, maiden names etc). We leave these things off for that reason. As a rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to add identifiable information to the comments of someone's blog that they themselves haven't used before. Obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate!!!!
So, these are my reasons for semi-anonymity. Why do you chose what you chose? What consequences do you see for your choice? If you don't blog, did you know about these issues?
For me, one of the most important elements is that my identity here remain un-google-able. As a student and teacher, I don't want this blog and the things I say here to come up in the first 10 hits of my name. I don't post things here that I'm not willing to say in public, but I don't think my random musings about life in Iowa, world travel, or the cat should be what my students, colleagues, or potential employers should see first. This means that I obfuscate details (school names, my own last name, my program of study etc) so that people typing in those key words don't find the blog. Other folks have created much more public blogs, and have good reasons for this. Blogging is an emerging field of communication, and as it evolves, there will be a lot of flux and change until a standard (or standards) emerge.
It's also very important to me (and PEter) not to identify people who haven't chosen to be public. This means that Sissy remains Sissy, CultureProf remains CultureProf (unless she herself uses her name in a comment) etc. The people in our lives haven't chosen to be public, and it's important for us not to "out" them without their permission.
Finally, there's the issue of internet safety. Some things, while not identifiable, are facts that could be important to online banking and other online identification (hometown, high school, first grade teacher's names, maiden names etc). We leave these things off for that reason. As a rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to add identifiable information to the comments of someone's blog that they themselves haven't used before. Obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate!!!!
So, these are my reasons for semi-anonymity. Why do you chose what you chose? What consequences do you see for your choice? If you don't blog, did you know about these issues?
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