I've been visiting with friends and family lately about blogging and how fun it is to keep up with people's comings and goings via blogs.
Several people I know really well are "blog stalkers"--they follow other people's blogs and they read and never comment. Many of these people have their own blogs but have their blogs as invitation only (you know who you are).
My question is how big of an issue is making your blog public when you have personal information; family pictures, stories about your children etc. I know that the "safety book" would say don't post anything personal on the web, but have you Googled yourself lately? There is already a ton of information about you publicly available. The question is, does blogging make you or your family more of a target for the whackos of the world? What if anything do you do to protect yourself, or are you concerned about it?
Saturday, June 28, 2008
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11 comments:
I married a big scary guy to protect me and mine. It's worked so far! :)
Good plan!
I figure the more people know about my life, the less they will want to have anything to do with me.
It is a legitimate concern for sure. I always just tell myself that the lurkers are benign. We have some friends that get really uptight though, and use all initials and pseudonyms, which is a total pain and a bit extreme, in my opinion. But whatever people have to do to feel safe, go for it.
Am I crazy to say "what are the chances" i mean is this up with getting struck by lightning, dying in a plane crash, or getting bit by a shark? ...Or is this more in the category of dying in a car crash?
First let me answer that question for you, yes you are crazy to say . . . .anything! Seriously, though if it makes you feel any better I'll send you an invite to my blog. Tara
Hi Tara, Got the invite. Thanks. Honestly, you aren't the only one that has their blog set to private, Jamie, and Marissa are two others we talked to in the past few days that do the same. I'm sure I could list a dozen names that do the same.
I got word that the dude you guys know from the FBI agreed with your opinion on keeping it private. I can respect that, and am not going to try and get ya'll to change to an open blog. I'd feel horrible if anything ever happened.
I'll keep an open blog and try and take some offline precautions. If that doesn't work I'll move to some small island in a foreign country and then make people go to great lengths to find me or my family. :)
Kind of a sad commentary on society that we even have to be worried.
That's why I'm so glad I married into the McCoy family, you all drink your bath water which makes family conversations so much fun! Thanks for the letter on our blog, don't we feel special. Whew the pressure is off to have an open blog, I feel so relieved now that I know the petition to have my blog become open will stop it's circulation! Thanks!
The biggest reason that I don't set my blog to private is because I have it hosted somewhere other than blogger. I don't really get paranoid though. Plus I think that it is kind of fun when a random lurker adds some commentary.
I've hosted with Wordpress before and some with other hosts as well, but now with Blogger and the option available I guess I'm ok with the risk.
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