After my latest blog redo, I’ve been thinking about things like personal information being used to harm my family ….
While I refuse to blog less, or to be any less honest - I do wonder about things like nicknames and all that jazz. And, while I can mostly track who my visitors are at this point, I know that in the future, I may have more than I can keep with (heck, there could be a couple of crazies right now, if we were to be honest, right?)
So, I ask you:
Are you concerned about what you write online and how it will affect you?
How has it affected you so far?
What have you or will you do differently (in terms of security)?
Which things will you never give up?
Which things are off limits?
Do you have a horror story, or any additional tips that I/we can learn from?
I would like to hear from anyone online that blogs, regardless of the number of visitors that you receive. So, whether you are Dooce, Amalah, Suburban Turmoil or whether you get like 5 visitors a month. Tell me. I want to know! Please! (You can leave it in an email or comment, thanks!)
Welcome back!
September 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Love the blog. Been seeing you around on other blogs.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I wish I hadn’t used my husband’s real name or my kids’ real names. I wouldn’t have given them nicknames, but real fake names. I still could, I suppose.
I don’t have any horror stories.
September 13th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I didn’t know much when I got started and I used my full name, and named my husband. I don’t have kids yet, but I’d probably give them nicknames even though they could just be tracked back to me anyway, which is kind of creepy. I don’t like that when people search my full name on Google that I come up–if I could do it over again, I would have a bit more anonymity.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
My blog as “myself” got pretty big and soon even my exhusband and his new wife were reading it. Although even there everyone has alias unless they blog with their real name.
I found that there were things I wanted to blog about but didn’t wany my friends, brothers, ex, coworkers, etc. reading. So I have 2 blogs. One tame, one not so much. I think you will be able to figure pretty quickly which one I have linked you to.
September 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I don’t use Hubs or my kids real names, but I have given enough information that it wouldn’t be extremely difficult to find out who we are. I avoid topics with a lot of potential for conflict. I don’t blog about religion or politics, and I know that some IRL friends and family read my blog so there are some personal topics I don’t go near, that I probably would if I had better planned to hide my identity.
I think the only thing I will change is to avoid mentioning any more things about my kids that could identify them.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
This is a tough question and one that actually kept me from blogging for a long time. Where does one draw the line? I guess the closest I can come to defining it is this: I don’t write anything that I wouldn’t want everybody to see–as in my child, Mom, Dad, best friend, worst enemy, ex-husband, whoever etc.
Secondly, I generally don’t tell anyone else’s story and I don’t include anyone else’s real name unless I know they’d be okay with it–as in I’ve either asked or I know them very, very well, well enough that I know they wouldn’t mind.
I now blog under my real name. There isn’t any real anonymity anyway. Want anonymity? Don’t blog.