I’ve been thinking about this particular idea for a long time now. So far, the only person with whom I’ve discussed it is M.
Now I open it up to you guys.
I think I might like to start another blog if/when/after we have our baby. This blog’s URL would be given out to basically everyone in our lives—family, friends, etc. But – and I stress this point – it would not be a blog focused on our baby. Rather, it would be an opportunity for me to continue practicing my writing and, simultaneously, an easy way to update family members on our lives. I picture myself writing some introspective posts on life, etc. Would I post baby pics? Yes, I would imagine so. But I don’t want to be defined by my reproduction.
We have friends who have been writing a “family blog” since well before they had a child. Posts often consist of what they had for breakfast that day. I can’t imagine having a blog like that. Ideally, my new blog would be very similar to this one—except, of course, that it wouldn’t be quite so “tell-all.” And another big difference is that I would have far, far fewer comments because my audience would be mostly people who don’t have blogs themselves. It wouldn’t be a conversation so much as an online news source of sorts.
The thing is, if I were to start this blog, I would have to change The Unlucky 20 Percent. In essence, I would go invite-only. The only person in the world who knows I currently have a blog is M. Whenever I refer to my conversations with you guys, I always talk about “people I have met on the Internet.” If my mom knew I actually had my own Web site, it would take her Googling fingers about 2 minutes to find it. Then I would be finished.
Yet, if I started a different blog, it would be very difficult for me to pretend like I haven’t been blogging for a year and a half. This blog is a part of me, and I would like to be able to own up to it. I only have three options: 1) Give out this blog’s URL to everyone I know (a terrible idea, because I would basically lose all my friends); 2) Delete this blog completely (I would hate to just fall off the face of the earth and lose all of you); or 3) Go invite-only. It kills me that Googlers or other Web surfers would no longer be able to find me, but you can’t have everything, right?
Isn’t it funny that, with all the changes imminent in my life, this is one of the changes that scares me the most? I must admit that the idea of opening myself up on the blogsphere to people who actually know me in real life is somewhat terrifying. What in the world can I say that won’t sound trite?
15 comments:
For What it's worth, Mr. Spit and I have decided we will have another blog when we get pregnant again, to update everyone. Your idea seems sensible to me.
I have seen blogs such as Diary of a Miscarriage do the same kind of thing. After her child was born she left the archives of the old one open. She now posts under Raspberry Chip and is open to all. (I think she does password protect certain posts.) She just gives her child nicknames so that people can find them but doesn't have to say what the actual name is on the internet. That could be an option for you. She didn't lose her readers but just started up a new one with a new url. I don't know if that helps you or not but it is a suggestion if you didn't want to lose all your readers and didn't want to tell people you know about this blog.
I've been wondering the same thing. I don't want to destroy my current blog, but I don't want others finding it either.
My solution is going to be MySpace. I already have an account there and it has the blog feature, I just don't currently use it. And that way my friends and family can see photos there and videos and read about our life.
Another option is to create a second google account and link your family blog with it. That way your two blogs are not connected in any way.
This is what I do; the Hubster and I have a "family" blog that is for family and friends, many of whom live very far away, to update them about the kiddos and post pictures and stories. We use first names but not last names. My personal blog is completely separate, uses pseudonyms, rarely has pictures, and is not linked to the first in any way, shape or form. There is virtually no identifying information on it in order to keep it private.
That way you don't lose your original readers, but your friends and families could also have something to read. You just have to be very careful to keep them separate.
Delurking to let you know (if you don't already) that you can make a blog unavailable for search options on search engines and through blogger...that's what I've done, so unless somebody has the blog address, or I choose to include it on my profile, they cannot find it. May be worth monkeying around with before going invite only? :)
My GRANDMOTHER googled me! haha I never told her I had a blog/website or whatever she might call it. First I saw it on sitemeter from my hometown. Then she said to me, "I love reading your blog, its so funny". I could.have.died. So then of course I went back through and checked out my posts from the past, deleted some, took the bad words out of others, etc.
I would have to say password protecting certain posts might be the easiest way to go. But, then you might end up dealing with the "well what are you hiding then that we can't read?" crap.
I hope someone has better advice to offer than mine...
Here's my two cents! By nature I am a cautious person, therefore I think you should delete this blog. At the very least, create a new completely separate blog using a different gmail account and do not provide the link to readers here. I will miss you though! Sniff, Sniff.
Some day in the future a web crawler could drop in and scan the contents of something as innocuous as your "comments page" and Rspb**ry Ch** would be outed to her family (obviously accidentally) because someone listed the names of both her old and new blogs here. I personally found some potentially embarrassing information about one of the parents in my daughter’s class because a commenter on a story (while the story writer did not use any names) mentioned her full name in the comments section. I was using the internet to find the name of the parent’s law firm. I did find the office name and by glancing further down the google results, I found the unfortunate story as well. The content crawlers aren’t supposed to scan blogspot, but they are imperfect.
Things on the internet can stick around for years thanks to the wayback machine, offline capture, IPs tracking and other future technologies. Who knows what will be standard technological practice in 5 years? Could it be face recognition software that trolls the internet for your likeness and finds every embarrassing photo of you posted onto the internet since birth? Gosh I hope not, but why take that chance on offending your family?
I do what Jen does -- a separate blog for family and friends that is completely unconnected to my anonymous blog. There are a few IRL people who know of and read both, but they know not to mention my real name on my anonymous blog and vice versa. I think I have been pretty careful on my anonymous blog; I have the publicity thingie turned off, I use a pseudonym, have a pseudonymous email address, etc. There are a couple of pictures of me on my anonymous blog, but without a name I don't see how anyone could find it.
This has worked pretty well for me. I keep the family blog very light and upbeat, and talk about the more serious stuff on the anonymous one. Occasionally I will simulpost, but it's rare. The only downside for me is that I'm so addicted to Typepad that I ended up paying for another account so that the two blogs wouldn't be connected! At least with Blogger you wouldn't have that problem.
If you do decided to start a new blog, before you get rid of this one, did you consider using one of those companies that turns your blog into a book? I just thought you may want to have a hard, printed copy since this is so much a part of your life. When you said, "Delete" it, I didn't know if that really means totally delete it so it is gone forever. Just a thought.... Hope you have a nice weekend!!!
I actually started my blog when my twins were born, so it's the update everyone, pics of kids type of blog. Recently I just started a new blog, for my private inner most thoughts. It's tough, because I'm not sure how to tell my readers to go there, without telling my family/friend/etc.
I think you should go invite-only here. Don't lose the private space. You'll need it!
Boy, those are hard choices! I think you have a lot of good ideas from other comments. Another option: You could move this blog to pwp, and then also start another pwp blog for family and friends. With two blogger accounts, I don't think you'd get confused, and you would also be keeping yourself off the public internet. I guess you'll have to think about how you would like to use this blog in the future.
I have no technical advice to offer, but I would like to say that whatever you decide, I hope I'll be able to keep reading what you're up to. The blogosphere is a strange place - I don't even have my own blog, so you don't know much about me at all, but I would miss you if you suddenly disappeared. Anyway, do what you're comfortable with (and technologically capable of), but I thought I'd cast a small vote.
For the record, I did not out Raspberry Chip. At one point she decided to add a link from her new blog to her old blog giving the background as to where she had been. Not everybody has to do that. Two separate blogs with no mention of the first is completely fine too.
I just wanted to say that I'll miss you too if you vanish! I have been coming to read your blog for a few months now, and really appreciate your insight into life, as well as your bravery and courage in dealing with what you've been through and talking about it all. Best wishes for the future, whatever you decide.
I'm a million years late, but I would much rather you go PWP than to take this site down completely. I would miss you if you go!
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