Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Public vs. Private
The more I blog (and admittedly, I haven't been blogging that much lately) the more C & I discuss the public nature of blogging, something he is increasingly uncomfortable with. We've discussed setting up a family blog, so that our families and friends (most of whom live far away) could get more regular updates and see pictures of S, who is changing every day. C is really uncomfortable with this idea. He dislikes the idea of anyone being able to see pictures of all of us, especially S. I'm not sure why it bothers him so much, but he is genuinely concerned about posting pictures of S on the web. For him, it blends the public and private too much, whereas I'm largely unconcerned. I do try to maintain anonymity, although several people do know my "true" identity--but these are all the people I consider to be close friends. So we will continue this debate. . .
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7 comments:
I think that there are ways to make your personal blog practically un-google-able through the blog settings. Besides, you certainly don't need to include very much identifying info on the blog itself, since your family and friends already know who you are!
You can make your profile private and withhold information like your location, place of employement, and last names. And don't post pictures of the exterior of your home. I can understand being nervous about revealing information and pictures for a child who is in school, but right now, what kind of danger is there, really? There are definitely ways to participate in user-generated web--blogs, MySpace, Flickr, etc--in a way that does not compromise the security or privacy of your family. And it is easy to find articles about how to do that. The concerns change as children get older, but there are ways to handle that, too.
You can also set up a totally different email address for your family blog so that people can't track you down that way.
Just a thought...You might do some checking on the web about baby websites that, for a small fee, are password protected. This way, you can give the URL to your friends and family, but only those with the password can log in and view stories, pics, etc. of your new baby. Surely someone has thought of this problem before.
I just posted about this today! Now with Blogger Beta you can set up a blog and invite only whoever you want to invite to view it. That might be a great idea for you to keep in touch with friends and family.
My husband is relatively OK with me posting photos, but he'd feel better if I used pseudonyms for the boys.
Another option is myfamily.com. It costs a small annual fee, but you can store photos, have a family message board, etc. - and it's password protected.
Check out babababies.com for a FREE site that you can password protect and post pictures and updates of baby on. It also doesn't allow ANYONE to copy or print photos of baby to their computers.
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