Scenario #1- I often have friends from church or work who will say to me- "I loved your (fill in the blank) blog post from a few days ago. By the way- I am totally blog-stalking you." At which point we usually laugh and I discover that I can then read their thoughts and see their photos at their blog address and we all move on with our lives, and have found another way to get to know those around us and expand our circle of friends, etc etc. You can see the scenario in your head, you might have been on either end of the conversation... this my friends- is Not a blog-stalker.
Scenario #2- A long lost friend (ok, maybe not "long lost", but at least as far back as college, maybe high school) comes to my blog and leaves a nice comment after a post, or I can see that they came to my blog from theirs and I then go to their blog and see recent pictures of the adorable children or dogs and usually a spouse, and we make comments to each other and we reconnect. And that is a nice feeling, to be able to see the happy blog lives of someone who I think about, but perhaps don't get a chance to talk to often as we have parted ways... this again, my loving friends, is Not a blog-stalker.
Scenario #3- The family members and friends who follow my blog have a link that shows the most recent updates to those on their list, and so you come to my blog because a title heading intrigues you, or perhaps you have a really boring job and you just end up following link after link to blogs that look interesting, that you would probably never be able to find again... Most likely Not a blog-stalker, but someone who should visit the library and check out a few good books.
Scenario #4- Someone who I may have met once or twice or perhaps never at all finds my blog through searches and who knows what other devices, then comes back day after day to read my 3 years of blog archives and enjoy my personal (though by all standards quite witty) commentary on my life and that of my family. This is a blog-stalker.
While we hope that none of the above readers join us for reasons of ill intent, one can't help but wonder- Is it time to make my blog private? Or perhaps it's time for us to work harder to stay in touch with those we care about and then go and find a hobby that enriches our lives and makes us happier than blog-stalking ever could.
Perhaps I will go and ask Gavin, he knows more than I do anyway. And I know that he would say it is time to do something that doesn't involve being on the computer... unless it is to play pbskids.org or playhouse disney.
8 comments:
interesting. i think i am one of the few who doesn't really care who is reading my blog. and i am one who likes to be able to know what people are doing without having to talk to them. haha. BUT on the private note, most people don't go through with it because to be able to read you have to have a gmail account. anyway. good to see you at the Gap. I don't consider myself a stalker. :)
um, marci, are you trying to tell me something? HAHA. seriously, though, I don't blog for family, almost completely just photo. People follow mine who I don't even know, I don't want to introduce blogstalkers onto my friends, so I don't have them available. I just subscribe to my friends in reader. so am i not obeying some unwritten blog etiquette by not having links on my blog for family and friends?
Or how about someone who links to your blog but you can't access their blog because it is private and you aren't even good enough friends to have their email to email them to add them to your blog! That is just one of my pet peeves! If you go private you better add me!
Blog stalking is scary, especially because your tracker can tell you when people come to your blog and from where. If someone who I didn't stay in touch with anymore kept coming to my blog over and over I would think that they either didn't have a life or were super creepy. Private may be the way to go.
I'm really torn with the subject...on one hand this is your family you are trying to protect and you don't want people "snooping" around to find out what you are up to that you don't want to see your stuff (this happened to me and it made me FURIOUS) Then the old battle of "well you are the one that posted it on the internet so how can you expect it to be private" and then on the other hand when I looked into going private it is SUCH A PAIN! setting up everyones email addresses and such...it's not like people can invite themselves to view on blogspot (this is one of my only complaints with the privacy feature) I am probably going to dump the friends list I have on mine as I usually follow people from my dashboard anyway. Side note, I loved seeing you at the Gap a week or so ago...working with you is always a blast!
To go private or not---that is the question. I think I'm gonna roll the dice and keep putting my private life out there in a public forum. What else IS the internet for??? :)
You are pretty witty, I would hate to see you deprive the world of your ense of humor:)
I love your take on it. It is totally fun to connect with people from your past life or whatever by finding their blog through someone else's. And really, that's why you have a blog. Ours is private only because Jared got paranoid one day. Because of Amber's comment above, I'm going to make sure she's on my permissions list :)
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