Being new to blogging, i don't pretend to know anything about "safe blogging". One of the missionaries in our area suggested i check out his sister's blog, and as i was looking through the archives to see if she had posted any stories about him (i thought it might be fun to see what he was like BEFORE he was a missionary), i stumbled upon a post talking about safety tips for blogging.
It was the usual stuff, about not using your last name, or firsts if you can help it, don't post personal info such as addresses, phone numbers, etc., birthdates, dates of holidays where you'll be away from home, personal schedules, places, etc. This i knew was definitely important if you are posting a public blog. There were links to different sites sharing safety tips, telling stories of people who have come to harm because they shared too much, innocent photos of their children being used by porn sites or creepy comments from shady strangers.
So now, i'm all paranoid! This is a personal blog, so i felt safe posting our names, rather than coming up with nicknames. I can't remember if i've blogged birthdates or info that might be catagorized as "unsafe to share"... I have gone through all the options i know to make it as difficult as possible for people to find my blog (unless i send them here). I even went on google and searched for my blog, using different criteria, which thankfully did not show up. But, it's still an open blog.
I keep my blog open, because i have family and friends who do not want to go through the process of signing up for a google account just so they can have the priviledge of reading my blog. Many of my family are... of the older generation, and are not terribly comfortable or fond of the computer (my parents being the main ones!).
I am in a quandry now, and considering my options. I don't want to privitize it, because it would be cutting out some friends and relatives that are important to me. But I don't much like the idea of editing myself and giving my family members nicknames, when really, it should just be family and friends reading it anyway, and they know who we are. Besides, our last name is right there in the blog title, so that's already out.
Any thoughts??
I Blog About...
- Emily
- I am a SAHM to four wonderful boys, E (6), R (4), J (2), and M (32) - that last one's my hubby, btw ;). I love to sew, craft, cook, read, WRITE, and spend time with my boys. I blog about everything. :)
Elijah Dargie
Big Brother and self-appointed "dad"
Riley Christopher
From sweet to terrible and back again in 0.4 seconds
Jonah Isaiah
Dangerously Adorable
Maira Holly
Little Night Owl
3 comments:
When mine was public I was careful not to reference where we lived. I used our first names but never posted our last name. Generally I think you're pretty safe and there are for sure benefits to all your family being able to view your blog.
Yeah, I've considered going private, but hardly anyone reads my blog as it is, and then I think no one would read mine if I went private.
It's a tough call... even private blogs aren't guaranteed to be private- someone can forget to sign out or hack in. You just never know.
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