I’ve been blogging in some form or another since 1997. Early renditions of my blog were explicitly personal and shut away via .htaccess files for my friends to read. This rendition has been explicitly public and thus the content has a very different tone. For the most part, i only publish that which i think would still be socially acceptable 20 years from now. I rarely publish my opinions or my thoughts beyond the highest meta data. There are many instances when information is presented in a way that those who know me know how to read between the lines and know what actually happened. But even that is rare.
I don’t even mention friends’ names, unless i’m discussing their professional work. One place where this bothers me is in my listing of links. The list of blogs i read is much longer than what is listed on the sidebar. That list is comprised of the blogs that i read which are really meant for the public at large, instead of just for friends. Although many of my friends’ LJs or diaries or blogs are very public, i just don’t feel right linking to them off of my site. It’s a weird negotiation of what’s appropriate.
Of course, what humors me the most is that those growing up blogging and journaling will take this all for granted and think it to be natural, rather than my panicked uncertainty of what’s appropriate. How strange.
that’s funny. i’d never read a blog before i started looking at yours. i looked through the blogs linked in the sidebar, and was surprised that none of them had a more personal tone. nice to know there’s a reason.
Zay – it’s hard to figure out what is best. I took a look at my logs and i’m guessing that 1/3 of the people who read my blog are my friends, 1/3 are people who work in the area that i do and 1/3 are Ani DiFranco fans who know me through my Ani page.
Interestingly, about 1/3 of the blogs i read are friends’, 1/3 are other intellectuals and 1/3 are LJs of folks that i only know digitally.
There is a certain amount of social appropriateness to linking to other researchers. And my friends can for the most part ignore those pointers. The problem is that most of my friends don’t really intend for others (professional folks or other friends of mine) to read their blog. The sad part is that i fail to give public kudos to their efforst in an attempt to be socially appropriate.