My blogging buddies, I need some advice.
I’ve mentioned this blog to a couple of friends, and they want to take a look at it. I don’t think I write anything incendiary here, and I certainly don’t talk smack about people (smack! hehe). And I know that anonymity online is often just an illusion. So I write with the policy that if my identity becomes known, I will still be okay with the content that is already here. While I wouldn’t like acquaintances knowing my networth, I don’t think anything I’ve written here will break up friendships, get me fired or get me disowned (but please DO tell me if you think anything I write here might be out of line).
So I’m considering telling a handful of friends the web address for this blog. On the one hand, it’ll be nice to have close friends read it, on the other hand, there’s no going back once I tell.
I’m wondering if anyone here has devulged their blog existence to friends, and how that has affected your writing. Do you wish you would’ve just kept your blog private? Or are you happy that friends get to access your (um, enlightened) ramblings about money and life?
Related posts:
I’ve told some friends and family I started blogging about PF and take/share financial advice with other PF bloggers. They want to see what I write, I tell them to read wordpress PF blogs
I don’t think I write anything I couldn’t share with friend and family; it’s just nice to know I won’t have comments about what I blog lobbed at me at happy hour
It depends on what direction you are taking your blog. I decided to open up a lot of personal information about myself. For that reason, I didn’t want my name attached. I also can’t see anything good coming from my friends and family reading that I’ve saved this money or make that much money. It just invites jealousy if you are doing well.
That said, I’ll mention from time to time that I read some PF blogs and if anyone wants to know which ones, I’ll point them in the direction of some of my favorites, but not my own. This way they can still take advantage of all the knowledge that’s out there, but it doesn’t impact my writing.
Hey, I must admit – I stumbled across your blog today so I’m not that famaliar with all that you write about. With that being said, if your blog is anything like my blog ( I make mention of some people in my school). You might run into a situation going forward where you want to write something but think twice because someone might read it one day. Some people know I have a blog – but I don’t give the address to anyone. I did when I first opened it, because it was new and exciting – but now I’m about to get real with my experiences and I don’t want any hurt feelings or bruised egos.
That’s from my point of view – good luck with whatever you decide
I understand the feeling, as I’ve struggled with it myself. I’ve only told 2 people the address: BoyDucky, and a good ex-work friend [at that, I made BoyDucky find it himself]. One other friend knows of its existence but I don’t let him read it.
I almost broke cover the other day with a very good friend because I was excited about something on my blog, but caught myself just in time because as Lazy Man says, I really share a lot of personal information that I wouldn’t normally broadcast. I don’t mean to underestimate the character of my friends but I know that it could easily find its way to the wrong people and that could be problematic.
I think it depends if you think you’ll have to start censoring yourself once they start reading and if you’ll care that you’re censoring. I censor work details as best I can, regardless of who reads my blog, but I don’t mind that. I would mind censoring numbers and such because I love crunching and sharing my numbers with people who are interested in the same and that was a major reason for my blogging.
Personally, I think you should keep it secret. I look at my blog as a journal – and I don’t know if I could be as upfront or candid about my successes and failures if I knew that friends and family were keeping tabs on me.
That being said, I think the answer to your question can be found once you decide why you started your blog in the first place and if those ideals still remain.
I don’t tell people about my blog mostly because I feel like it might give the impression that I’m obsessed with money, which is hardly the case.
A couple of times, I’ve felt myself about to say to my boyfriend, “I have a confession to make: I’m…blogging.” So far, I’ve been able to avoid it.
Advice here is hard to give: do what makes you comfortable. Just thinking quickly over your past entries, I can’t think of anything that would be incendiary.
I only told a couple of friends about the blog. That was when I was first getting started. I was pretty excited about the prospect and wanted to share. Now that I have been at it for almost a year, I do not plan to tell anyone else. It is not that I worry about the friendships. I do feel, however, that there is a small editor in my mind that recognizes that those couple of friends will be reading this. I try not to let it hinder what I want to write about, but once it gets in your head, it sometimes stays there.
I talk about most of the things on my blog incessantly, but do not refer specifically back to it. Maybe that’s another reason not to tell. If I start telling friends, “you know there was an article about…” they would all come back with, “I know, I read it on your blog.” Man, that would suck.
I don’t tell friends, because most of my friends are either graduate students or young faculty members, and caring about money is considered a sign of weakness.
I’m going to go a different route and suggest that you *do* go ahead and tell them (if you’re seriously considering it anyway) because it will keep you “honest.” I’ve been online diarying for a long time (at least seven years) and friends have managed to stumble upon my supposedly anonymous blogs more than once (with just enough identifying information that they could be reasonably certain it was me). Unless you can completely conceal your identity (which, even if you’re extremely conscientious in what you reveal in your blog, you can’t do entirely if they have a blog you ever come across with a stats page), you should expect they will come across it anyway. It is, after all, a public forum.
Within the past month or so, I’ve mentally written off a “friend” who I asked not to mention my blog who did so right in front of me. Maybe she was impressed by the content and I should be flattered, but I felt a little betrayed. Up to that point I had posted our financial information, but knowing that people who know me may be reading it made me uncomfortable enough to take it down. I don’t plan to tell anyone new that it’s mine.
I don’t tell simply because I’d then be self-conscious about what I write about. For instance, I write ALOT about work troubles. That alone makes me wary, given the recent news about people being fired/expelled/whatever for things they’ve posted online. Not even my family knows about my blog, and I intend on keeping it that way. As far as identifying information, I’ve pretty much managed to divulge the city I live in and my current occupation (I find both of these to be financially relevant), and that’s as far as I’m willing to go. If someone I was close to stumbled across my blog, they’d be able to tell who I was, though. All the more reason to clear the history and delete the temp log files after you’re done with another computer (I don’t actually like feeling like a sneak, though).
It’s a good point that once you’ve told people, you can’t control who knows about it after that–you never know if someone may let it slip to someone else. i don’t think your content is particularly sensitive, though–as long as you are comfortable, go ahead and tell!
Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments and advice. I’ve decided that I won’t mention this blog to friends for now… especially since people that I’m not close to but know in real life might read this after I tell some friends. It’s one thing if they find this blog on their own, but I don’t have to help! Hehe. So… Well-Heeled stays private. The policy of not talking smack and not writing about work continues.