I always wonder why people make their blogs private. I've had mine for a few years now, and whenever someone makes their blog private I have to wonder why. I've heard some cases of weird stalker people, and I've had my cases of nutjobs commenting (after which I enjoy mocking them), but I really don't get it. And that's not a knock on anyone - I understand some of the reasons why one might want to restrict access to their blog. Anyway, while I am decidedly against restricting my blog, I decided to post some pros & cons to an open v. closed blog.
Open
+ Anyone can read it
- That means job supervisors, HR, etc., can read it too
+ Friends can find it
+ You don't have to have a google account to access it
+ Maybe someone you don't know well can read about your life and relate to it
+ Higher traffic - if you do advertising
Closed
+ No weirdos
- People can't really search and find your blog
+ If you're into copyright violations & image theft, this is a great way to restrict access
Anyway, from personal experience I'm guessing that most people that restrict access probably are trying to protect their children from being gawked at by deviants on the web, and I get that. I just don't really think it's that frequent to negate the positive factors having it open provides.
Plus, isn't the idea of a blog to allow people to stay in touch? I started this blog so people could know I was alive when I went to Iraq, and now I use it in part to maintain contact with people I don't see often at all, sometimes for years. I dunno. Maybe once I have kids I'll feel differently.
1 comment:
Ryan, interesting that you write this. I was going to write a blog on the same subject in a couple days. Now maybe I will, maybe I won't ... maybe I'll just link to yours and save myself from some proof reading.
I think it's interesting because (like you) most of the time I hear people "go private" because they don't want sexual deviants looking at the pictures of their kids. I'm conflicted about that. I think that it's a pretty small minority of people surfing the web that are actively searching family blogs looking for pictures of kids. I mean, really, doesn't it seem like they'd just go to the plethora of kiddie porn sites? Plus, while there are wack jobs out there, I just don't think there are THAT many people out there looking to do crazy things with people's blogs. I don't know, ask me again when I have kids. Then again, I can't foresee a day when I will ever blog about "super cute scrapbooking parties" -- kids or no kids.
On the total opposite of the spectrum, there are people that should definitely go private. I'm all for free speech and airing opinions, but I've had friends that have written blogs that are guaranteed to come back to bite them in the future.
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