I've always purposed to be pretty anonymous on this blog. I don't write about local events or politics, I don't advertise my city or state, and no one knows what I look like (unless you already do, of course). Partly because I know People Eating Tastey Animals would read everything with a "hubby" tag and start following my husband as he drives his work truck (with gun rack - gotta love a red state) around during the day.
That and I'm just paranoid about psychos that might see my children. With that in mind, I'm surprised at the number of other bloggers who happily post darling photos of their kiddos. Now, I'd probably not think twice about it if I had well-trained guard dogs, the property encircled with a 12-foot cement wall, and that topped with electrified razor wire. Is that extreme? I don't, however, have these defensive precautions (yet), but I'm thinking about the possibility of posting photos of my angels (you already know what hubby looks like). No names, of course, which is sad, because they're such great names. Perhaps a happy medium can be found in posting older photos?
In case anyone reads this far, what do you think? If you blog, do you post current family photos? Why/why not?
9 comments:
Hi there! I was very much enlightened by your site. Thank You. I admire you and the love and devotion you have for God. I focus on thanking God for everything and I try to be joyous about doing even the dishes for his glory. I thank him for leading me to your words. I shall be visiting.
Welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed your 'visit' to our little corner of the web. :) Stop by anytime.
I thought about this for a while and decided I really don't have a good answer. I started blogging as a way to keep family and friends updated on our family when we found out I was pregnant last year. It would be kind of odd to keep a family blog and not put pictures of our family on it! As far as names, I don't know....I guess I felt silly, since all my family and friends were reading it. We just pray for protction and grace and don't feel we are "inviting trouble". It's a valid concern.
Annie, thank you for your thoughts. I hope I don't come across as criticizing anyone else's decisions on this. I first had a pseudo-blog on myspace, which I had locked out to any non-approved friends. When I moved my ramblings here, I felt much more 'exposed' and (perhaps because myspace is so full of questionably-motivated persons) have been careful not to reveal too much. And then there's that whole P E T A thing. :)
I'm also near a SMALL town, and anyone who stumbled upon this (while maybe unlikely) from nearby could find us by looking out their window (well, maybe). Then again, they can already do that, just not with the 'inside view' this blog provides. Hm. I guess I'll have to wait for more feedback, if it comes. :)
If you never reveal where you live and don't use last names I think photos are ok. I know plenty of people who use code names for their kids.
But I agree, I'm so worried about the 'wrong' person finding my blog. I don't have any kids of my own so I don't have that worry but I never post pics of other peoples kids without their permission and I totally understand why some people don't like it.
So it's really personal preference and you need to feel safe in yourself.
You don't sound critical at all. I have a LiveJournal that I've "blogged" on for many years. It was open to anyone and pretty much everything except my address and social security number were public knowledge, mostly because all my friends from high school were on there as well and we talked frequently about our hometown and such. Then I did have a scary time with anonymous commenters who freaked me out so I made everything private. It's public again, but I've become more cautious about how much information is given out. In light of that, I am even more uncertain why I didn't take more precaution with blogger. We, too, live in a small town. I never really thought about anyone from my area reading my blogs, though! I know there are friends of the family who do, but random strangers...That might be interesting!
I'm interested in any other feedback you get, as well. :)
I read the Demise of Tom blog entry....Hilarious. Poor guy. I'm a little confused about the rope and the marinade and the bloddy bucket, but it's probably just as well.
Annie,
Hm.. how to accurately (and tactfully) explain that post... The "rope" is not necessary (well, the rope from the clothesline is, but not the lasso). You can easily (well, sometimes) just catch the critter. Hanging them upside down and cutting their throats lets them bleed out (and is the more humane way, also better for carcass quality), hence the bucket. There is some disparity among the pictures, chronologically. I didn't manage to capture the right photo before the bucket was "used" so in one picture it's dirty, then clean, then dirty again. ...And as for the marinade... yeah. That one's REALLY hard to explain. I've seen recipes for 'beer can' chicken, and recipes that marinade the meat. We thought it would be the ultimate redneck thing to marinate them while LIVE - by feeding them beer (now, I would never do that), but wrestling a live turkey to make it LOOK like one is pouring beer down it's gullet is more work than we were willing to do that day. Next best thing: make it look like you marinated the bird with cheap beer just AFTER it's death...
Now that I've probably scared you even MORE than the post originally did, I should probably just shut up! :)
Erin, Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate your comments on this. It seems every blog has a different take (some include everything, some almost nothing - like this one so far). I'm thinking about it though, so we'll see...
We have done both... giving names, not giving names... but I lean towards using names. I'm not fanatic about it, and sometimes I just use "my five year old" or something, so it's not in people's faces all the time. But I also am not extremely concerned about people tracking us down.
We live overseas and we have moved around a ton.
HTH
Jess
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