Comments on: Blogging Public Service Announcement #1 and #2

By: Somewhat Ordinary

Somewhat Ordinary — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:36:15 +0000

Half a Duo, sometimes making your blog private becomes a necessary evil. I was very open IRL about our IF and my blog wasn’t hard for anyone to find. When I conceived via Donor Sperm, I felt my husband deserved privacy and the right for people to find out on our terms, not randomly through the internet. I knew an acquaintance of a neighbor read it from time to time and couldn’t risk having it spread all over my small town w/o our control. I was blogging for 2 years at that point and it pained me to do it. I didn’t want to lose the support and friendships I made through my blog so I made it private.

I’ve always sent blind cc emails out to my readers and maybe I will consider the update blog thing!

Thanks for the PSA-I know I’m a few days late!

By: Kate (Bee In The Bonnet)

Kate (Bee In The Bonnet) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:19:17 +0000

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet, but if you have a password protected blog, and you want to keep your readers up to date, you can have an “Update” blog, where you post a link to your password-protected posts. That way, your readers can put the Update blog in their Reader, and see when you update, then click on the link to see the post (thus retaining your privacy by allowing anyone to see that your blog has been updated, but only allowing those who subscribe to actually see the real post).

Tracy over at Wondertwins does something like this, and she is one of the only PW-protected blogs I read because of it. I think hers is even automated so that every time she posts, the post title and a link to the post show up on her Updates blog in my reader. Very convenient.

And I second the notion: GET RID OF THE STUPID MUSIC PLAYER ON YOUR BLOG. Even if I totally have the same taste in music, most likely, I’m already listening to my own soundtrack as I surf OR I am greatly enjoying the silence.

And I also don’t care for the truncation in feeds, because I see truncating posts as a way to garner additional clicks on blog posts (or for tracking purposes or whatnot). I don’t want to be someone’s statistic. I just want to read and relate. I want people to post about what’s on their mind, not what they think will be the most popular and/or garner the most clicks. As a matter of fact, in my Reader, when I come across truncated posts, I click on the blog title (rather than the post title) so that I come to the blog url and continue to read entire posts without having my “click” credited to a particular post. If I decide to comment, then my “click” can be counted toward that post. I just don’t like feeling like I’m being used for research and/or for a “pat” on someone’s back. It’s like using me and my opinions without telling me, without consideration for the fact that I may not want to be used in that way.

That said, I understand why it can be useful. I just personally prefer to see full posts in my Reader.

By: magpie

magpie — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:45:12 +0000

Very good suggestions, and another vote against music. I love that Loribeth has a subset in Reader called “Turn off the Sound”, but she shouldn’t have to.

By: opposite of oops

opposite of oops — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:32:18 +0000

Amen to music – I’ve yet to come across a song on a blog that I wanted to hear.

I also can’t handle reading blogs that are a light type on a dark background (like for example a black page with white font). I don’t know if I have funny eyes, but it actually gives me a headache, so I won’t read blogs like that.

By: Kimbosue

Kimbosue — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:25:59 +0000

I agree with truncating, no music, and the Blogger profile issues.

Not so much on the pw protected stuff. I recently switched from Blogger to WP for the functionality of the pw protection. So it’s public with a few pw protected posts. I usually protect only on posts that speak about IRL drama that I don’t want IRL peeps to stumble upon and/or pictures of my baby. I read a blog who had a friend’s blog’s pictures stolen and used for commercial publication (advertisements) in a foreign country. Coincientally she had a friend IN that country and saw a billboard with her friend’s Christmas card photo on it! If you’re a regular reader, you have the pw. I never change it and like other people have said, at least in WP, you are still notified of the new post via Google Reader or Bloglines.
*End of soapbox

By: PandaBox33

PandaBox33 — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:16:03 +0000

One of the commenters said : “”linking your blog in your comment as a rude and inappropriate thing to do. ” Why is it rude ?
Maybe there is something I don’t understand about blogging so please explain it to me. Because, obviously, I almost always add the links to my blogs in my comments.

By: loribeth

loribeth — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:16:32 +0000

Agree with all the above. Re: music, I sometimes (sometimes??) catch on my blog reading at work. I’ve created a category in my reader titled “Turn off the sound!” for blogs that I know have music on them — but every now & then I will click onto a new blog (e.g., from the LFCA), forget to mute the sound first, & get blasted with music. (And let my coworkers know that I’m not necessarily working on the document I’m supposed to be working on.) :p

I prefer non-truncated posts in my reader, but (so long as you don’t have music blasting on your site, lol) I don’t mind clicking over to read the rest if I have to.

By: calliope

calliope — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:43:10 +0000

I can’t decide how I feel about truncated posts. It does add a step to my reading on some blogs, but most of the time I was already going to click on through to the blog anyhow…hmmmm. I do wonder what the purpose of truncation is tho. But that’s just me.

By: Bea

Bea — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:13:05 +0000

Someone may already have put this but there’s an alternative to the mass email which I recently came across and am thinking of transferring to. You set up a public blog that people can subscribe to at will. On your public blog, you write up a post that contains the info you would be sending in an email (ie mainly a link to the URL of the post or to your private blog, plus any notes about the content of the post that you may have included in an email eg “birthday photos” or whatever). You can set it so this blog is not picked up by search engines or visible on your profile (although it will still be open and public to those who know the address or anyone who manages to find the address out, so you have to put info up there with this in mind). This way, people can use their usual reader to get a head’s up that you’ve put up a new post, and they can subscribe or unsubscribe according to their own whimsy.

Bea

By: Kate

Kate — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:28:57 +0000

Please no music on blogs! If you like a song then maybe hae it on the sidebar so we can play it if we want to. These days I have to keep my computer on mute because sometimes people’s blogs start singing to me and its late and people are sleeping and its just very inconvenient.