Thursday 7 February 2008

Privacy?

I've been thinking about how perhaps I am not private enough about who I am on the internet. I use my real name (and full - first and last) for my email and Ravelry. And people know where I work if they read my blog. Perhaps I should be more private, use a pseudonym like CatieCat which is what some of my friends call me. I don't know. I see other bloggers who keep themselves private (some to an amazing degree) and others who post their names and even pictures of their kids and houses (and I like seeing that part of their life). Some of these bloggers are wildly popular so thousands of people see their blogs, perhaps even daily. I know where I am in the mix but I'm not sure how I got there - I think I just decided that I didn't give a damn who knew me and what I wrote and went from there. But with all the crazies out there I wonder if I should change (and if I even could change without setting up brand new accounts). The one thing that is still private in my life is kids - mainly because I don't have any yet and I don't post pictures of other people's kids...

What do y'all think?

ETA: I just found out that you get 2 free name changes on Ravelry (after that you pay but that part isn't set up yet). I am leaning towards changing my name to CatieCat or just Catie - I'll let you know what I end up deciding...

7 comments:

Girl Genius said...

I think privacy is a good thing on the internet. With a blog you can share and makes friends, but still have boundaries.

Bells said...

It's an interesting question. I think I'm fairly private but don't mind posting pictures of myself if it seems fitting. I would never put my surname on my blog or on ravelry.

But then I see other people do it and I'm amazed and they don't seem to get stalked or anything.

I just don't like the idea of people I don't particularly want to be in contact with anymore being able to google me. That's my main reason for staying relatively private.

Louiz said...

I am fairly free and not bothered, but I don't put my partner's details up because he didn't want me to... and in response to Bells's comment, if you do google me you just get a load of posts I put to family history boards a long time ago (so long ago that one or two are in my ex married name - my divorce was finalised 10 yrs ago this valentines day!). Not bothered too much about who sees that!

Unknown said...

Hmm. I mostly post under indigirl, but I'm generally VERY findable online for those who are so inclined... and I do get a lot of hits for my full name on my blog, which is kinda creepy in a way. On the other hand, being findable makes me define my online privacy as I wish. I don't blog about everything in my life. And what I do blog about is often just the part of the story I wouldn't mind if my mother-in-law, my neighbor, and my customers read.

That may sound limiting, but I don't think I'd be as happy online if I were completely anonymous.

Anonymous said...

I use my real name when I blog too and I'm fairly open about my details but then again, I do set a lot of my posts on private so that it only appears to people who I give access to. I can't do that on blogger but my http://i.ph blogs gives me a lot of control in terms of who gets to see what on my blogs. I can even give access to folks who don't have i.ph accounts. I believe that blogging prudently is something a lot of us should learn and it helps when you have a platform that helps you do exactly that.

Anonymous said...

Hi Catie! It's Shells. Didn't know you had a blog... very exciting. Come check mine out sometime! Privacy huh? Well with the internet I'm not sure how much privacy you can possibly have, I guess be careful, I wouldn't use last name or address or even correct city (I always write vancouver area). *Hugs

Amy Lane said...

I don't know...I use a pseudonym, but it was sort of in place before I blog...

I think if you're comfortable as CatieCat, then that might add a hint of mystery to you!

But pseudonyms aren't all they're cracked up to be...I know students and at least one administrator reads my blog when I changed my site name & everything to keep out people I didn't know.