Blogging for Dummies - The Writer

I haven't written for a few days, and promised a post on blogging. I do apologize, but I was on the phone with a hurting youth member for quite a while. While the blogging may be good and further His work, I do believe my primary goal hear on earth is to ease other people's pain, and to be there for someone. So His hands understandably postponed this posting.

As you may have noticed, my "Friends" and "Family" links to other blogs has significantly been reduced. Because of some feedback I received, and a lot of side conversations, it's become obvious (if frustrating as well) that because my blog is linked from our church Web site, all of my links from this blog need to be appropriate. Because of this, it brought up a few questions on what you really should blog publicly, and what should be kept private.

Some parents have recently figured out that their kids have blogs, and went looking over them. Many different reactions took place, from shutting down the blogs, to straight confusion of the language and so they ignored them. I'll be writing Part 2 specifically for parents and how they can better get a hold on their kids' blogs, without too much family discord.

Back to the topic. A lot of people create Blogs, LiveJournals, whatever you call them, as a journal. Some place to describe their day, what frustrations they've been having, and what they are really enjoying well. Then their friends can visit and post comments of advice, or share their own stories about the day. This is a great way for people to improve their writing skills and just relax by getting their thoughts out.

My English teacher used to say, if you keep a nightly journal you'll never go insane. I see some real sense in there, as we get our thoughts down on paper (computer, whatever) it helps us to think about the day and form ways of dealing with problems. Also, when it feels like there is no one to talk to about something, the journal will always listen patiently. In my experience, most people don't need advice, they need an ear who will patiently listen to them. A journal does this (though without a comforting hug afterward).

As everyone should know by now, blogs can be public, private or shared just with friends. A private blog is really just a journal, but instead of using Microsoft Word, or a book, you have it online. This helps if you want to journal from school or work, and are away from your home computer or your notebook.

Then there are the public blogs. This is what most people have. It's also the place I think most people get into trouble. Once a blog is public a lot of other things become public. And public doesn't just mean the people who have your blog address can see it. Most blogs automatically become searchable in search engines. So anyone could search for your name and possibly find your blog. This doesn't just mean your friends, it means your parents, your co-workers, your boss or even (shudder) your youth minister!

So, if you go out and say "our church youth group really stinks, and I wish our youth minister would just drop dead", I may very well go and read it. All of a sudden I'll be upset and may treat you differently (I wouldn't, but for example anyway). Or, you could say you really hate that your friend spends all her time with her new boyfriend. Well, your friends going to see that, and get upset, probably with you. Or last, and worst, is when you say "I had my first kiss tonight!" and your parents see it. You know what sorts of talks that leads too... "You aren't even dating this person" or the dreaded "Sex Talk" :)

Anyway, my point is just this. When writing the blog, make sure whatever you write you're okay with your best friend, your most hated enemy and your parents reading. Because over time, each of them will.

Now on to the more important stuff. Keeping it somewhat anonymous. Everyone's heard about the IM people who find a person, IM them, get their address and show up on their doorstep to attack them (or whatever). Blogs are kind of worse. Since you can put personal information in, like friends names, where you live and stuff, it's really easy for someone to find you. So, here are a few quick ideas to keep it a bit safer.

1. Never, ever, ever use last names. People can easily take your last name, city and state and find your phone number and address. I mean, there aren't all that many Leary's Ashburn (oops, used my last name and city, who knows who will be calling now).


2. Keep your profile short. Don't put in your city, or even your state unless you really want to.


3. Don't ever use your friends' last names.


4. Don't give your age. Maybe your birthday but not your birth year.


5. Don't publish your blog to Web Searches if you can help it (Blogger lets you choose).


6. When looking at comments or replying to them, make sure you know who the person is before you give them any info.


7. Don't mention school names or places you work. If you want to use an acronym, like PF for Potomac Falls High School.

That's it for the moment. Though if others have comments I would appreciate them, and I'll incorporate them into this post. I love having a personal blog where I can let out some of my feelings for the world to see. It's hard to remember to keep some of it inside, or to keep it private.

I know we want to vent our frustrations to the whole world, but I'm reminded of a blog of a youth minister who said s**t in the blog, and made it pretty clear he was having problems in his relationship with God. If I were a church leader I'd have discussions and probably move him to another position.

What do you want the world to know about you? What don't you want it to know?

Peace.

Addition 1: A Note on IM's in Profiles. Having your AOL IM Name in your profile does make it easier for people to find your blog. If they know your IM and know your blogging host (whether you use LJ, Blogger, Xanga, whatever) they can find you. It also means anyone who finds your blog can now communicate directly with you. I'm personally a fan of having my IM name in my profile for people to find me. But I also have pretty conservative IM ideas. I don't use AOL IM or any specific IM, I use Trillian (Though GAIM is a good idea too). It doesn't have all the features of Yahoo IM, MSN or AIM, but it has the advantage that it's safer from viruses, and the IM client viruses won't affect Trillian. It also lets me have all my screen names up at once for all the services (Yes, I have Yahoo, MSN and AOL).

Anyway, this gets more into IM safety. But if anyone IM's you and you don't know who they are, be careful. Someone could IM you and say they are your friend (since they know his/her name from your blog) and say they go to your school (since they may see that in your blog) and soon you're accepting links or just talking away to this person. I always ask a new person who they are, how they got my IM name and something else they won't know from the blog. Like what service I go to (since a stranger won't necessarily know our church service times, or the title).

Okay, that's it for now. I may add more as it occurs to me.

posted by Tom at 8:49 AM