benlehman | (no subject)

So I haven't written a lot here recently. Here's why:

I hand-delivered a copy of Polaris to a great fellow here in Helsinki who, I guess, is a bit of a fan of mine. Anyway, he reads this journal, and made reference to some stuff that I'd done recently.

And damned if that didn't feel wierd. I mean, not that it was anything really personal, it just felt wierd to talk to this guy I just met about things I'd done in the past. It felt way too intimate for a first meeting.

When I started this journal, I made a point of making every post public, because I want to lead a life that is by and large without secrets and obfuscations. I have violated this rule only a few times, for very personal reasons. Ideally, I would like anyone who cares to know about me to know about me.

But, also, there are a lot more people reading this than just my circle of friends and family now. I have published a book and, like it or not, that makes me sort of a public figure. I don't know if I want everything in my life to be a matter of public record if people are actually going to read about it.

So I'm trying to decide between:
1) change my writing in this journal to mostly sanitized things that I don't mind total strangers reading.
2) move most everything to friends-lock, thus locking out a lot of people who I'd like to be able to read the journal from reading it.

Thoughts?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ben,

When I was in Japan I wrote a short story every week. In hindsight, I am glad that I didn't have a blog then, because I would have blogged and the pieces would have been less complete. Odd, that.

Anyway, I sent them out to family and friends and the circle of who read them grew and grew.

I am still finding that people know things about me and I have no idea how they found out about it until they remind me that I wrote it in those stories, one each week for a year, 52 in all. Its an icky, odd feeling.

I hear ya.

But if you are going to write in this thing, that's the price.

If you are going to post something that you don't want everyone to read, I'd just make it Friends Only.

Good luck on the book tour.

Sidenote: I explained the way the key words in Polaris work with my girlfriend and she was really impressed. I'm hoping for a game with her and Jeff and Julie (Jeff's wife) in the coming months. Rock.

Judd

I'm really sad to move to friends only because a lot of my friends (Ion, Lindsey, my family) don't have LJ accounts and still read the blog. Hrmph. There has to be some clever technological solution.

yrs--
--Ben

P.S. A short story every week? I am totally envious of your writing skill.

P.P.S. I keep forgetting that you lived in Japan.

P.P.P.S. Good luck with the polaris. Sounds cool.

P.S. A short story every week? I am totally envious of your writing skill.

A piece of writing to be sent out every week having to do with my stay in Japan. Ended up with 52 pieces. It was the most discipline I have ever showed towards anything, I think. It also really drove home that I am happiest when I am writing regularly.

Anyway, thanks.

My stance on this is, "If you don't want the whole Internet to know it, don't post it publicly on the Internet."

The only clever technological solution that could possibly be secure is for your non-LJing friends to choose a username and password for reading you blog - that is, for them to get free accounts.

I was thinking, maybe, about something that automatically e-mailled a me-selection list of folks when I updated my journal.

yrs--
--Ben

But without accounts or some other form of authentication, LJ has no way to know whether someone is a person that you approved to see the post or not.

journal to friends only.

Mailing list for people who dislike livejournal, or are confused by technology, or simply find the account inaccessible for other reasons, like work firewalls.

That actually sounds like a pretty good plan... Except, of course, I'd prefer to have it automated. I guess you can't have everything.

yrs--
--Ben

Yeah, that's not bad at all - a good feature request for the LJ team. Adding an email address to a custom filter (or to your friends list) and having it send mail to them on your behalf when you update. There would be potential for abuse if LJ automated that, though - people could spam purchased "friends lists" using their servers.

It is possible that there's software that does this. Investigate ecto; it seems to have a lot of features.