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

Hi Ben,

I'd recommend starting another LJ and only let the folks who you want reading it, know. Email them privately. You can either keep this one light, or drop it entirely. That way those without LJ accounts can still read, but people you don't know aren't likely to track it down.

I gotta say though, security-through-obscurity never lasts, so it's worth being wary of this...

It works just fine if no one ever gives a damn about you. As soon as you do anything noteworthy, though, it goes out the window.

I actually split my online postings into two blogs, Ben, one on LJ for personal stuff, and a Blogger blog for game design stuff. I felt like I was boring half my audience with every post (by audience I mean the about 10 people who read what I post).

Two things.

Dude, where's your blogger thing? You don't appear to have a link in your profile for it.

Second, dude, you're in Madison? I'm in Morristown. Hi.

Profile updated. It's in the bio section now.

And regarding Madison, yeah, I was there. You just missed me! I moved to Washington, NJ last week. A bit farther away, but Hi!