Friday, April 20, 2012

Noodling

I have been playing with the idea of making this blog private. I feel so exposed sometimes, weirdly vulnerable. Those of you who have closed your blogs to the public, how did it change the process of blogging for you? Did it alter the way you engage in this place? In the meantime, if you want to have access to this blog if I do decide to close it, please leave me your email in comments or send me an email. Click on my profile for the address.


29 comments:

  1. mmerluna at aol dot com

    Always...Mary

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  2. I've been thinking about doing the same thing.
    Of course, I'll shoot you an email so we can keep in touch.
    Your Friend, m.

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  3. what? NOOOOO!!!!

    okay. but i understand. but would be sad.

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  4. man, I've had this feeling before. Mine lulls and comes back. We all need and have our secrets. It's a strange line, these blogs. There are things I put out there I would never tell people in normal conversation, yet it's out there.
    If you do decide to close it, I would love to still be able to read here. I love stopping by. rachievb@hotmail.com
    xo

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  5. I closed my blog when I was in law school because it was the only way I could be honest. It's what I needed to do at the time, and I toy with it with my current one because I have to use euphemisms and such.

    But if we were closed, we would never have met and that thought makes me sad!

    So you do whatever you need to do, and I will email you to be sure I'm included. :)

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  6. If you do decide to close this blog, please put me on your e-list. I'm not a commentor (or a blogger), but I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing the wonderful photos you publish. My email is jansawtelle@gmail.com and I'm a friend and fellow actor with Sister Moon.

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  7. I'd like to keep reading too.

    ebethharper(at)mac(dot) com

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  8. I have not made any blog closed but did take a web page down when i found someone was taking whole posts and putting them on their blog. My blog now is not personal like yours. Anyway, I do want to be included kriswms at bellsouth dot net

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  9. I find blogging to be the spark that ignites my offline creativity. I could never give it up or the community.

    Here's my email: elsophie AT gmail DOT com.

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  10. I just realized you're not talking about getting rid of the blog, just closing it. Oh. That changes things. I've never done that -- I don't worry too much about the privacy thing, and one of the purposes of the open blog for me is to connect with other people who have kids with disabilities. I imagine you could invite people to your closed blog if you got to know and like them on their own blogs and thereby open your community. Either way, I hope I can still come here and communicate with you!

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  11. The truth is, I cannot bring myself to go away completely.

    1) I need a place to write and vent and process.

    2) I have found people here who understand the need to write and vent and process.

    3) I would miss you all too much. You're in my life, now.

    So no, Elizabeth, I'm not closing the blog down. I don't even know if I'm going to make it private. Maybe, as happens for Rachel, this impulse comes and goes, and is a natural part of the life cycle of blogging for some.

    But for anyone so inclined, leave me your email anyway just in case my brain noise gets too loud.

    I am also totally enjoying meeting some of you who read here but don't comment. It's always good to know who's reading.

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  12. christine (dot) dano (dot) johnson (at) gmail (dot) com

    I have made mine private several times, and also ran away from old ones to create new ones. I started to feel vulnerable.

    I've also taken several breaks. I still wrote, but the words were scattered. For some reason I need the immediacy of the format, or I get lazy with my writing. That has been the beauty of this tool. It's why I've never tried to make money via blogging; I see mine more as an old fashioned journal, right there on the page.

    You've got to do what will make you feel good, though. xo

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  13. I made my blog private because of my job. It's been over a year now. I know who my readers are. I can post what I want. I love it. Keep me in. I'm at my name with a dot in between first and last at the big gee mail.
    xoxox

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  14. You are in my life now, too:)

    fourangelsmomma@yahoo.com

    Hugs,
    Deb

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  15. i just wrote a big long babble in response to this and now i feel like it was too kooky to post as a comment. haha.


    anyway, if you make your blog private, i would like to be able to read if you felt okay about that.

    and so my email is erzulieloo at gmail dot com.

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  16. I'm glad I went private, which is not to say I don't wish I could have more readers, but it's hard to gather them sometimes, and anyway the readers I do have are dear, but sometimes I need to vent as you say, and process, and I just did in fact, and I hate the thought that family or neighbours would accidentally bump into my evil alter-ego blogging twin!

    ddvalley@gmail.com Count me in, pls.

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  17. Oh forgot to include this:

    gradydoctor@gmail.com


    Okay and seriously? Please if you do decide to close your blog, please stay in touch. I mean it. I really look to you as one of my mentors and I learn so much from you. You are a beautiful, vibrant, loving mother of cocoa-colored children who happens to be married to a man that you think hung the moon. We have this in common except you are ahead of me in the game. I need to draw from your experience and your way that you process. In other words, I need you just like you need writing.

    Yes, we are a little community aren't we? And it's funny because I didn't even know how much I cared until I started thinking of not being able to "talk" to you or Ms. Moon or Elizabeth or Kristin. So thank you for making me think about that more.

    Much love for real.

    Kimberly

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  18. Oh my. I understand, I do. Sometimes it feels cheap putting these valuable and vulnerable thoughts and feelings out here where just anyone can see them. But, that said, I'd have never met you if your blog were private, and I am so very glad we met. I've had three bloggers I follow go private, and for some reason, I can't access them even when invited, or worse, can only get in for a while and then get the confusing no longer invited message, leaving me to wonder is it something I said? Does blogger hate me? Do they think I blew them off? It's been a failure for me, but maybe I just wasn't that invited after all....
    whatever you decide, you know we will respect your decision, and if you go private and want me in, I'm melodycarroll at yahoo dot com.
    Hugs and best wishes.

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  19. I'm on blog #4 or possibly #6...I've lost count over the last 6 years...I keep deleting old ones or setting them private in fits of paranoia about the exposure...as it stands now I don't write anything intensely private anymore (mostly) but I'm constantly anxious about people in my professional life reading it...I show one particular side of my life/self on the blog and while I have no problem with friends or family seeing that, I do NOT want colleagues, supervisors or patients to know that part of me...it's an ongoing dilemma for me.

    That being said -- when I have gone private with blogs in the past they tend to die off -- others lose interest and so do I.

    I think one has to decide whether they are ok with being in the limelight or not -- or otherwise only blog about neutral things (like a food blog or something)...obviously given my blogging history I remain ambivalent about it.

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  20. Most of what I write is just day-to-day ramblings, so I really don't mind who reads it, or what they comment. Also, I have done away with word verification, and I don't filter comments. I have almost no spam, and as yet have attracted no NUTTERS. On the principle of 'Sticks and Stones', I welcome all-comers.

    However, having followed you for a while, I do realise that much of which you write is very personal.

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  21. I am not surprised. I have been sensing this for some time now. I think you should. Some of us will lose but to suggest otherwise would be like caging an eagle. Fly free.

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  22. Whatever you do, please keep on writing. Your writing is too good to stop! (and please keep me in the loop!)
    Hugs

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. If you do go private I would love to continue reading your thoughts and words. I will send you a separate email with my contact information.

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  25. Oh, dear, if you went private, I would understand; but I would so miss such a compassionate and expansive soul. I'm afraid if I went private, my tone would change to one of constant negativity and meanness. I would end up saying all the terrible things I don't say now because I don't want people reading such nasty thoughts. However, if you have to go, you already know my email ;-)

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  26. I'll send you an e-mail, Angella. I really want to stay on your reading list (or vice versa). I understand the impulse to go private -- especially as you write so much about your family. My own blog is more circumspect so I don't worry about it too much -- but part of what makes your blog so great is your candid writing and openness. :)

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  27. We blog for so many different reasons. Mine has come to feel like a calling - writing exercise bound up in discovering my truths, leaving notes under the rock. I think of all the wonders I would have missed if blogs I was lucky enough to find had been private. And only you know what your best choice will be. Please keep me on the list. With support for whatever you decide. Love, Marylinn

    mmlkell (at) aol (dot) com

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  28. t.clearc@omcast.net

    Please count me in.

    xo

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  29. I love reading (Don't remember If I ever commented though). I understand your sentiments and have blogged less mainly because I sense I cannot truly express me without fearing what my 'e-trail' will expose. Would love to continue reading . joedian (dot) reid (at) gmail

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