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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Great Debate: Reader Feedback Needed!

I have long considered that I need and want to change my blog and as I consider these changes I wanted to get your feedback about some of the changes I am considering. Here are some of the changes I am thinking about:

  1. Many of my friends and family members have all gone private on their blogs and I am also considering that perhaps its time for me to also join the ranks of private bloggers. However since you are my readers I would like some feedback to what your opinions about this switch would be, such as what you think the advantages or disadvantages are. So please speak now or forever hold your peace as I contemplate and make the ultimate decision whether or not I will be going private.
  2. I am also trying to decide if I want to take my blog to a different level by including more personal narratives, stories, and such that I write that are more about my personal musings. Should I start a new blog that has these musings on them or should I change this blog to include them, any thoughts out there??
  3. I would also like to know what you as a reader would like to see more or less of here on our family blog.

    Any helpful feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

6 comments:

Murdoch Clan said...

First of all sis, I would GO PRIVATE, that's just for safety reasons. YES and YES and YES please do include your personal narratives, and personally I'm a visual person, so PICS are absolutely MY FAV! Love the collages of pics you do, and love to see and read your writing, you have a gift! That's my opinion you don't have to if you don't agree. Much love sissy! Arohanui, Laura Eb

Syme Family said...

I haven't heard enough reasons to make me go private. I'm not on the google list and I really don't know how people would find it unless I give them my blog address. I also made sure to put a copyright on the bottom of the blog so no one can just take one of our pictures and use it.
The thing that I don't like about blogs going private is then I have to manually check them, it doesn't just show up in google reader anymore. It makes it harder for me to keep up on them.
Either decision you make I will be sure to keep tabs on you guys. Maybe sometime when I'm up that way I'll have to stop by now that I'm back in UT.
I love to see you pics and collages. I'm always interested in what you have to say.

Momma Curls said...

We have a friend who has a website (she's an author and uses it mainly as a blog) and after just having her first child announced she wouldn't post any of his cute little antics or happenings. Not because she was worried about online crazies, but because she wanted her son to determine the amount of online exposure he wanted. Pretty wise I thought.

That being said, I think Leslie is right about it being hard to find those who don't make their blog searchable by google. Though it's not impossible, I had Seth find an old friend's blog.

I really enjoy being able to share personal feelings and family moments with those who I know knows my family. Though the downside is that I have a few family members and friends who I've invited (which you have to do once your private) who never went through the effort of signing up to view our blog - which is frustrating. And if you want to share your blog with others you do need their email address so you can "invite" them to view.

But, when you think about it, who are you writing for? Family, friends and anyone else or just family and friends.

Perhaps you can make the decision by figuring out whether or not you care that other people you don't know are viewing your info and whether or not you want to share more private stories and thoughts. You have mentioned to me before that you've been spammed, so are other people able to view your blog that you don't know about? You can get a detailed stat counter that shows who and where people are checking out your blog.

To sum up: I miss not being able to just give my blog address to people and say "check out what we're doing". And that some family and friends don't make the effort to sign up to view the blog. But at the same time I wouldn't give up that security and peace of mind and freedom of posting my children's photos, names personal stories and info.

Sorry this reply is long, I hadn't intended it to be so. Good luck with your decision.

Swenson Family said...

I love your stories!!!! You are an amazing story teller and I love hearing your take on life especially since I was a full-time student, mother and wife!! Also go private!!! I got a werid comment from somebody I didn't know and it freaked me out!

Alexa said...

I agree that I don't like it when blogs go private. I like them to show up on my reader and not have to go to each one manually and log in to view. I also think it's frustrating if I'm trying to find someone, just to see what they're up to or where they are at, and it's private. I honestly don't see any safety issues, and besides a few spam comments (which get deleted easily), haven't had anything that concerns me. I added google analytics and it tells me where people are coming from, and what they searched for to find me (some are really funny!) Primarily my blog is for me and my family and friends. I love having a record, and love that I feel close to family and friends even though physically we are far apart. I have extended family in Canada and a lifetime friends all over the place. I want them to be able to find me easily, if they are looking (I've been trying to find my best friend from jr. high in Canada... unsuccessful so far...) So for me anyway, I won't go private unless something really bad happens, and I'll write my blog, knowing that it's for me, my friends and family. I think my blog sounds like my voice, and how I talk... does that make sense? I like to read real life in other peoples blogs-the good, the bad- the funny! I have one person on my reader that uses his blog for narratives, and poems, and I only read them if they look really short (and even then, if it doesn't catch my interest right first thing, usually don't take the time to finish), but he doesn't write his blog for me specifically. So I guess what I'm saying, is write your blog for you, people will read what they want anyway, and if you want long lost anybodies to find you, don't go private =)

Samantha said...

I realize you've made your decision already but i have been behind on blogs so I thought I shoudl still give you my 2 cents. :) I hate when blogs go private. But as you know, I chose to anyway. I agreee with everything Alexa said completely, except the security issues. As you may or may not know, my dad is a counselor. He just went to a conference last month on sexual preditors. (Sorry for the fun topic) They now have statistics that over 80% of sexual preditors find their victims on the internext. Via blogs, myspace, etc.etc. Even if your blog is not searchable by google, it can totally be found. Easier then you can imagine. That was just too much for me to handle thinking about even one bad person looking at my sweet and innocent children. My dad said even if the preditors never make contact, they can be doing horrible things to pictures of your children. YUCk! I just couldn't handle that thought. So there you go. That's why I went private. :)