The Blog it is a’changin’
A Very Smart Person Who Is Always Right suggested that, um, maybe my blog shouldn’t be world-readable? I can either be:
- candid and risk misinterpretation
- or I can edit out the grim reality of CTO life and paint a rosy but inaccurate picture
- or I can be candid and just require folks to login to read the blog, thereby making it much more difficult (but not impossible) for someone to Use My Words Against Me.
In the words of the Very Smart Person Who Is Always Right, these options boil down to:
- potentially getting screwed anonymously by some evil doer
- tantamount to having no blog because it will be too boring
- still potentially getting screwed but this way I will at least know who did it (and can thereby hunt them down, etc.)
So I’m going to require registration to read the blog. I’m sorry for the pain this will involve. Know that your comments, identity, etc. will not be known to others unless you wish them to be, and this way the blog and I will be much better protected against The World.
I’ll activate the registration tomorrow as a heads up. If you feel strongly against this, let me know in the comments.
Celeste said:
May 28, 08 at 2:20 pmTotally understandable. Unfortunately, the change probably means I won’t be checking your blog out as much since password protection is incompatible with my Google Reader lifestyle. I’ll try to remember to check in from time to time, though. 🙂
Seth Vidal said:
May 28, 08 at 6:54 pmSo, how do we register? And how do you keep out evildoers?
kc said:
May 29, 08 at 5:47 amI think you have to watch out for yourself. Although, I don’t see any of your posts as inflammatory or containing unmerited criticism. Indeed, much of it is constructive and damn funny.
admin said:
May 29, 08 at 8:50 amThanks, KC. Celeste, you are not forgotten! Please check in if you can.
Seth, I’ll put up a registration plugin today. I can’t keep out the evildoers, but at least this way there’s a thin veneer of privacy–a veneer big enough to cover my ass, I hope. Of course, now having written this, I’m still screwed. Tra la la, tra la la, life is fine, life is fun, I love the world and the world loves me!
jaeger said:
May 29, 08 at 7:12 pmKeeping the articles behind a login blog is understandable.
For people like Celeste and myself who use the Google reader, is there any way for perhaps the posting titles to still go out in the RSS feed?
bendy said:
May 30, 08 at 6:31 amThoughts:
– World readable is what makes a blog a blog, innut? And getting fired for you’re blogging is, like, ShowingUpDrunkAtWork 2.0.
– Which I guess is okay early in one’s career, but not so useful later on.
– Today’s 22 year olds will probably brag about getting fired for their Internet profile the way previous generations exaggerate the effects of Free Love on stopping the War, man. Also, they will never capitalize Internet.
– I just helped someone with permission issues that were keeping the ghost writer of an “executive blog” from seeing the ghost-written posts after they were submitted for review. At least you be keepin’ it real.
– I think a lot of the stuff you’ve written here would be valuable for many in IT Management to read. You’ve done a solid job at maintaining a voice that’s never vindictive about institutional flaws, and your personal doubts and concerns seem pretty universal. At least they should be universal.
Conclusion: If the people you report to were born after 1979, you should keep the blog open to the public.
admin said:
May 30, 08 at 5:51 pmthanks, Bendy–I agree with your assessment, and thanks for vote of confidence. I kind of want to keep it open just to see what happens. I mean, even if I got fired, it would be a good story. But there’s the whole “need a job” thing. And when I thought about my boss seeing it, there was no way a conversation about it was going to go well. No possible way.
Jaeger, let me figure this out about Google Reader and see what’s possible.
One of the good sides to it being private is that now I feel more comfortable referring people to it–that I can encourage more people to look at it because it is less accessible in general. This is twisted. And, of course, asking people to register means that they no longer want to look at it…. we will see.
filberthockey said:
Jun 04, 08 at 3:35 pmI’m a little confused because I set up an account at wordpress just the other day and here I’m having to set up another wordpress account and I don’t know if I am me or not.