The Paradox that is Blogging.
I'm rather annoyed with some of the commotion and big hoo haa with regards to the issue of blogging privacy and password protecting blog posts.
It's not the fact that people are discussing about it that irks me; freedom of speech is certainly something I advocate. It's the fact that some good folks over at Tomorrow are speaking out like they ARE the big wigs of the local blogosphere, and when they say something, it's the ultimatum. they're now defining rules and standards with regards to privacy, making things black and white for all of us, such that we know what blogging online entails and the conditions to our virtual privacy. Gist of it: you blog something, you put it out in public, it IS public, so it's people's rights to link to it or publicise it. You don't know how to password protect posts, your bad. You haven't heard of Tomorrow.sg and are newly initiated in the blogging business, and are unaware of the rate at which information proliferates on the net, and them wham! you are linked on a highly read site despite your wishes, well, go and suck your own thumb, cos that's your own problem. At least that's what the good folks (is it me or is the use of the word "good" here extremely patronising) over there are saying.
I'm merely going to reiterate what many people have brought out in their discussions. Firstly, die-hard blogger users like me do not have the option to password protect my posts. That's why I keep 2 blogs, the other being a relatively private blog not meant to be some online Bible of Nonsense for the average joe to read everyday while slacking at work. Obviously now with people re-defining online rules, there's no such thing as a private blog. Oh well. Guess I'll have to practice discretion in that case, or in the worst case scenario, find some hosting platform that allows me to password protect my posts.
I want to add that not everyone means for their blog to be kept private, and do not mind visitors dropping by to read. Most are flattered actually, when anonymous readers drop by and leave compliments ( or even when they leave insults) because well, if you can make someone feel so strongly about something you write, then you must be doing something right. In fact, I feel sometimes if I blog too long without writing something mildly controversial or without writing anything that elicits strong attention, then it's time for me to take a break from blogging(which I have done before). But while some people do not mind visitors dropping by, not all are ready for the hundreds and hundreds of people dropping in on their blog, scrutinizing their lives with fiery judgment in their eyes, and then leaving insulting comments. Yeah, the blog is on a pervasive medium such as the internet, but what are the chances of a average, obscure blog being swamped by hundreds of readers if it wasn't Tomorrow-ed in the first place? (I'm just using the local context here, it'd be far worse it it was on Boing Boing or some other blog aggregator). People can only deal with sudden fame if given adequate time to be mentally prepared for it, especially if they're not into blogging for the sake of fame. Perhaps proper notification of being linked up could help in given these poor sods some mental readiness.
Oh well, I shall not expound on blogging privacy any longer because it'll probably take another 100 more paragraphs for me to write out a detailed, coherent argument.
Let me talk about the paradox of blogging.
Yes, blogging is ironic, because we pen down private elucidations for the world to see. We articulate innermost thoughts on arguably the most pervasive medium around in our era. Paradoxical, eh? (of course, some blogs do not always contain private thoughts of a person)
Because some of these thoughts and feelings are so intimate, we keep them away from our close ones. But yet, we put them down in a couple of hundred words for the world to see because we know we can gain support and approval from strangers we've never met before in real life. That is what the internet has reduced human interaction to. Sad, but true.
When I first started the blog, I wrote mainly commentary on the sad state of Singapore. Then, I became a lot more personal in my writings. Following which, I decided to create a split persona to rant about all the unfairness and injustices and crap going on in the world because I thought it was unfitting of me (the real me) to do so. But now I don't give a damn. I just want to be myself.
AT this point, I realized I don't really understand the point of this post itself. Maybe there's no point at all. Remember I said I dont' give a damn anymore?
Anyway, this is going to be my last post on blogging. There MUST be more to blog about than blogging itself. Darn, I've got at least a dozen brilliant ideas swimming around in my brain right now.
It's not the fact that people are discussing about it that irks me; freedom of speech is certainly something I advocate. It's the fact that some good folks over at Tomorrow are speaking out like they ARE the big wigs of the local blogosphere, and when they say something, it's the ultimatum. they're now defining rules and standards with regards to privacy, making things black and white for all of us, such that we know what blogging online entails and the conditions to our virtual privacy. Gist of it: you blog something, you put it out in public, it IS public, so it's people's rights to link to it or publicise it. You don't know how to password protect posts, your bad. You haven't heard of Tomorrow.sg and are newly initiated in the blogging business, and are unaware of the rate at which information proliferates on the net, and them wham! you are linked on a highly read site despite your wishes, well, go and suck your own thumb, cos that's your own problem. At least that's what the good folks (is it me or is the use of the word "good" here extremely patronising) over there are saying.
I'm merely going to reiterate what many people have brought out in their discussions. Firstly, die-hard blogger users like me do not have the option to password protect my posts. That's why I keep 2 blogs, the other being a relatively private blog not meant to be some online Bible of Nonsense for the average joe to read everyday while slacking at work. Obviously now with people re-defining online rules, there's no such thing as a private blog. Oh well. Guess I'll have to practice discretion in that case, or in the worst case scenario, find some hosting platform that allows me to password protect my posts.
I want to add that not everyone means for their blog to be kept private, and do not mind visitors dropping by to read. Most are flattered actually, when anonymous readers drop by and leave compliments ( or even when they leave insults) because well, if you can make someone feel so strongly about something you write, then you must be doing something right. In fact, I feel sometimes if I blog too long without writing something mildly controversial or without writing anything that elicits strong attention, then it's time for me to take a break from blogging(which I have done before). But while some people do not mind visitors dropping by, not all are ready for the hundreds and hundreds of people dropping in on their blog, scrutinizing their lives with fiery judgment in their eyes, and then leaving insulting comments. Yeah, the blog is on a pervasive medium such as the internet, but what are the chances of a average, obscure blog being swamped by hundreds of readers if it wasn't Tomorrow-ed in the first place? (I'm just using the local context here, it'd be far worse it it was on Boing Boing or some other blog aggregator). People can only deal with sudden fame if given adequate time to be mentally prepared for it, especially if they're not into blogging for the sake of fame. Perhaps proper notification of being linked up could help in given these poor sods some mental readiness.
Oh well, I shall not expound on blogging privacy any longer because it'll probably take another 100 more paragraphs for me to write out a detailed, coherent argument.
Let me talk about the paradox of blogging.
Yes, blogging is ironic, because we pen down private elucidations for the world to see. We articulate innermost thoughts on arguably the most pervasive medium around in our era. Paradoxical, eh? (of course, some blogs do not always contain private thoughts of a person)
Because some of these thoughts and feelings are so intimate, we keep them away from our close ones. But yet, we put them down in a couple of hundred words for the world to see because we know we can gain support and approval from strangers we've never met before in real life. That is what the internet has reduced human interaction to. Sad, but true.
When I first started the blog, I wrote mainly commentary on the sad state of Singapore. Then, I became a lot more personal in my writings. Following which, I decided to create a split persona to rant about all the unfairness and injustices and crap going on in the world because I thought it was unfitting of me (the real me) to do so. But now I don't give a damn. I just want to be myself.
AT this point, I realized I don't really understand the point of this post itself. Maybe there's no point at all. Remember I said I dont' give a damn anymore?
Anyway, this is going to be my last post on blogging. There MUST be more to blog about than blogging itself. Darn, I've got at least a dozen brilliant ideas swimming around in my brain right now.
