Thoughts on Public vs. Private Blogs

I’ve had a public blog for almost five years and I think it’s a great way to both document priceless memories and keep friends and family updated on our lives. But I’ve swung back and forth on whether to keep the blog public or make it private. Here are some of my thoughts…

Public blogs – I love reading friend’s and family’s blogs. It’s easy to follow blogs when they are public. I am notified every time a post is made, so it’s simple to keep up with their lives. But… you also can’t stop child predators from reading public blogs. I’ve tried to be careful not to post our location on our blog, but Christian recently pointed out that anyone with our names can find our address. I’m not sure why I hadn’t realized this before, but it made me nervous. Keeping my children safe is my first priority.

Private blogs – The idea of being able to prevent complete strangers (especially creepy ones) from learning all about our family is appealing to me. I like the idea of being able to write anything, knowing that only people I trust will read it. But I’ve had a hard time following my friends’ blogs when they've gone private. I’m never notified when they post anything new and I forget to look. The reality is that I only follow public blogs.

(I know the chances of a child predator following my blog are small, but that doesn’t make me less paranoid.)

For a long time I’ve wished I could have the best of both worlds and decide which posts are public and which posts are private. That way I could still keep friends updated on when I make a post while being able to sensor what is publicly available.

Then Christian showed me a way I could do it.

I’m going to have two blogs: one public, one private. Here’s why…

I will post everything to our private blog, but I will also create a post for everything in the public blog. If it is a post that I don't want to be public I will just post the title and a link to the private blog. That way you can all get updates, and I don't have to worry about unintended readers. Easy peasy!

So for those of you who have expressed annoyance with me for making my blog private (you know who you are) we will do our best to make it as annoying-free as possible. Happy Blogging!