I always figured that if someone I knew came across my blog it wouldn't be too hard to figure out who I was, but I also assumed that they wouldn't publicly out me.
I've spent the last few days thinking about my blog and its future. I've also thought about how I write and what I write about. And honestly, there really isn't anything in my blog that I wouldn't tell a friend. In fact, overall I'm open about money with my friends. If one of them were to ask me my salary I wouldn't lie or feel uncomfortable telling them, and like most of you I love talking money. So maybe going public wouldn't be the worst thing.
But then again I'm very open on my blog about my income, savings and debt. I wouldn't want my colleagues to find my blog, not because I write about work, but because they could find my salary. And what about future employers? Having all my cards on the table may not be a good thing.
So I've decided to keep my blog, hide a few more personal details, and hope that I can stay anonymous.
16 comments:
I'm glad you're back!
I write my blog knowing that my friends read it, and that most "strangers" that read it don't know my full name.
I keep certain facts about my finances hidden...but I actually like when friends comment on my blog!
No one from my real life, as far as I know, reads my blog. I don't think I would mind 'too ' much but then again, I wouldn't be shouting my site off to the known world either. But that is just me. Ok I probably would mind if someone put my name on a comment on my blog. Your reaction is very normal I would think.
I have the same sort of thoughts. It would not be too hard for people who know me to google me as my blog name and find me since that is the first thing that comes up when you google my blog alias.
I too don't really put anything on there that I wouldn't tell my closest friends and some of my closest friends ready my blog regularly.
Still................
That's kind of disconcerning! I would hate for anybody to find out about my blog, because I believe it's just never a good idea to know every financial detail about a person. Especially in this day in age. I'm glad you're sticking around though, best of luck!
The only stuff I personally would be concerned about is my family finding my blog, because they think I dwell too much on the past, and I clearly remember all the good and the bad in their handling of money. They'll think I sit around obsessing over a 20-year-old transgression just because I remember it and thought it was worth blogging about once. They'll lose the perspective that money is the sole subject matter of my blog to begin with.
Oooh that's kind of scary when that happens, I hope it doesn't happen to me, too.
Like you, I don't have anything really outrageous on my blog, but I just wouldn't feel comfortable having people that know me in real life read the things that I have written. My blog is like a journal; a widely-available public one, but a journal nonetheless. Plus the financial stuff is there.
I would probably remove my trackers and stuff if I got "exposed".
I'm very careful to not post numbers for that reason. Even though I am fairly anonymous and hope to stay that way, I try to keep some things as vague as possible. I talk about net worth in terms of percentage change. I never talk about my salary. I sometimes wish I were more open about these things, but I don't necessarily want a co-worker to find this blog and suddenly know all those things about me.
Best of luck!
I am glad to see you are back on the blogging world! I think you made a good decision and there's always a risk when sharing information with the public. But keep up the good work and I look forward to reading more blog entries in the future.
Wow, that's pretty freaky. I'm the only person I know that reads personal finance blogs, so I really doubt that anyone I know would figure out who I am for that reason. But if one of my friends or family did stumble upon it I'm sure they would quickly know I'm the one writing it. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of being "discovered." I have told NO ONE about my blog, but not because I'm afraid of what they'll think. I just feel like I share so much with other people, I want something that I do to just be "mine," if that makes sense.
Out of curiosity, did they say something nasty? What was the purpose of revealing your identity?
I actually think it was an innocent outing. The post basically said "I think I know you. Is your name _____".
To be fair the person only used my first name, but it is an uncommon name with unusual spelling.
Still it freaked me out and I may stop being so explicit about certain things. I haven't yet taken down my trackers because I love them so much! (I can't wait until April to share with you how much my tax return helped out.)
I would have been totally freaked too!! I'm hoping nobody I know finds my blog, as I like writing anonymously. Still though, on the internet, you can never be too sure.
Glad you're back!
haha, yeah this is always a dilemma for us Anon'rs :) in a way i kind of WANT to be outed so i can quit hiding and worrying about being "caught", but the other part of me still likes being sneaky...
i guess a good it's just good to ask yourself about it every few months and see what you think at that point. if you'd asked me a year ago i'd probably throw up at the idea of getting caught! haha.
did you ever find out who it was? I suppose it is odd to comment with that sort of question from him/her. I agree with something you mentioned in a tweet (I think), that they should have just emailed you.
Oh well, even though I commented earlier, welcome back again!
I would take the same approach, I try to write things that are open and personal but not harmful. I only have one post that might get me in trouble and the players in that don't actually work for the same company. Mr M knows about the blog, I wish he would read it cause he'd be more in tune with our finances! Then my oldest friend knows, I trust her completely. I know many things about her that she wouldn't want me to tell! Other than that I keep it completely quiet, it's kind of strange leading a double life and trying to explain where all my time goes. I'm glad you're sticking around, just don't write anything you'll truly regret.
Makes me nervous. Only 3 people in the PF world know me, 2 are bloggers 1 is not. But BF.. one day.. may log on LOL
I actually never found out who it was, which is a bit disturbing. I'm just trying not to think about it. =)
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