Blogdaughter Tammi of Tammi's World ponders a bit on how blogging changes for you after you've met some of your readers:

I find myself holding back on what I write. I don't speak my mind as easily. [...] I don't always hit publish. I worry about what "people think". Some how, some where it became more about other people. Worryin' about how they saw me, how my feelings were being viewed. I actually worried about what people were saying about me.

I know the feeling. When I first started blogging, my posts were sort of an open letter, but I did have an "ideal reader" in mind. Someone who would just accept my words and not use them against me personally. A good, non-judgmental friend.

As I've met some bloggers in real life, the target of my "open letter" has become more concrete and less ideal. I know who's reading this, and I know that some things I write may touch sore spots.

It sometimes makes things a bit uncomfortable. And maybe I avoid harsh treatment of certain topics out of courtesy.

But I will say this: there have been times when I've thought "Should I post this? Is this too much?", yet every time I've hit "publish" on one of those, the reaction has been one of understanding - of "I've been there too".

It's scary while you're waiting for the comments to arrive, not knowing if someone will take you to task over what you've written, but you grow from pushing through that fear.

And you find out you're not alone.

My short advice on the topic is this. Write what you want. Then go ahead and imagine the possible objections you think certain readers might have to it. If you're willing to face those objections and you're willing to explain and/or justify what you said, go ahead & publish, then wait for the outraged responses.

You probably won't get them.

If you do, well, you're already prepared.

And if you explain your position calmly and rationally, you might even win some people over. It's happened to me before.

However, if things go horribly wrong and there's bickering and trolling, all is not lost. You still have friends to watch your back. As AlliCadem of Can I Have Some Whine With That Cheese? said in Tammi's comments "when you get an intruder, your blog family comes to the rescue".

Thank God for blog family...

Posted by: Harvey at 08:54 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 409 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I've been reading your stuff for a long time... and I can't think of anything you've written that I've ever had any issue with on reading. For that matter I can't think of anything you've written that would insult anyone (other than Michael Moore - and we're all good with that *grin*). Does this mean you're holding back? ;-)

Posted by: Teresa at September 26, 2006 09:21 PM (o4pJS)

2 :-) Thanks faddah!

Posted by: Tammi at September 27, 2006 04:52 AM (3UQTn)

3 Teresa - Looks like I'll have to try harder to offend you. Maybe I should rant about how unimportant computer security is :-D

Posted by: Harvey at September 27, 2006 05:06 AM (L7a63)

4 The day I start not speaking my mind is the day I delete my blog. No matter what I say, people seem to think I'm not as big of an asshole as I do, so it's been working out OK for me so far

Posted by: Graumagus at September 27, 2006 06:25 AM (50gt2)

5 This concept is rather foreign to me. Then again, I hate people, so I'm not sure what this whole "care what other people think" thing is...

Posted by: Ogre at September 27, 2006 09:37 AM (oifEm)

6 Y'all are nuts. I write exactly what I feel and think. I long ago stopped worrying about offending people. But maybe that's just me.

Posted by: og at September 27, 2006 10:38 AM (N99bh)

7 Thanks for the linkie, Mr. Harvey. I'll be polite seeing that we're just *meeting*~

Posted by: allicadem at September 27, 2006 05:45 PM (SmA1V)

8 People read this tripe? Huh, who knew!

Posted by: Jake Jacobsen at September 27, 2006 09:37 PM (0XPi8)

9 I think it's scarier not to get any comments when you post something you "question". Leaves your mind to wander...

Posted by: Sissy at September 28, 2006 08:48 AM (afJvI)

10 Sissy - I know what you mean... I just picture people going "I'm keeping my mouth shut on this one" :-)

Posted by: Harvey at September 28, 2006 09:26 AM (L7a63)

Hide Comments | Add Comment