This is really unimportant in terms of my life (lives?) and loves, but it's bothering me. Making this blog a private affair is chapping my ass. I have worked tirelessly to build an audience for two years, typing my fingers to the bone. So I was airing my dirty laundry in public...there were only about forty people in the US and maybe twenty-five in the UK that read me regularly. After that, a large band of lurkers worldwide.
So now I have exactly 23 readers, with six invites still hanging out there in the ether. I am limited to 100 readers overall. I officially had 67 followers, but the bulk of these do not have access now. Yes, I was only peripherally connected to many of these folks, but this is a big steaming hunk of attrition here.
Some of my best friends stepped out of the lurker shadows, including Halle, Eleanor, and Claire. They would not be with me now had the blog been private. That door is now closed to any new friends that might have been contemplating an introductory note. Plus, I have cut off several good friends for whom I have no email address to send an invite. If anyone inquires about me, let them know they should drop me a line. I have 71 unused invites burning a hole in my pocket. We're giving 'em away down here at Blogger City!
Jenny mentioned to me that the RSS feed no longer works, now that I am private. Has anyone else had problems accessing this blog, in any fashion? I'm pretty well stuck with this circumstance for the foreseeable future, but I am still learning of the consequences of changing my settings.
Thanks for humoring me while I vented. Maybe something more substantial next time.
Musings: It's All About Community
5 hours ago
There's nothing to stop you having more than one blog. Post your earworms on an open and otherwise innocuous blog which we'll all follow, and when a new one appears we'll all know to head on over here.
ReplyDeleteCertainly I've had trouble with the blogfeed and your updates haven't been appearing on my dashboard. But it is good to hear you again, and you going private, has forced me to push on with my own blog- a blog that will be so deep in T-denial that I am contemplating the tag "a commentary of East European Agricultural practice 1910-1931".
ReplyDeleteThe split personality issue is a problem, when I listed my own interests....well I need at some point soon to be honest to the casual reader. The outset might be wise place to begin, perhaps with a statement of "This is me" but tricky to do without making a shrine to one aspect of my life, a feature of so many blogs; I don't want 40 posts begining "here's a photo of my shoes etc"......Jenny's blog avoids this so well- with her read these first....Anyway keep strong; and if you do migrate to an innocuous blog, let us know! I'll keep a lookout for "Rare Kraftwerk vinyl: 1979-1986" and know its you.
Yep, nothing on my dashboard either. I have to go directly to your page and look for any new posts. Not a big deal for me, but I certainly empathize with your plight.
ReplyDeleteLet me get this straight; you get out once a month maybe, then you have to hide in obscurity in the shadowy deep corners of the internet where even your closet friends struggle to even read a word from you? Slice it, dice it and sugar coat it, but you're in hell sister.
If you where online using the name you where given instead of the one you chose for yourself, there would be no problem now would there? I'm sorry honey, I better get off my soapbox before I get myself in trouble. :p
Hell is the impossibility of reason.
Peace Out,
<3 Tina
The answer to signal to followers to go and look you up for a new post is to just have another blog which can be followed which just says "Hi, new post up" and we scurry off to see how you are doing. I hope you have not invited a certain person into your "private" blog, you need somewhere to be able to breathe.
ReplyDeleteYou have to move forward to a new position not backwards from this situation if there is any future for you guys. An oppressed life is no way for you to live believe me, I did it to myself and wasted more than half my life in misery!
Thinking of you always.
Caroline xxx
I have also lost the RSS feed - which means that I have to remeber to come here to check up.
ReplyDeleteI think the second ear worm blog is a great idea give those of us with a less than perfect memory a kick to come back here :)
I do have one issue with thise post though.. US, UK and then lurkers. Does that make me a lurker - I don't think I like that moniker ;p
Stace, NL :)
Leslie, I thought you had stopped blogging, because no posts of yours were showing up on my dashboard either. This morning I thought I would check your profile to see if you still had your blog up and then I see all of these posts that I missed. That's the bad thing about taking a blog private. I agree with the others about directing us here, by posting notices on a 2nd public blog. I will start to follow your new blog today, so I will know when to come here.
ReplyDeleteMelissa XX
I struggled with similar issues when I made my blog private. I did end up making it public again when I finally decided to transition and it's been great since then.
ReplyDeleteIt was really hard when it was private though, it was more like a diary than a blog, really