Friday, April 09, 2010

Where have I been?

Hi-ho! It's been a while since I've written in this space. I guess I have reached a strange blog burn-out. Not long after my Perth storm post, I received my first truly unpleasant comments on this blog. While I wasn't offended (they were just nasty with no sense or reason), I was put off from sharing in a way that is accessible to such people. Then, it seemed I came across blog after blog where people were having their content stolen. In the creepiest cases, people were finding their images were stolen and passed off as someone else's children! Very disturbing! Suddenly, putting myself and my family out in this public forum seemed far less appealing. I became unsure of what I wanted to share and with whom I was sharing it. Truth be told, I still don't know. I know our friends and family far away enjoy having this medium for checking in with us and being a part of our lives, and I would hate to lose that connection. I'm not sure what to do about the issues. Anonymity seems obvious, but it's not why I write. For the moment, I'm still pondering. If you have (constructive, appropriate) thoughts on this, please share them!

3 comments:

Karly said...

I don't have anything constructive to offer at this moment. Just wanted to say that I completely understand where you're coming from. Is there any way to do a blog or site where you need a password to have access? I know on some of the old Caring Bridge sites, you had the option of password protecting it, that way the people you wanted to be reading it could have the password, and others were not allowed to view the content. So sorry that you received nasty comments...I can't even imagine who would do that and it is so unneccesary and childish. I'll continue to think on it...if I come up with any other ideas for protecting the blog, I'll let you know.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everything Karly said (Karly, stop channeling me!) I am very disturbed someone would post a nasty comment, even in fun or to be a prank or whatever, it is disturbing. Any way to trace that sender and report them? But something else disturbs me even more than the nasty comment. Now that you have raised the issue, I would be very wary of posting more pictures for a while. I would rather you typed your narratives and send only massive e-mailings to friends and family then have you put in any jeopardy. To think your babies might be passed off as someone else's is appalling! From the blog, it might be easy to eventually "find" you and your family, and I really hate the thought of that!

From one concerned Mom to another,

Mom

Anonymous said...

Dear Jennifer, I'm glad that you guys are all right...I had missed hearing about your lives and thought that you were either on a well-deserved vacation, your house was so badly damaged by the storm that they had to completely rewire the house, or that some jerk had put you off your blog. Turns out that two of those were true..... It is a shame that you have to password protect your work, but it seems to be the best way to protect your privacy. There is no need to put up with obnoxious abuse. This blog is such a lovely memory for the girls (and for you and Markus) and I really admire your writing and photography skills as well as your commitment to giving your girls this precious gift. I hope that you won't stop blogging, but that you can explore some way to limit access to the general public.

Hugs,

Dawn