In a very strange twist of events, someone who I never imagined would find my writings online found my writings online. Thankfully, despite the fact that I had written quite a lot about them, they turned out to be decent about the whole thing, quite cool, and actually sent me a link to their own writing online. So… that crisis is averted. However…
I figured out how they found me (carelessness, really, on my part) and I've done what I can to correct it so I'm not found that way again. But, it stills scares me that someone less cool will find me and cause some real trouble. And that isn't good.
This is also the reason I've been quiet lately… trying to sort it all out. It still isn't sorted out but I've decided that preventing my real name from linking to this site is almost impossible. So, I have four choices…
a) write publicly somewhere else with no link or connection here and use code names for everything and everyone and keep out any ounce of personally identifiable information and only allow people I really, really, really trust to know that that site belongs to me. This is awesome because I can still be public, the lurkers can still lurk, and I can still share with whoever cares to read. This is bad because if someone that I "trust" makes a mistake or falls out with me somehow, the entire site is put in Jeopardy.
b) use a password protected medium and permit only those I wish to share with to read (i.e. friends only in LJ, password protected in wordpress, etc). This is awesome because I can still write freely without worry about whose name I'm using where. This is bad because I'll never make NEW friends this way since people who aren't in the circle can't be in the circle. However, if I use my regular account for this writing at least I can make friends there and bring them into the fold.
c) create an email list for updates up a truly personal nature and use that instead. This actually works quite well except that a lot of people don't really care for getting email like this. At least… I think that's true. Thoughts?
d) stop writing anything personal online in any form. save it for telephone calls and conversations over coffee. My least favorite option. Not that I don't like coffee and telephone calls… but a lot of people are very used to catching up with me in this online manner, and I'm very used to doing the same with others.
Your thoughts are appreciated.
