Friends Only
I used to think that people who kept their journals friends-only were being pompous, ridiculous, or just plain silly. But after 4 years of maintaining a public journal, and over 8 years of blogging, I've discovered that there are people, scary people, that will watch your every move. It's creepy. I've had run-ins with old friends, mothers of crazy ex-girlfriends of family members, people who know me offline that don't like me, co-workers, my boss, and I've been stalked by my estranged father.
Instead of removing myself from the internet completely, I figured the next best step would be to protect my private life online. It's not that I have anything to hide; I just want to know who I'm revealing it to. This way, I don't have to be afraid that my father has figured out my new address, I don't have to get angry phone calls from someone's mother demanding I delete or rewrite an entry because they feel that their daughter was potrayed in an unflattering light, I don't have to listen to people whispering rumours that I'm posting nude pictures of myself (no such pictures exist, sorry to get your hopes up), and so on.
So leave me a comment if you want to read. I don't care where you come from or how you know, or don't know, me. All I care about is that you don't fall into that category of people that don't belong here.