Personal blogs and public space

[taelle]

Lately I've been thinking that quite a big part of the online quarrels/kerfuffles/what-have-you have as their origin the problem of blog privacy. Blogs manage to be a private and public space at the same time; what I write in my blog is intended for me and the firends I know that are reading me. And yet... let's even avoid the gossip problem. Let's

Comments

[chickenfeet2003]

My personal take on this is that anything I don't f-lock is fair game provided the visitor respects the normal rules of reasonable discourse. I know however that this far from a universal view having been banned from one blog for politely pointing out that the Conservative Party of Canada did contain a number of Christian fundamentalist ideologues. Some people just don't want their delusional bubble burst.

[taelle]

Yes - but I, for one, hesitate to comment if I'm a passerby. Especially if there's already a discussion going on - somehow to say something after a not-commented post is easier, because it does not give the feeling that you are intruding in a private conversation.

[yonmei]

I think it's slightly clearer on Livejournal: if the post isn't friends-locked, then the writer intended it to be public, and unless you have been specifically banned, you are free to comment.

Of course, the journal-owner is also free to friends-lock a post and ban you if they don't like your comment. :-)

In blogs, where you can't make the distinction, I do come down on the "it's on the web, comments are enabled, you can comment" side: though bearing in mind that if you are a total stranger, comments are likely to be received more politely the more polite you are.

[taelle]

Yes, but sometimes it becomes obvious that there are, maybe, degrees of publicness (not sure if that's a word). I've seen an occasion where someone fairly new to LJ and with a modest flist made a post stating something more or less controversial was linked to in a popular community - with the result of dozens of people coming in to argue what the author clearly did not intend to be an argument in a discussion.

[lauradi7]

Well, here I am as an example. We don't know each other, but you're on a friend's list so I occasionally read your posts. My feeling is that the internet is a billboard, and anything on it is public. It's my experience that private email should also be treated as thought it would be on a billboard. I've had a private emails quoted (without my permission) to email chat lists, and at least twice people on closed chat lists have forwarded my posts to people outside the group, who posted rude replies through their subscribed friends.

[taelle]

It's very sad when you can't even be private in a private mail.