Since You Asked, I’ll Answer

I think in the history of my little blog I’ve written an “advice”-type post approximately, oh, never (reason? because I have very little wisdom to share), and I’m reluctant to start doing so now. But in light of the emails I’ve received since I put up the link to Shannon’s post about internet safety, I think maybe it’s time to throw my two cents in the bloggy opinion bank, if for no other reason than to answer the questions that some of y’all have asked.

So here we go. Questions are in bold.

I only recently started reading blogs. Is it wrong of me to “lurk”? Should I comment?

Listen. If lurking were against the law, I’d have been in jail five times over. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with lurking. And there’s certainly no rule that says you have to comment on every single post (or I’d be in jail a hundred times over).

But I will say this: sometimes it’s just nice to know who’s reading.

You certainly shouldn’t feel pressured to comment, and if you’re more comfortable hanging back and reading and not saying anything then, hey, by all means, do your thang. 

What in the sam hill is a stat counter?

A stat counter is a little technical doo-hickey that lets a blogger know who’s visiting when. It shows referrals, number of visitors, IP addresses of visitors, and, depending on the internet service provider, the city and state where the visitor’s computer is.

It does not reveal your name, your children’s names, your favorite food or what color shirt you wore to the Sadie Hawkins dance in 9th grade.

Stat counters typically only keep a record of the last 100 visits. So, if you have a lot of blog traffic, it’s nearly impossible to monitor who’s coming and going. However, a stat counter does let you know if someone arrives at your blog via a weird search engine query like Shannon mentioned yesterday, and for that reason alone, I don’t see how you can have a blog and live without one.

What do I do if I see a weird search engine query on my SiteMeter or StatCounter?

First of all, you can check what queries are leading people to your blog by clicking on “referrals” once you’ve logged in to your stat counter. If you see something odd, write down the IP address of the person who used that query to get to your blog. Then, if the query indicates that someone is looking for content that might be illegal, notify the person’s internet service provider – you’ll find that info by clicking on the number next to the reference in SiteMeter and by clicking on the magnifying glass in StatCounter. I would suggest taking a screen shot of the information, and you can include that as an attachment when you report the IP address.

Is it okay for me to look through blog archives if I’m not commenting? Would that make a blogger uncomfortable?

It’s always okay to look through blog archives. That’s what they’re there for. And when I find a new blog that I love, there’s nothing more fun than going back through all those old posts, getting up to speed on who’s who and what’s what, finding hilarious little treasures tucked away here and there.

That being said, it’s ALWAYS great to know who’s reading. ALWAYS. So if you’re uncomfortable leaving a comment that says, “Hey, just found your blog, enjoying looking through the archives” – then you can always send an email to the blogger. Or you can stay quiet. Totally up to you.

Should I take down all my pictures on my blog? Shannon’s post scared me a little bit.

I can’t speak for Shannon, but what I took from her post yesterday is that whether we post pictures of our kids or not, we should always, always THINK ABOUT what we’re putting out there. It’s especially easy in our little (mostly) Christian corner of blogland to assume that everyone who’s reading is a really nice person who loves the Lord. But that’s a pretty naive perspective.

And I’ll confess: after I read Shannon’s post yesterday, my very first reaction was to run back over here and take down the picture of A. in his little kah-rah-tay uniform. All I could think about were the FREAKS! FREAKY PEOPLE! who were trolling the interweb for perfectly innocent stuff so that they could turn around and make it bad.

I have absolutely no idea what that will mean for me from here on out. I’m a very, very trusting person…and I think that’s why Shannon’s post was such an eye-opener for me. Certainly this issue is going to be something that D. and I will talk about and pray about. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.

And please, please understand this: if you’re thinking that what Shannon mentioned yesterday can’t possibly happen to you because you don’t have much blog traffic, you are wrong. No matter how small you may think your blog is, any search engine can reference it, any person can find it, and nothing is ever, ever deleted – even if you hit the delete button.

So if you can’t live with what you put on your blog being “out there” forever and ever, don’t post it. I can’t say that enough.

Is it okay if I use my real name on my blog?

I think the answer for this question, like the picture-posting deal, is different for everybody.

I would never, ever post our last name. If you have someone’s first name and last name and know what state they live in, you can find their address on a search engine in about five seconds. If you can find an address, you can find what school district that address would use. I don’t think I have to go much farther down that particular slippery slope to tell you how dangerous that information could be in the wrong hands.

There’s a fine line, you know? And how we navigate that line is going to be different for all of us.

Okay. I think I’ve bored you sufficiently for one morning. But, if you have a blog or if you’re thinking about starting one, you definitely need to think about this stuff. Your family deserves no less.

And we’ll get back to our regular, semi-humorous programming sometime later today.

Thanks, y’all, for reading.