Tuesday, July 27, 2010

What’s going on with the blog? (Or big changes are a’coming)

~This is a long post but has some important information at the bottom.  So if you don’t read it, please at least read the last of the post.  Thank you.~

The plan was that I would write a catch up post tonight but I am so incredibly tired.  However, I did want to share some things that have been happening with the blog. 

(And this post will be pictureless…sorry!)

I love to blog.  Seriously.  I love to sit at the end of the day and share my thoughts and my pictures.  And I realize that it ends up going out all over the internet world for anyone to see.  So in an effort to protect my family, I try to keep some things anonymous. 

For one, I rarely use my children’s names. Two, I do not post where I live or my last name.  And three, I have chosen to use sitemeter to help me track the traffic coming to my blog.  (HAHA, I actually just typed “blob” instead of blog.  Of course, I changed it but the fact that I did that and that I think it is funny shows me that I am tired!)  :)

Anyway, back to the subject…the sitemeter button is at the bottom of my blog and I use it to keep my eye on what is going on around here.   Last week, I noticed something that had me a bit concerned so I decided to google my blog name.  And everything came up ok.  Then I googled my former site name and I was alarmed!  (And if you google my site name, it must be typed a certain way.  If you just google it, you might not see what I saw.  I really prefer not to say how I typed it but it is a widely used technique for finding the entire phrase and not just words in your phrase when you search for something.  The only reason I’m being secretive is because I don’t want you to stumble upon the mess that I found.)

So I googled my former site name (which is my address, by the way) and found…filth.  You can probably guess what I’m talking about too.  So if someone is to google my site name, typed this particular way, they will find a link that has my title but is linked to, well, you probably have figured out what.  (It was about the fifth search result on the page.)  ~Edited:  After I posted this post, I ran another google search on my blog and now there is only one “yucky” search result coming up and my blog name is not the title anymore.  Plus it is now showing up farther down in the search list.  That’s good.  I wish it were entirely gone because I really don’t feel like starting this blog over again. ~

And this scares me. 

It scares me for my children and it scares me for anyone who is searching for my site. 

And it makes me mad. 

I have poured my free time into this blog.  It is our life story from these past few months.  The preschool posts, oh…how much work I have put into those posts!  And I now am attached to something so…so…  I’m wordless…and mad!

I thought about deleting my blog because I don’t want to put my children at risk and I don’t want to put others at risk.  But after thinking, praying, and discussing with David, here is what I’m going to do:

  • I am going to make this blog private.

This blog contains too much of my work & life to just erase.  Also, others have expressed interest in my preschool posts.  So this blog will be made private within the next few days.  I will send out invitations to people to read it.  If you would like to be a reader, please let me know. (You can leave a comment or email me.  See my profile to email me.)  I’m not sure how much it will be updated but it will contain all of my former posts and I will post pictures that I don’t feel comfortable putting out to the entire world.

  • I am going to start two new blogs that will be public. 

I will start a new family blog and a homeschool blog.  My plan is to keep both of these blogs even more anonymous.  I will still share our lives and there will still be pictures but just a bit more anonymous.  I just feel that I need these blogs to stay connected to my friends and family who do not have blogger accounts.  Plus, I have met some wonderful people in blogdom and I don’t want to close off that opportunity.  If at any time I feel that these blogs are having the same problems as this one, they too will become private. 

These two blogs will be under construction hopefully sometime this week.  (We are really busy right now but I hope to do it this week.)  Once they are ready to go, this blog will become private.  I will post links to them as soon as I have started the blogs.  :)

  • I have removed the followers from my page because of some suspicious looking accounts that seemed to be spam.  I still have followers of this blog, they are just hidden from view.

The main reason that I follow blogs is so that they will appear in my google reader and I can read all posts from there.  That saves me time by keeping me from blog hopping too much.  And I have no problems with someone following anonymously if that is what he or she wants.  But if you are following this blog and you have not left me a link to your blog or links to blogs you follow, I become a bit concerned.  Please let me know something about you even if it is a quick, “hi, I’m following your blog” type of thing. 

  • I have started moderating comments. 

A week or so ago, there was a spam comment on my blog.  I did not click the links that were left, but I really didn’t want to either.  So I have started moderating comments so that I avoid spam and unwanted links around here.

I know that I might seem a bit over protective and melodramatic.  And maybe I am.  Trust me, I usually am NOT melodramatic.  But I’d rather err on the side of my children’s safety in this case. 

Ok, I think that’s all I’ve got tonight.  Please look out for links to my new blogs coming soon. 

Oh, and thanks for reading all of this if you did.  :)

 

6 comments:

  1. Adrian,
    I am so sorry that you have been dealing with this. I do understand the need to protect your family. Your blog (and wonderful ideas) have been such a blessing to me. I would love to keep reading your blog if you would add me to your list. I am also looking forward to your two new blogs. Thanks for sharing your heart.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ok: First- You are not being overprotective or melodramatic. You are protecting your family and that is very important.
    Second- please keep me attached to your blogs :) I have learned so much from you and am excited to learn more and continue our friendship.
    Third- Thank you for posting this. I hadn't really thought much about safety. I try to keep things somewhat annonymous, but I will be looking into it more, now. Thank you for the heads up!!!

    Kristina

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristina ~ Site meter is a really good thing to have on your blog to help monitor activity. It is free too for the basic service. That's always good in my book!

    By the way, I have made pages for my two new blogs because I was googling the names to make sure that they were "clean". The links are on my profile page but there is no content on the blogs yet.

    And thank y'all for understanding why I'm doing this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Darn,
    I left a comment earlier and it's not showing up.
    Sooo, Im gonna leave another and just incase that one comes up, just disreguard one of them.
    Well, you sure do make feel alot better.
    Its a sad thing when you have others that are just not respectful of your blog. We are homeschooling mamas for crying out loud!
    I have complete and utter admiration for you and your decison.
    You have inspired, encouraged,uplifted, and somedays...out right made me cry because of your sweet, sweet posts!
    This is one of my favortie places to visit {why?}
    because your REAL.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmmmm...Not sure what happened, Amanda. I really didn't want to have to moderate comments, but what do ya do, you know? I really might turn it off because I don't want others to not have comments turn up. I'd hate to think that someone would think that I'd not publish a comment. I'm just trying to avoid spam.

    And thank you. Your blog has inspried me in many,many ways. I don't think that I could even express it in words. I could pretty much say the same exact words about you too! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Darn,
    I left a comment earlier and it's not showing up.
    Sooo, Im gonna leave another and just incase that one comes up, just disreguard one of them.
    Well, you sure do make feel alot better.
    Its a sad thing when you have others that are just not respectful of your blog. We are homeschooling mamas for crying out loud!
    I have complete and utter admiration for you and your decison.
    You have inspired, encouraged,uplifted, and somedays...out right made me cry because of your sweet, sweet posts!
    This is one of my favortie places to visit {why?}
    because your REAL.

    ReplyDelete

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