This is a meme for which I was tagged by Sidney almost two months ago. I am a really bad tagged-friend to respond to it so late. This meme revolves around 6 weird things about you. Following are 6 of the smallest or most general or visible weird things that others consider weird about me. If you wish, you can also read my introductory post which describes what memes are.
Today’s question brings forth your relationship life into your online public life. I see more and more people online everyday telling others whether or not they are single. Do you like sharing with others online your relationship status, like being single, married, divorced or engaged?
You may post about your relationship status on your blog’s “About” page, or you may also post about your relationship in your online comment signatures. You may also list your relationship status on different social networking profiles for others else to see.
There is a stereotype that personal blogs can only talk about personal life stories. On the contrary, personal blogs can and do talk about almost anything including business, politics, relationships, blogging, etc. Similarly, many non-personal blogs can talk about one’s offline life stories. In this article, I am talking specifically about sharing personal offline life stories in the online world, like on blog posts or any website.
If you write something about your offline life or come across a writing talking about someone in the offline world, chances are there can be a couple of reasons why many people would consider such writing to be bad. To see how sharing your offline life online can be done both in a relaxed and mature fashion, following are 5 reasons why talking about the offline life can be bad in the online world if you are not careful.
In addition to being fun, this can be a very serious question, whether you are a blogger or a commentor. I consider this a very important question myself. Do you like interacting with bloggers and commentors outside of a blog?
Sometimes, you may find that a blog can be the perfect, and only place, to interact with people depending on their characters or preference. At other times, you may notice that you can approach and interact with people on more levels than simply on a blog through the blog comments area.
The same way many people share other people’s personal and private information in public, I am noticing an increasing trend online where bloggers and others will share other’s private information, entrusted only to them, in one form or another. I am also noticing that some people keep repeating the “I want to share your personal life details” behavior even when advised against it.
[This post was originally supposed to go online yesterday, but it didn't. I am not sure why; I apologize for the 3 hour-delay.]
The same way people assume things about you and other people in the offline world, many people assume things about you and others in the online world. On the internet, there can be many chances of misunderstanding things. While one of the best things to do online is to question things before assuming something, many people simply prefer assuming and stereotyping things instead of finding out the reality.
Following is a list of 5 normal things that I notice people assuming about others online on a regular basis.
Today’s question can be one of the most important questions, if not the most important question, for many bloggers. Why do you blog? If you run a website which is not a blog, why do you run that website?
There could be a lot of reasons why you may be blogging. You may do it for personal reasons, and you may be blogging for non-personal reasons. Some of the specific, different reasons you may blog is because you may want to:
This is a fun question that can apply to your personally, as it depends on both your online and offline life. Do you feel obligated to blog regularly?
You may post daily, week, or on some other fixed schedule on your blog. You may also blog around a form of a regular schedule that revolves around things other than a specific time frame itself; you may base your posting schedule around offline events, your online and offline time schedule, etc. As shown below, there could be a few reasons why you may feel obligated to post on your blog on any kind of a regular schedule.
Valerie and I were looking at several real estate listings last night, both in California and Missouri. A house with 4 bedrooms was for $329,700, while another one with 5 bedrooms was for $2.7 million. One house with two garages was for around $495,990, while another one with multiple garages was for around $19 million. For a certain price, you could buy an area on this earth that could hopefully belong to your name forever, unless a meteor comes along and changes things.
Valerie and I wondered if everyone who could afford those multi-million dollar homes was a drug lord. I know some of them are, for when you go out drinking with people, some of them will reveal the things they do to make their first million. It can indeed be a good thing to go out drinking with different people; you’ll learn how people do things like dealing with illegal drugs, even in counties and cities considered the safest in the country.
Today, I am thinking about the homes and the future of the online world, and not drugs. What I am thinking about is the online equivalent of homes. What are they? What is it in the online world, that you consider as important as your house?
This should be a fun question to think about, specially if you sometimes wonder whether you are a true friend or a true business person. Do you treat the people you know online, friends and others, the same way you treat friends and others in the offline world?
I talked about the possibility of treating online friends like offline friends earlier this year, and SP and Vera offered excellent views and opinions regarding the topic, like how it can be hard to find out if a person is a true friend online, or how online friends have something in common with you. Among some other variations, you could be treating online people the same, better or a bit worse or less than the way you treat your offline friends.
I have been asking more and more of my friends lately about their blogs, and whether or not they are on networks like Facebook, MySpace or Mixi. Most people are on some kind of a network, while many people prefer “not wasting any time” on such online trends.
“Stop by my work and say hi” has changed to “Visit my blog and comment” for many people. The number of comments you leave for someone seems to signify the level of friendship for many people, the way the number of phone calls or text message to a friend may signify your level of commitment to that friend during chaotic times or during disagreements. “I’m sorry I shouted at you” has been replaced, for many, by “I’m sorry I posted something that disagreed with you.”
Are we making blogs part of our relationships, like friendships and others, even though in the offline world we usually do not make things, other than ourselves, part of friendships? I think everyone is approaching this question uniquely, while arriving at one of the many results, like yes, no, maybe, and it depends. How about you?
“This person has signed off and cannot receive your messages.” Have you ever gotten a similar message on any instant messenger? You may be talking to someone and they may bid farewell quickly and just log off. You do not need to feel bad; many people have various reasons for hiding from you, and probably others, online. People may even just go offline on instant messengers because they have to focus on other things online, like blogging or checking e-mails.
You yourself may be hiding from people on instant messengers for various reasons. You may even e-mail people every hour, but keep away from chatting live with people. Whatever the reason, you may be doing it on an almost daily basis. Finding out some various reasons for some action may allow one to find out how that action is affecting us and others around us in the online world.
This should be both an interesting and a very important question to ask yourself. When it comes to your blog or your site, do you want your friends and family, that you know in person, to know about your blog?
With so many people focusing on getting their content indexed by search engines, it is becoming even more important for many people to find ways to have search engines stay away from their blogs. Why would anyone want search engines to not crawl their blogs? Well, there is one simple reason why: a blogger may not want their offline contacts to know about their blog.
