let's take it back to the prologue...

It's interesting how little time it takes before people find their way over here. Don't get me wrong... I love it. If I didn't want to share, I wouldn't be here and definitely wouldn't be posting so regularly. However, some comments as of late made me feel the need to list my thoughts on blog etiquette.

I was curious the other day and googled blog etiquette, and found an interesting hodge-podge of comments on do's and don'ts ... some of which I agreed with, and others to which I did not. I think you can blog without fearing your career is on the line or without feeling like your right to some form of privacy is being voluntarily relinquished.

In the absence of any form of good blog etiquette to reference, which was my original goal, I thought I'd pull a quick list of where I've chosen to draw some of my personal lines...

• You'll notice I don't use real names. Just because I've decided I want to write about things I'm encountering and things I think doesn't mean my friends have signed on to do the same. It's just a respect thing.
• I don't focus on extremely personal stories, be it mine, my friends, or members of my family. There's a line between private and public. Some of that just never will have a place here. I honor that. If we're friends, there's no need to feel like you have to hold back or worry that I'll divulge something private here. That's definitely not the point of this at all.
• I'm not going to air out details of any recent break-ups here. What's the point in that? I'll tell you how annoying someone was in their lack of respect towards others on the metro ... that's an angry incident in passing, no long-term damage done. Relationships ending or the process thereof is more of a different type of pain... something you might say something about and then turn out to regret it. It's hard to see the big picture at that point... the value of each stop along the road... so I'm not planning on going there. Friends-only turf.
• I try to talk about stuff that's not an impulse feeling here. Anything posted online is truly a lasting record (if you're not already aware, it is possible to pull up things pretty much from any point in time that were online, whether they've since been taken down), and if I'm not ready to live with it and it doesn't represent what I'm likely to think tomorrow, it's not going to be here.
• I do revise, from time to time. I'm a self-admitted perfectionist, so if you skim back to an old post, you may see a few things which have changed here and there. Don't be alarmed. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. {Phew} If you use a blog notifier, like my trusty Bloglines notifier, you probably get harrassing notifications every tweak I make. Sorry for that... anyhow, isn't the saying all great writers revise? I like to think that this trait is just at least one guaranteed connection between this humble blogger and the greats, past and present.