Saturday, January 3, 2009

Sometime a girl needs her privacy

When I first started JournalSpace, I blogged anonymously. I needed my own space where I could write freely and semi-privately. I used no names or pictures so that I could talk about whatever I felt like writing about. It was therapeutic, really. And when my life went on a roller coaster of stress and problems, I could freely write about the stuff in my head and heart. For some reason, I found comfort in the arms of strangers. Sometimes the feedback and comments I got really helped me sort through my thoughts and sometimes they served as validation that someone out there was listening to me. Not that my real life friends don't give me that. However there was a different type of objectively given to me by those who didn't know me.

If I had a deep or personal issue, I enjoyed be able to post a "fav's only" entry and not worry about friends or family seeing it...especially if it was about them...LOL!I reserved pictures of me and my family to "fav's only" as well. It wasn't until late this year that I actually showed my face publicly. I noticed that when I did that, my writing changed and I was reluctant to get into the deep stuff. Aside from family, I feared that my clients could find my blog and read about my personal life and that's just not good for business.

So now I'm in an open journal with my mug clearly for all to see. I'm keeping it this way for now as I hope to find more of my JS friends but it will only be a matter of time before I will either need to go "private" for only fav's to see or set up an anonymous journal for my deep stuff. I really don't want two journals and I WISH that Blogger had fav's only posting capabilities.

Take for instance that right now I have some stuff that I would love to rant about but I can't. Everything I would say is based on facts but if it were read by certain people, feelings would be hurt and drama would begin.

Damn you, JS, for shutting down! I need my private entries! AND I paid for ProAcess for a year. I'm not counting on a refund but the administrators could have at least sent us an email and apologized and explained. Not very professional. Okay, rant over.

7 comments:

becomingkate said...

Maybe if all the JSers requested that feature, they'd add it. I haven't even looked around for any admin section yet, lol.
I really like "faves only", especially since I used to be linked to FB!

Labetine said...

I rarely used the faves only but it's nice once in a while. I miss the PM feature and the home page the most.

BonnieBehave said...

Yeah, I miss some of those nice features. A good homepage here would be helpful. But for the most part the transition hasn't been so bad.

I do get missing the ability to block entries with favorites only. I used that every so often with delicate situations.

greeneyes67 said...

I know what you mean. I really miss that option. And the Private Messages too. Do they even have a home page here?? I miss that. Oh well, at least we can stay in contact right???

Cin said...

I don't like that it does'nt give you the option to have private entries either and I wish we could send pms as well.Did I ever tell you thank you for my beautiful Christmas card of the boys? If not thank you and I love it:) I have 3 now and I always put them on my tree every year and I hope they keep coming year after year:)

paulafrances said...

Linda my email is lovezao@gmail.com if you ever want to vent. I know what you mean I edit a lot for public consumption, but a i am person who processes by talking.
I don't know how well I can move around any more though. I'm surprised at how willing I am to try to find people and learn a new place. It shows me that js meant more to me than i thought.
You are one of the ones I care about....
Paula

paulafrances said...

p.s. I was always a paid member on js, I felt that they would keep my entries "in the cloud", obtainable. Blogger seems to be stable- there is a lot of value in that for me. The entries about my moms death, and some others, I wish I had written on paper.