Real Blog Safety at Friday, November 07, 2008

If you haven't yet, scroll down and read the previous post first.

Before I get into what safety precautions I have taken let me state one rule that you should always live by when posting to a blog: "Once you post it you can't take it back"

Always think about that before posting to your blog. Sure you can take down the posting, but what if it is archived, what if someone has copied or downloaded it? As our president elect found out, even if a web site is changed it doesn't mean it's gone: Obama and the New Party. And once you post a picture or a video someone can download it, change it and repost it. So abide by the basic rule "Once you post it you can't take it back".

Moderate comments. There are lots of settings for comment moderation, you choose the level best for you. I used to have the family blog set so that a comment wouldn't appear until I approved it. I have recently changed things so that each comment gets posted immediately but also sent to my phone. I have yet to have a problem, but if I do I'll likely know about it before the poster has left the site. Turn on the verification word feature for sure, it's a minor inconvenience for the poster but it keeps out spam bots. If you don't like a comment delete it, simple as that. This blog was left unattended for three years with fully open comments and I only get four spam comments. Nothing bad, not even selling anything. Just "Hi this is joe, i found your blog intriguing, check out mine whatever.blogspot.com". I deleted them and things are fine.

Remove your blog from search engines and blogger listings. That way anyone can access your blog but only if they have the address. Remember that if you post your blog address somewhere anyone can access it. If you post it on your facebook or myspace, anyone that can see those pages can access your blog. Also if you post it on a support forum asking for help with something anyone can access it.

I have not changed my blog to invited readers only or password protected, nor do I plan to. We have too many family members who wouldn't bother to look at it if they had to sign in or remember a password. I don't feel that that lever of security is necessary or advisable.

I plan to continue to post pictures of my children even though ksl advises against it. The whole purpose of my family blog is to post pictures of my kids. Without those no one would come look at my blog. (If you don't believe me you should look at the pageviews that the family blog gets vs this one.)

The ksl article also warns the public not to post their address. I can agree with that in part. Don't write your address in the postings, "I live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500 (202) 456-1111." But I am less concerned with taking a photo of the front of your house and accidentally having your house number show up. If someone sees that your house number is 185, even if they know you live in say Payson, I count 65 potential places where that house could lie. Say you can eliminate some in commercial areas, that still leaves over 50 places to check. that's a lot of driving. Even if they are smart enough to search on google street view it will still take a few hours to check out all 60+/- potential locations. Your address is on file in many public records and can be found much easier than that.

Add google analytics. It's fairly easy, and offers you lots of information. How many visits you get, how long do people stay, did they type in your address or link from another site, what city they're in, who provides their internet, what connection speed their on, what they click on in your site, what browser they're using and a lot more. It lets you know who is accessing your site. As a side benefit you can use those results to improve your blog.

Some people recommend never using real names, just aliases. I find that to be confusing to many of my audience and more work than it's worth. If your target audience is family and friends I would suggest that you not bother. If you plan to target people you've never met I would recommend using fake names.

This site mentions many things I have brought up and adds a few, I'd recommend everyone check it out, especially if you have kids, teenage siblings, or nieces and nephews that are into blogs or social networking (facebook, myspace).

If you have any questions on how to implement any of these measures don't hesitate to ask. If you do something I haven't mentioned submit a comment and I'll add it.

Again remember the number 1 rule: "Once you post it you can't take it back" would you be comfortable with a stranger reading it?