How to Tell if Someone is Stalking Your Blog
But with site monitoring tools such as SiteMeter, for example, clues are left as to who may be visiting your blog-not only by keyword search, but by location, Internet provider, company name, entry point, and exit point to name a few. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put the clues together-not only to who is reading or commenting anonymously on your blog but how often.
Mothers may joke that they're keeping track of their kids at college by reading their blog, but sometimes the blog reader isn't always a friendly one. Try as you may to be even-handed while expressing your point of view on your blog, you never know what sets a person off in their comment rant.
And in today's world, it's not just your blog you have to worry about. Some writers report that exes and their new significant other write negative reviews of their books on online sites such as amazon.com-anonymously, of course. Or ex-friends or family members who you have chosen not to interact with any longer decide to take advantage of your online presence and leave anonymous comments on your blog.
Commenting anonymously, while it may have its uses in certain sensitive areas, is an act of cowardice. If you're not willing to say something to somebody's face or at least sign your name, you shouldn't say it at all. Computers and blogs with anonymous commenting features make it all too easy for somebody in a fit of anger to lash out. And they may regret it later. Certainly, you may, as a blog owner, find it unpleasant, to say the least.
There are several things you can do if you're being harassed by comments:
-Turn off commenting
-Leave commenting on but moderate your comments
-Allow registered users only to comment (no anonymous comments)
-Limit the access to your blog by inviting a select group of people to read it's also wise to think about the objective of your blog and to state your mission, to express yourself without naming names in a derogatory manner of people you know personally, and always be aware that no matter how clear your writing is and how well-rounded, some people will misunderstand what you're saying anyway. You sometimes wonder if anybody is actually reading what you're saying because their comments don't seem to have anything to do with the post at hand. Sometimes you just have to shrug it off.
Creativity is risky business even without easy public access to it. And with so many people going online to express themselves and/or promote their art, writing, or their business, how's a person to feel safe? As W.A. Mathieu said, "The problem is how to be open enough and safe enough at the same time" when it comes to expressing yourself and your creativity.
Here are additional tips for bloggers to keep in mind, as reported in an article on ProBlogger.
Published by Kathy Holmes
Kathy Holmes is a novelist writing romantic women's fiction with attitude. She can be reached through her web site at http://www.kathyholmes.net. View profile
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5 Comments
Post a CommentThe article was written partly in humor and partly to address some issues the writing community was discussing at the time. Sitemeter is a useful feedback tool for any web-based business for targeting marketing efforts. It is also amusing to use to verify a visitor if you've received something out of the ordinary. Bloggers also have the option to allow comments, not allow comments, or moderate comments. How they interact with commenters is their decision. Not every "letter to the editor" is published - same for comments on blogs.
These are useful observations when it comes to commenting, but the idea of a reader "stalking" a public site is absurd. If I read my newspaper every day, ten times a day, looking for different news or a fresh perspective I'm not "stalking" it. I'm reading public content. Your point about the harassing anonymous comments is well taken, and I agree completely. Secretly tracking who visits public blogs is much more creepy than clicking around the internet and reading publicly published content. Bloggers who fear readers shouldn't post on the internet.
SALLLAMMALIKUM BRUVASZ
Stalking can also come in the form of suppression of information. Web censorship is the newest form
of it. Speaking out against the War in Iraq and about the fat hysteria has made me a victim of this.
Now, I'm receiving subtly-veiled death threats, phone tampering, email tampering, car tampering, being
followed and threatened for these things. I know whose behind it: a sick, sad man from New York City.
Fascism is upon us. I know this is not the kind of stalking that you write about but you musn't live your
life in fear. I've learned to live my life as if each day is my last. I've seen first-hand how the suppression
of information and instilling fear into people, particularly women, renders them powerless. You must
be brave and surround yourself with the white light of the Holy Spirit. Only then will you gain true power
over your enemies. Good luck!
For my personal "fun blog" I leave the comments on the blogs open to all-comers. I get some real jokers leaving comments, one chronic harasser, some lively discussions from out of nowhere if the topic spreads virally. I have pretty thick skin, but for the blogs that have a business purpose, I monitor commenting and require the user to register first.