By Tumperkin
I’ve been pondering the extent to which blogging is a public or private concern. The answer might seem obvious at first sight but the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets.
The public and private realms are not, of course, separate. They co-exist and overlap. The public realm includes the state, institutions, media. The private realm, home, families, identity. Public law, put simply, governs the relationship between the person and the state; private law governs relations between persons. What goes on in one’s own home, is not, generally a matter for the state. However, there are certain activities – crimes for example – that are not permitted to take place even in the purely private realm. In these situations the public cuts across the private. Similarly, certain lawful activities which are private may be considered to be of public interest, such as the sexual proclivities of public figures. So identifying something as public or private is not always straightforward.
Blogging, at first sight, is plainly a public activity. Blogs exists on the web and are generally publicly accessible and searchable. A recent judgement by the English High Court confirms that English law views blogging as ‘essentially public in nature’.
But is that how bloggers see it? Romance bloggers in particular?
One thing that I’ve found striking is that bloggers have a strong sense of place. Comments like, head over to X’s place to check out her post on A, are endemic. Yet a blog has no physical reality. It’s just a bunch of code buzzing around on the ether. And yet bloggers are proprietary about their ‘space’. They go to great efforts to make it attractive and decorative. Some of them explain their blogs’ values and policies (rating systems, approach to comment moderation, how they expect people to behave while commenting etc.). People who read and comment are ‘visitors’. They may or may not be ‘welcomed’. They may even be ‘banned’.
Blog software recognises that blogs have owners. The blog owner chooses the URL and if they decided to pull the plug and delete the whole blog, all the carefully crafted comments are deleted too without reference to the poster of the comment. Blog owners can choose certain criteria for the comment function, for example, by refusing to allow comments to be left anonymously or restricting the group who may comment. Comments can also be deleted at a later stage. History can be rewritten by the blog owner in this way. (Whilst this troubles me slightly, I have myself used this function once, when someone left a bizarre rant on one of my posts a full year after I posted it). Bloggers can also sell their space to advertisers. All of these points demonstrate that blogs do have private characteristics.
In terms of perception, I think it goes further than that. The ability to control – to a degree – what happens on a blog can give blogging a sense of happening in the private realm. This is especially so in a relatively small community like the romance-blogging community where there is a high degree of predictability as to who may ‘frequent’ certain blogs. In short, I suspect that it doesn’t *feel* public to a lot of people.
Does it matter? Well, a couple of recent cases have sought to identify anonymous bloggers through the courts on public interest grounds such as the one linked to above and this more recent example in the US, so yes, it could matters to some bloggers a great deal. But it has a day-to-day significance, too, which is how bloggers and readers of blogs relate to one another; how we post and how we comment on other people’s posts.
Are blogs like a shop window? A private space which browsers may enter provided they meet certain rules (which may or may not be evident from the face of the blog itself)? Or are they more like a soapbox set down in the street? An appropriation of public space by an individual to spout their views?
Is it for the visitor to accept the blog-owner’s paradigm? Or ought the blog-owner to accept that they are occupying a public space and live with the consequences of that, subject to the availability of tools that enable them to pre- and post- select comments?
How do you view your blog? The blogs of others? Is this activity public, private, or a mixture of both?
Related posts:
- Who in RL Knows About Your Blog? I haven’t told anyone in real life besides my spouse and my mom about this blog. But I also haven’t...
- Quick Reflections on Blogging: The First 100 Days Don’t be shocked by tone of my voice Check out my new weapon, weapon of choice Fatboy Slim, Weapon of...
- Blogging At Borders True Romance: The Results I’m up early for my flight home and thought I would let folks know what the Borders blogging experience was...
- Romance Blogging Resolutions for 2009 So I remember what I planned to do, and can berate myself appropriately next year at this time. [I am...
- Vacation — a great way to start blogging. Not. Ok, so starting a blog a few days before I took off on summer vacation was maybe not the best...
- The Case of the Mysteriously Appearing TBR Pile [This is part one of a two part post on my relationship to my TBR pile.] I’ve been thinking about...
#1 by heidenkind on September 9, 2009 - 8:32 pm
I think blogs are completely public, yes; but a visitor to the blog implicitly accepts the terms of the blog and its owner/s when they visit. Kind of like the metaphor of a shop window–yeah, shops are public spaces, but the owners still have the right to throw people out because it’s private property. Just because you have a public space doesn’t mean the public owns it.
#2 by Sherry Thomas on September 9, 2009 - 8:45 pm
I don’t think of blogs as homes, but more as front yards.
It belongs to you. You may decorate it and personalize it as much as you wish. You have the right to decide who is or isn’t allowed on the said yard.
But you’d better not do anything on it you don’t want all your neighbors to see.
And I follow this even more strictly in cyberlife than in real life, where if it is 3 o’clock in the morning, and I need something from the car, and am too sleepy to find my robe, I will dash out in my underthings. On the web, there is no such thing as obscuring darkness at 3 in the morning–and I had better be sure I’m never in my underthings.
#3 by Jessica Kennedy on September 9, 2009 - 9:35 pm
Sherry Thomas wrote:
Awesome. Love this. Agree completely.
#4 by Heloise on September 9, 2009 - 9:38 pm
@ Sherry Thomas:
What she said! Really the analogy is so perfect.
If you feel the need to be liked by your neighbors you consider their desires more as you are making decisions about your yard, but if you really could give a flying (well you get the picture) about them, you act accordingly. Same with blogging.
#5 by Nicola O. on September 9, 2009 - 11:19 pm
Public law, put simply, governs the relationship between the person and the state; private law governs relations between persons.
In these terms, the blog would have to be private. What does my blog have to do with the state? Leaving aside some very edge cases like hate speech, nothing at all. Most non-commercial blogs are about people interacting with each other and sharing ideas.
As for behavior, yeah, Ms. Thomas’ analogy is excellent. I am just slightly better-behaved online than I am IRL.
#6 by Sybil on September 10, 2009 - 12:47 am
lol I don’t give it that much thought… shocking I know
I will go with sherry’s analogy, it works.
I go with the idea that nothing dies on the net. And don’t behave better or worse online than I would off. Anything I say in print (in a comment, in an email, in a post) I put my name to be it sybil or redwyne. If it is private, I go with the idea it will stay that way unless I say otherwise, but will own it if it doesn’t. Cuz shit happens – thanks LLB (yes and I remember everything forever and ever)
As far as my blog goes, I aim for trying to never delete any comments. If it is a horrid flame directed at me it will stay, if it is directed at one of the reviewers I would leave it up to them with a ‘want’ to leave it. Cuz I hate to delete crap. If I feel I have screwed up and posted something I shouldn’t have I will, post something to correct it but leave up the first. Because nothing dies on the net.
We allow anon posts and you have to put an email but it can be fake@fake.com and it would take it. It is to help stop bots more than anything. Of course to be fair I do think of it as mine, mine, mine so I guess the answer would be private not public.
#7 by Laura Vivanco on September 10, 2009 - 3:16 am
I’d go for your “shop window” metaphor, because I’m posting under my real name, my blog is part of my work, I’m writing posts for a very small group of potential “buyers,” and they’re made available for “sale” in a space that’s open to the public. I have some regular buyers and quite a few people go by, look in the window, and walk past, or just drop in occasionally. Billions never turn up in my street at all.
My co-workers and I rent our shop from Blogger, and if we were to break the terms of our lease, they’d terminate the contract. We are not, however, bound by the Sale of Goods Act.
#8 by SarahT on September 10, 2009 - 4:16 am
I’m also going to go with Sherry’s analogy.
What I struggle with at times is how much of the personal to put into my posts. As a blog visitor, my preference is for those blogs which include a bit of the personal in their posts. It gives the blogger a distinctive voice and makes them more than just another anonymous conduit of information.
On the other hand, it’s not wise to give out too many details online as you never know who’s reading. So it’s a bit of a conundrum.
#9 by KristieJ on September 10, 2009 - 7:37 am
I think of blogs as homes in cyberspace and message boards as neighbourhoods. I enjoy both. Sometimes I’m just in the mood for a small chat, other times I feel like conversing with a bunch of neighbours.
And as such, I try and treat fellow bloggers I visit as I would in their home. If I disagree with them, I’m not going to show a lack of respect or bring up a subject I know is important to them and trash it. In my own blog about the only thing I won’t talk about is where I work – because that would be bringing them into it and I consider it a breach of trust between me and my employer.
#10 by Tumperkin on September 10, 2009 - 7:59 am
Your comments are all so interesting. I find it fascinating how this notion of place resonates through almost all of them. Obviously the language of the web informs this.
Heidenkind – you say ‘just because it’s a public space it doesn’t mean the public owns it’ – do you mean you see a blog as a private space that is ‘open to the public’?
Sherry – you say ‘it belongs to you’ – most of the others agree
Sybil says – ‘I think of it as mine mine mine’
But what is it that the blogger actually owns? Because this isn’t a real physical space. It feels like a space but it might as well be grafitti on a wall.
Whilst blogger software enables you to exclude certain groups of people (the whole world/ anyone who is not a member/ anyone who won’t leave identifying information) is that the same as the rights an owner of private property has in relation to real-world visitors? I don’t think it is.
Similarly, Heidenkind says that visitors ‘implicitly accept’ the terms of the blog when they visit – but how can that be if you don’t know what the terms are? To take a legal analogy, terms and conditions of a contract have to be notified to be binding. I don’t visit any blogs that set out any rules or terms on their home page. And what would status would such rules have anyway? What is the bloggers sanction if the rules aren’t followed? She can change the set up of her blog but she can’t actually punish the rule-breaker (except socially)
Where these issues arise and a ‘sanction’ is imposed, the sanction is generally the blogger asking the offending visitor to go away. But do bloggers have any legal right to exclude given the fact that the blog is set up as in a public domain? I think not. (Note use of the word ‘think’. You can probably tell that media and technology is not my field as a lawyer!)
I suppose you might (and quite justifiably) say in response to this: who cares? Does it really matter. Most of these things work out in the wash anyway. And the pragmatist in me (who generally gains the upper hand eventually) agrees with that. But I’m not really posing these questions because they need to be answered. I’m posing them because they’re interesting (to me anyway) and because they inform how we relate to one another and to our own motives and reasoning as regards how we blog and comment and so on.
For my own part, I find the soapbox/ graffiti analogy more appropriate.
#11 by Tumperkin on September 10, 2009 - 8:07 am
Kristie J – my sense of you as a person is that you probably wouldn’t show a lack of respect to anyone in public or private so I don’t probably agree with the analogy of visiting someone in their own home. It strikes me that the point you are making is more (to my mind anyway) about courteousness and how you relate to people on a personal level. Personal relations are important to both the public and the private realm. We generally all modify our behaviour in public but we are still expected to be civil and courteous.
#12 by azteclady on September 10, 2009 - 9:19 am
While it may not have physical substance, if a person or group of people are paying for the use of the servers, etc. it does make it theirs, doesn’t it? It does give them rights to set rules, close their doors for posting or lurking, etc.
Obviously, this doesn’t address people using ‘free’ software
Love the question, Tumperkin! (even if my brain is still not engaged enough to be coherent when trying to answer it)
#13 by Carolyn Crane on September 10, 2009 - 9:53 am
This is an interesting discussion. I do find myself thinking of my blog as a place. And the graffiti analogy, while uncomfortable, because it goes against that sense of property ownership, does feel sort of accurate. Because the blog feels like something real, but is also transitory. Like graffiti, it could be sandblasted away. Though then again, with graffiti, somebody actually owns the thing the graffiti is on. Though, if the internet is a building, it does seem that corporations like Verizon are in fact trying to buy the building and control who says what.
I sort of think of my blog as an ice cream truck going around the neighborhood, and my posts are like an ice cream truck’s music and decorations. And nobody can tell me how to run it, but I can’t go poisoning people either. Or maybe like a street corner taco stand or something. Or maybe I’m just hungry.
#14 by Nicola O. on September 10, 2009 - 12:52 pm
Someone I used to post with frequently insists that the place analogies are incorrect; that all web content is a *publication*, like flyers on a bulletin board or books in library.
The flaw in that argument is that it doesn’t account for the interactiveness of the internet. Perhaps the closest publication analogy would be letters to the editor in a newspaper?
#15 by Janet W on September 10, 2009 - 10:27 pm
I really don’t know. Is it public or is it private? Obviously your blog is your private playground: your rules, your terms, your guests. But once it’s public, then the public is going to weigh in on your private blog. I guess that’s the interesting part, the ebb and flow of changes and commentary and criticism and kudos.
Blogs change, and I, who hate change, often find that very difficult. I get used to a tone or an approach and when that shifts, I may or may not feel comfortable going along for the ride.
As I type/erase/type/erase, I realise that this question makes me very uncomfortable because it raises questions for which I don’t have answers. I’ll keep thinking on it!
#16 by danni on September 10, 2009 - 10:37 pm
@ Jessica Kennedy:
I totally agree. There are times when blogs are both public and private. You have the right to post whatever you want but then you have to live with knowing people see it.
#17 by jillsorenson on September 11, 2009 - 7:38 am
I think of my blog as public, as in anyone can look at it anytime. If it were private, like some MySpace profiles, you’d have to be on a preferred list or whatever to view it.
Then again, when I consider who I’m blogging for, it’s really just me. I’m aware that (2 or 3) others will see my posts, but it feels like a more intimate space than a soapbox on the street. I’m not shouting at random folks. I’m chatting quietly in my little corner.
#18 by Jessica on September 11, 2009 - 1:59 pm
Neither the graffiti nor the publication metaphors are working for me. Tumperkin’s idea of a private space, especially a front room with a window or a front lawn (from Sherry Thomas) really resonates. I do feel like it’s my “corner of the web”, because I “own” it (racyromancereviews.com) and decorate it and do not have to ask anyone for permission to do what I want “in” it. Tumperkin is right that spatial metaphors dominate. We talk about RomanceLAND, after all.
But the thing that makes the “place” analogy problematic, the reason the “flyers on a wall” or “graffiti” analogies draw me at all, is because anyone can and will “come by” this blog, unlike my house or lawn.
My coworkers would never dream of coming to my house at night to see what I am up to, but they could easily surf here anytime.
When I blog, I picture a certain very specific audience: other bloggers and readers of romance. I am not thinking about coworkers, colleagues in my field, friends, or even romance authors. When Jill or Sherry or Carolyn post here on a topic like this, I see them as fellow readers.
I definitely sound different, talk about different things, and in a different way, if I am talking to a different group.
“Private” to me means different things:
– “my personal life, what I do when I am not ‘on’”, even if others can see it [this is compatible with the activity being "public"
-- "accessible only to those who I allow in", to a very few normally
--and "a sphere I control" [this is also compatible with the blog being "public"]
I guess I started out seeing the blog as “private” in the 2nd sense (stupidly), and now I see it as private in the first sense and third.
I think of it like being out at a bar with friends in town on Friday night. I may act differently than I do as a soccer mom or a professor, I may “let loose” a little. But I don’t take it as license to be an asshole or an idiot. If students are present at the bar, they know not to do more than say hello or wave — they are giving me my space. I expect some students and colleagues know about this blog — I haven’t tired hard at all to hide it or my identity — but by not posting my last name or university name, I am sending a message similar to what I give off at the bar, which is, “I am off duty. Don’t engage with me on this platform unless we have a relationship on these terms (i.e. you are a romance reader).”
#19 by Sybil on September 11, 2009 - 2:14 pm
@Tumperkin
I guess it would depend on if you are on a private or public ‘space’. TGTBTU is on a server we pay for so if I wanted too I could go in and delete the graffiti. hmmm or not you could say that if a blogger is on blogspot or wordpress. But even then unless you own the server you are on you are at the mercy of their rules and they could come and tear down your house at any moment. (doubtful to happen but hey never know… and there are hackers and whatev)
Like I said I don’t believe in deleting comments – why have a blog, why ask for an exchange of ideas and conversation if you only want what you agree with or want to hear? I don’t see someone disagreeing with me as a bad thing. Good thing as many people do, often…
Maybe it goes to how the blog owner wants to run the blog. Like you pointed out, a blogger can set that comments on moderated. Or you can turn off comments all together and only shout out your views without allowing anyone the chance to shout back.
You could make your space private and have only registered members or who knows whatelse (lol as you can see I haven’t looked into it much). It is still on the internet, which is hard to ‘own’. Maybe there isn’t an answer that will fit everyone.
#20 by Sybil on September 11, 2009 - 2:28 pm
@Jessica
” I do feel like it’s my “corner of the web”, because I “own” it (racyromancereviews.com) and decorate it and do not have to ask anyone for permission to do what I want “in” it.”
LOL yes that I forgot to answer what I meant by the ‘mine, mine, mine’ comment Jessica said it perfectly as always but of course the url would be different for me *eg*.
#21 by Tumperkin on September 11, 2009 - 2:45 pm
A/lady – very good point. I use free software and that probably informs the views that I’ve expressed. I see Jessica and Sybil make this point too.
Carolyn – uv you. Ice cream trucks! Only you…
Nicola – yes but who is the editor?
Janet – I don’t seem to have the same sense of possessiveness about my blog that the other commenters here have. That’s not to say I don’t regard it as ‘mine’ – I do. But I don’t think, to use your words, that it’s ‘my terms’ or ‘my rules’.
Jill – that’s a very good point about ‘intimacy’. The intimacy of having a small blog (like me) can give a sense of privacy.
Jessica – I think there’s a disconnect between what it feels like and what it actually is. This is partly to do with the language and notions we all buy into when we go online (space metaphors etc.) and partly because of perceptions. In the real world, our perceptions are formed by our senses. We can see who we are surrounded by and how they react to what we are doing (whether in public and private). That’s not possible on the web.
Sybil – I agree re deleting comments. As I said, I’ve only done it once because it was an incoherent rant of 95% swear words. (In response to a post about swearing admittedly). Even then, I felt uncomfortable about it. I suppose that demonstrates that I have some sense of ownership though.
Bringing all of that together, I suppose my blog feels a bit like one notice on a big public noticeboard. I’ve put it together with some care but I know that by pinning up there, I can’t control what’s going to happen anymore. That doesn’t stop me being annoyed when someone defaces it. But I knew that might happen.
#22 by Janet W on September 11, 2009 - 2:58 pm
I was not very clear … I should have said my RL hat is editing this and that, including this blog http://perfectpushup.blogspot.com/2009/09/honor-911-by-continuing-your-mission.html
and I am rather possessive/territorial because we’ve had some real looney tunes posting pretty vile comments and such. So much so that we have had to go to comment moderation which is such a shame. I won’t even TALK about the ghastly and visually vivid pictorial spam we get on some of our other sites. LOL. Don’t those ladies get cold??
My biggest conundrum is what to post and not post in comments because criticism of any sort in Romland is often not at all appreciated and perhaps rightly so, because: a) it’s NOT your blog so b) should one post publically — keep that convo going? or c) private communication … who knows what the right answer is. I think by and large, not deleting comments is the way I’d want to go if I were a blogger. Fury, disappointment, joy: they all mean a reader is invested in your blog.
#23 by Sybil on September 11, 2009 - 3:04 pm
lol to make the url thing worse when I first moved to my own ‘space’ I was asked what I wanted and was all ‘I don’t know’ and redwyne.com was what was picked for me.
I soon decided I didn’t like that and once I had other reviewers on the blog it didn’t work because ‘I’ am redwyne. Don’t ask my mind works in odd ways. So ‘goodbadanduread’ was bought.
BUT ‘I’ am redwyne. I picked the usename when I was 17 and have always used it. And at the time HATED the idea that if I just released it I didn’t want it to become a spam site… so I still own redwyne.com.
LOL it is just ‘parked’ at TGTBTU (LOL which I own as well… and yes I stopped at three but isn’t tgtbtu.com cute ::innocent blink::)
#24 by Christine on September 11, 2009 - 5:50 pm
Very interesting post!
I think Sherry’s analogy of blogs being like front yards is extremely accurate, at least along the lines of romance reader blogs and most other blogspot blogs I visit.
Along those lines, I try to remember that even if you are a blogger with a seemingly small audience (like me), and while you may feel like your yard is very private like say in a remote or rural area, the truth of the matter is that you’re just as exposed for all the world to see as the blogger with a large audience whose yard is analogous to a place in the city. I was reminded of this the hard way when I was feeling way too comfortable and confident about who was reading my blog (it’s not just the people who leave comments) and I ended up hurting someone deeply when my words and the intention behind them was misconstrued. Anyone can read what you have to say, anywhere, anytime no matter how private you think your yard is. It makes me think twice (or thrice) before clicking the submit button.
I realize my comment is probably a little off topic, but the discussion here today reminded me of this important lesson about “private” blogging and its very “public” audience.
#25 by katiebabs on September 13, 2009 - 5:24 pm
I think blogging is very public, but if you were to think of your blog as your house, it would be the room where you entertain people and keep your bedroom and other special rooms off limits to your guests.
But for some, anything goes.
#26 by Sherry Thomas on September 14, 2009 - 7:59 am
I had to go away for a couple of days to finish the ms, but now I’m back.
Every time I come to this website I’m reminded of how little I actually think in my own spare time. You ladies have such active minds–mine just go into mere reaction mode.
This comment is in response to Tumperkin’s first comment about the issue of sanctioning. I still think the front lawn analogy applies. You can shout at kids to get off your lawn. You can even erect a fence around your lawn–and you are within your rights.
But you really can’t stop a determined troublemaker from pissing on your lawn if it’s his/her purpose in life. Just as a real cyber-heckler can manage to comment on your blog from a library computer or someone else’s laptop under all kinds of handles.
The legality or not of asking people to leave–and I am certainly no lawyer–would be similar to that of asking people to leave a restaurant or a townhall meeting, let’s say. If the guests/visitors are disruptive, no one will dispute the host’s right in expelling them, even if it is a public forum.
#27 by Nicola O. on September 14, 2009 - 11:43 am
Nicola – yes but who is the editor?
Tump, you could think of a blog as a column, and the comments as letters to the columnist. Just with less delay than a newspaper.