To blog, or not to blog...?

Wonderful new part of the forum this, love it.

So, to test it out, I have a quandry to ask of my fellow V-Nerds - is it worth getting into this blogging malarky and, if so, which provider would you go with?

Nope - its completetly knob and will get you into trouble at some point when someone - employer/lover/partner/friend/etc - reads something that you have written and takes exception to it. Apparently some emplyers are already doing searches to see what you have written!!

[V]

[HighFlyer]

Tried it twice and lost interest each time. We had a work blog once where we would write down all the funny things that happened each day - practical lawsuit there for information disclosure i guess. Its great if you have lots of people in your life that you do not see regularly as they can read about what you are up to, similarly great if you are narcissistic and think that everyone wants to know what you are up to.

Blogger & Blogspot seem to be the main placers, and Xanga, Google have their own blog too, or just make your own on your own domain. I guess it depends on what your blog will be about, is it just an eletrontic diary, and as Mark says, who will read it? Do you want it being publically available?

Thanks,
Sarah

[Neil]

Personally I don't get the whole blog thing, but then again I know friends who adore it and it practically takes over their life. I much prefer to meet up with friends/family and share our gossip and stories and I wouldn't want any old stranger reading my personal stuff either.

If you want to give it a go why not try using something like Myspace, you can blog on there however frequently or not you want as well as use it for other things, if you like it/can be bothered to keep it up, you could then go for it more seriously on one of the sites Sarah has mentioned.

Neil

Whether you want to post your daily activities on the Internet is up to you. I personally don't bother but if you've got lots of mates who are interested in what you do then sites such as Myspace and Bebo are the way to go.

[mcmbenjamin]

Sarah: Google bought Blogger. Now old Blogger users who have Google account can merge them. I use Blogger and like it. I normally do not have much to say but I would blog more if I was more interesting, Also the problem with most blogs is that they are public and there are certain things and certain people need not know.

benniekoz.co.uk or .us or .com (Gotta love GoDaddy.com's comp program)

Thanks as ever for your useful replies.

Originally posted by MarkJ

Nope - its completetly knob and will get you into trouble at some point when someone - employer/lover/partner/friend/etc - reads something that you have written and takes exception to it. Apparently some emplyers are already doing searches to see what you have written!!

I am the employer, and I don't intend to get into trouble with myself. Neither was I going to post anything on t'internet that was particularly contentious, but I see your point...

Originally posted by High Flyer

similarly great if you are narcissistic and think that everyone wants to know what you are up to.

You mean they don't???

It would, of course, be extremely foolish to set up a blog and tell everyone about your affairs and how much you hate your boss. I suppose the trick is to be aware that your scribblings are ending up in a very public domain, and write accordingly (a bit like on here, really...).

I've been tempted for a while to set one up entitled 'Plane of Doom' whereby I hire a 747 and a suicidal pilot hell bent on flying into a mountain-side, and then discuss the so-called celebs to whom I will issue J class (and in some cases F class) tickets. Robbie Williams, Ainsley Harriot, Jamie Oliver (he can sit with the pilot, just to be sure) come to mind... I could go on (hence the idea for the blog).

[fozzyo]

I've been blogging since before it was blogging!

I started my personal site on the Interweb way, way back - April 1995 is the earliest I can date it to at the moment. Then on 28th December 1998 I started my own very first Journal. With occasional breaks I have been doing it ever since, the past year I have been a bit rubbish in keeping it up to date but I'm planning on getting back into it this year.

Personally I love it, having recorded my life for the 8 years it makes for fascinating reading to look back over. When I started out I hard coded each entry, but have since moved onto an open-source Content Management system on my website - I need to upload all the rest of the archives into it.

If you want an easy to use site I would suggest LiveJournal (I believe a fellow V-Flyer was part of their development team for a while). Other then that Blogger is good to use as well.

Thanks foz. Looks like Blogger may be a good place to start. Worth a go for the giggle, surely?

The only thing I have blogged, is on a travel blog site, http://www.travelpod.com. I blogged my months trip to Australia, for friends and relative to see what we were up too. They loved it so much, I have been requested to do another one for the next Oz trip in March.

It is also a very good site for looking at places you might want to go to, where other people have written items about. I used it for our next trip. It is my other main site I visit all the time.

Mark