I have been intrigued to learn how many of you have secret blogs. A secret blog is read by others, but the readers (ostensibly) don’t know who is writing it. I have been told I should start a secret blog (what was the underlying psychological hypothesis behind this suggestion?)
What might such a blog consist of?
1. Detailed, quantitative macroeconomic forecasts.
2. Steamy erotic writing.
3. A running and uncensored narrative of my inner mental life (NB: not the same as #2).
4. Exclusive attention to the economics of love, marriage, and sex, in slightly more risque form.
5. The posts I write for MR but reject out of either prudence or fear you will be bored.
The bottom line: This idea will have to wait.
But if you are willing to write about your secret blog, or "your friend’s" secret blog, comments are open and anonymous remarks are welcome. Why do people write secret blogs? And do they subconsciously wish to be discovered by at least a select few?
I like having a disposable identity. It frees me from “brand maintenance” on my name and/or trust metrics. I can just be “some guy” in the web conversation, and that’s my only goal right now.
One word.
Tenure.
Would you count as a secret blog one that is widely read and linked, if the author keeps his/her identity concealed (e.g. 2blowhards)? How about one in which the author uses a pseudonym, but for one reason or another everyone knows his or her real name (e.g. Asymmetric Information)?
I only have two, the real me and odograph … but just for the few of you who have not heard the term, I don’t do “sock puppets.” That is the old ‘net name for creating multiple identities for the purpose of faux conversation or argument.
I’m not sure I’d put sock puppets past Ben though. If I recall correctly, he did exactly that in the letters column of his youthful newspaper.
Me and a couple of friends who are investment professional write a secret blog on humor and investing. We keep our indetities secret because we would be more limited as to our subject matter otherwise. It frees us to do whatever. It also makes traffic generation difficult because 1) you lack an authentic real world reference point and 2) you can’t tap your friends, family and coworkers without exposing your identity to some degree. But what can you do right?
http://longorshortcapital.com
My family started a ‘blog a few years ago when Blogspot took off, just as a means of communicating (we’re very opinionated, and we live in different states, so blogging has turned out to be a really good way of keeping in touch, for us).
But after about a year of carefree bloggin’, my brother (the sys admin) got a Sitemeter, and we discovered that beaucoup random heads were surfin’ through our family weblog! I mean, it was mostly other bloggers following links back to us (through THEIR statcounter or Sitemeter or whatever, and probably others through the Blogspot platform), but still.
We don’t post our names on the ‘blog.
I hesitate to tell people I know about it (it’s not really *for* them).
We just moved to WordPress.com and noticed that we get four or five hits from Technorati searches every day. To me, this is like people walking down the street looking in store windows and then passing by my apartment and looking in like there should be merchandise there. Eww, this is my family ‘blog, people, go away.
To say what needs to be said about Bush and his minions without having to fear repricussions from the NSA/CIA/FBI/IRS/SEC!! Obviously!!!
Many people write blogs to avoid prosecution or showing their hand. Case in point, http://www.invisiblog.com/
I keep my blog anonymous for one reason: I sometimes post about political or religious issues, and I don’t want potential future emoployers (academic or otherwise) to be able to find out my political or religious opinions from Google before deciding whether or not to hire me.
Why do I, an economist (Ph.D. from UChicago, no less) talk about non-economic subjects? Well, we all know that non-economists have no problem pontificating about economics, so I see no reason to be shy when it comes to speaking out about politics, chemistry, security, physics, terrorism, religion, or anything else, for that matter. An unlike certain politicians talking about economics, I actually know something about those other topics!
Having said that, I’m thinking of starting a second, non-anonymous blog consisting purely of economics posts. (Not to say that there’s no economics in religion or politics, of course — Hi Larry Iannaccone!) Part of the reason is that I’ve actually met both the MR bloggers, and several other econo-bloggers, in person, and it’s been quite frustrating not to be able to tell them how much I like, and link to, their blogs!
The practical problem, of course, is translating the readership I’ve built up on my anonymous blog, to readership on my proposed non-anonymous blog — without giving away my identify on the first blog.
In the meantime, please visit me at http://differentriver.com
I have a secret blog, but if I told you where it was, I would have to shoot you and eat your brain.
-russ
I have three blogs, of which the semi-anonymous one is http://www.doesmyasslookfatinthesepants.com. It’s more of a conceptual art piece than a real blog, anyway. I don’t actively discourage anyone from finding out who I am, and my friends spill the beans whenever they link to it (I think I have linked to myself, too), but I keep my name out of the blog because I don’t want this to be the first thing that comes up when one googles me. What kills me is that the joke blog gets more traffic than the “real” ones do.
The phrase “secret blog” doesn’t do justice to what it really is. In one word: CATHARSIS.
I stumbled across this thread in the search for a cool place to keep my new web journal (and, btw, being such a fan of the english language, I detest the word “blog”…very unpretty word, imho). I added the URL to this post because the journal is now finished.
I started the atlscorp24 LiveJournal about 4 years ago as a safe haven from … anyone else. A place where I can deposit my feelings and words without ANY second thoughts as to what people will think, say or react. It was nice. See, I truly despise gossip, and well, at the time, I needed a place to vent without it getting around to everyone I knew, usually with … reprecussions.
Anyway, thats the deal with my “secret blog” or web journal, or private journal, etc. ad nauseum. The URL to my old blog is full of … well.. my life for the last four years. Not for the faint of heart, nor children. But I’m glad I had it. Now, to refine and redefine.
(sorry to ramble, but I’m a little drunk)
One last thing, and I’ll return to The Nameless Hordes that I came from…. someone mentioned how they had like 3 blogs or something like that.. THANK YOU. See, I’m from the old school of journals: pen and ink in a spiral bound notebook. Unfortunately, my life is no where near that simple where I can take x amount of minutes everyday and add to my journal (the last time I had that kind of time was the last time I was in drug treatment)… so, computer geek that I like to fancy myself, web journals (doesn’t that sound so much better than “blog”?!?) are the perfect way to get stuff off my chest/brain/etc. How public they are, well, thats for more sober contemplation, cuz I’ll tell ya this: I’m almost 30 now, and just one journal 4 years ago was enough, but I think a more varied approach may be indicated nowadays. ’nuff said…
Thanks for reading a total stranger’s thoughts:
Namaste
Adam
The number of people who listed their secret blogs here and then posted their real names below their comments is astounding! Robin, what signals are they sending here? And for those who use blogs as a diary, why the voyeuristic approach? Put a password on it if it is a private family blog.
I separate my identity from my blog (which is geared to prediction markets participants at Tradesports & Intrade). I do this because I know that my employer and my wife’s employer would not be pleased with this activity.
I used to keep a secret blog but now I have decided to do something about the things I do not like about this world instead of just bitching about it. I created the Secret Internet Society. You can join us if you want to help change things.
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