So I am sitting in my new office, everyone else has gone home and I have a few things to get done before I can go drinking with Nick and friends. I’ve got the Sex Pistols playing on the G4 as compensation for the Drum and Bass that has been in the background for much of the day. I’ve been thinking a lot today, between bouts of savage work, about what limits a weblogger must set on themselves.
I remember reading an article a few months ago about how a guy kept an incredibly personal and detailed online diary. All his friends knew about it, as did his girlfriend. She made the astonishing statement that she actually checked his diary to find out the state of their relationship. It sounds horrific, but it seemed to work for them.
Other webloggers, while accepting that there will always be things which they don’t feel comfortable talking about publicly, are less certain about where these limits lie.
A few weeks ago, Jason Kottke said that there was something happening in his life that he really wanted to talk about, but didn’t feel able. Meanwhile, Riothero keeps his relationship with Lyda very much in the foreground of his log. Of course, this hasn’t been without its difficulties.
I’m very interested in hearing about how people reconcile this difficulty (although the question I perhaps should be asking is “Why would anyone want to talk about their relationships publicly on the web anyway?”), but I suppose at the end of the day it comes down to this – the only appropriate public comment about a partner is one that they are happy with.