Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Your Privacy And Your Blog Are Mutually Inclusive

I have been at SPH for quite a while now, but this is one of the few times that I am truly unsupportive of the editors’ decision. A girl posted pictures of her slashed wrist on her blog, including many of her personal information. From the newspaper’s point, this is newsworthy. And thus, it is gonna be reported. On today’s newspaper if I am not wrong. Personally, I do not think the article should be published as it is invading the poor girl’s privacy. Furthermore, her permission was not obtained.

I love reading blogs on blogs on blogs. Especially if the post was written by somebody working for the darkside. And that’s how I chanced upon this post about how a SPH staffer has a conscience problem about publishing a story about a girl who posted pics of her slashed wrist online.

_{Disclaimer: I am not in Singapore at the moment, so I have no idea if this story has been published or not.}

I have something to say about this matter. In fact, I have a lot of things to say about this.

In the past few months, there has been anti-Tomorrow sentiments going around the blogosphere. Some people (who stake claim to the pure-blogger mantle as opposed to the usual attention-whore label) think that being Tomorrowed is the worst thing that can ever happen to a blog because it dramatically increases your traffic/audience/popularity - which is a bad thing because they “blog for ourselves and not for anybody else except maybe a small closely-knit community”. So now we even have people coming up with a linking policy that features a button to specifically state that they do want their blog to be Tomorrowed, EVAR.

Don’t forget the SPG fiasco, where this chick expressed her right to bare her tits on her blog only to be slammed by the media as a whore-in-the-making.

Blogging is mental masturbation. You can either do it in the privacy of your room (albeit: pen and paper) or you can be kinky and wank off in public, where the thrill of other bloggers discovering your nasty habit is high.

Admit it, you want to be caught. It gives you a sense of exhiliration. You blog because you want the rest of the world to share the experience with you, otherwise you might as well just kill a few trees and start a diary instead.

But when you get caught, you cry bloody murder. Nobody forced you to post those pics. Nobody put a gun to your head and told you to write those words. You did it - all by yourself. You wanted to.

You practically sign away all your rights to privacy when you blog.

Remember this, your blog is like a gift to the rest of the world/blogosphere. Once given, it cannot be taken back.

My gift? I don’t give anyone anything.

Cowboy Caleb - I’m fairly sure the title should read mutually -exclusive-, as in one condition excludes the other.

i agree, if you’re going to put all your thoughts on the web for everyone to read, dont be surprised when people actually read it.

Anthony: He meant it to be “not mutually-exclusive” - thus, mutually-inclusive.

The fine line between wanting to blog privately and yet have an audience, is unclear for most pple. I do agree that once you blog, you can’t easily take it back.

same sentimentals exactly caleb. unless that person remain anonymous.

for some reason, this case sounds very familiar to me. hahaha.

but what about special cases like people who are not exactly anti-tomorrow but are not eligible to be tomorrowed yet are being tomorrowed? you know what i mean.

Well said.

Consider this :

An artist can be as mainstream and fame-seeking as possible …

Yet there are artists who WANT to remain underground , who do not want to be a part of the mainstream … you can;t say they do not want attention , just not mainstream attention … like featured in mainstream press like TODAY or Lianhe bao or whatever shit that do more harm than good to the blogsphere

I think that’s the different in wanting to be covered by the press or not

so do you respect the wishes of those who do not want to be tomorrow’ed?

Agreed. The dilemma of blogging really cannot be natural.

Sitting out in public is not an invitation for a camera to be focused on you. It is the same with blogging and Tomorrow. I may be doing something that the public can see, but that is not a implicit consent for somebody else to focus unwanted attention on me.

suspiciousbastard > you do it each time you publish a new post.

anthony > beep, wrong.

Fish > exactly!

anna > correct, you get what I am trying to say.

claris > anonymous only grants you privacy to some level.

mt > for those people, the editors did discuss and decided that they should be tomorrowed because of the implications.

urbanmalebitch > thanks

Shion > beggers can’t be choosy

FF > Tomorrow will no longer feature any site with a linking policy. This is also the policy of other meta-blogs. Linking policies are a throwback to the early days of the internet. Why should anybody need your permission to link to something you placed in public sight? Those sites will never be linked, EVAR.

oil > agreed.

blase > common sense dictates if an attractive woman walk around topless, chances she will make the news is very high. Moral of the story: use your common sense and use pen & paper if you don’t want people sharing your thoughts online.

That’s an extreme example, which I actually agree with. Put up titty pictures, then expect to be noticed. But I think it’s not unreasonable for some who ask not to have excess ’spotlight’ focused on their blogs.

But obviously what you think it the be all and end all and everyone is at the mercy of what you think.

Thanks for playing.. yeahyeah.

well, I disagree.. That’s tantamount to saying that:

if my XYZ had a nasty death, and I have a void deck wake, it’s ok for the (i) press to come to take photos and interviews and plaster it all over the media, and (ii) public to come and gawk.

OR:

If I go for a cheated-against spouse’s support group session, by sharing my situation with others, I implicitly want my story to be spread to the whole of Singapore

OR:

If for some reason at some point in the future you decide to close down your blog (as MAY have said some weeks ago re “Caleb must die in http://cowboycaleb.liquidblade.com/index.php/archives/2005/06/10/the-burden-i-will-not-bear/#comments, and of course I may have interpreted you incorrectly so please correct me if I’m wrong), by having it placed it online now you implicitly consent to someone caching it now and reproducing it (or showing it to your fiance) without your consent later on…

I do accept that posting certain material is inviting for attention, but different people blog for different reasons, and it’s parochial to say categorically that we all want to be caught.

Here Here. My sentiments exactly. When I blog, I blog for the world. Now I just have to make the world actually read my blog somehow. And as for private stuff, I can always get a private, password-protected blog.

Hi,
Came across your blog using Goggle search=short films.
It’s an interesting piece you wrote on blogging as signing away your privacy. However, I beg to differ. You can actually password protect your post if you find it too sensitive/personal for the common eyes. Even if not password protected, all contents are protected by the US law. Meaning any misuse or hotlinking is considered a crime, and the offendent can be punished.

However, there are a lot of others who are either crying out for support, or to vent their frustration, or sometimes just seeking for attention. I came across a couple which *cried out for help.(unfortunately I can’t remember their add.s) There are also those attention seeking ‘whores’ like Xiaxue. But generally, bloggers blog so that that they can share their lives with their friends - especially those who are overseas.

However unfortunate it is, human are always human? We are always ‘trying’ hard to get noticed, seeking comfort from being acknowledge, wanting to be ‘the moment’. Sometimes, you got ‘modest’ and say, “I would like some privacy, thank you. Don’t really mean for all these to happen.” Haha, yar right. It is, as it is said ‘The vanity of human desire’. Who can be blamed for wanting a dope of limelight?

Passerby,

Don’t think the analogies quite hold up? A void deck wake/funeral is nevertheless a private event. The family obtains permission to hold it in the void deck area, but by doing so they’re co-opting the space for a private event for its duration. Ditto a wedding or any other private function held in that space. Cannot anyhow gategrash, what.

I haven’t been to a support group session, but I believe they’re implicitly confidential. Otherwise, people wouldn’t feel as if they got the support they needed ;) if they had to worry about their personal experiences/traumas/stories being shared publicly.

As for caching or archiving webpages, Google and other search engines do it all the time without asking for permission. It comes with the territory for any website, and a blog is just like any other website, assuming it’s not password-protected.

I think that bloggers who don’t want to be “caught” or who aren’t looking for attention, should nevertheless consider that the web is a pervasive medium, with a wider reach and longer staying power than any other medium. If a person doesn’t want such attention and doesn’t have the capacity to password-protect his/her entries, then he/she should consider using a different medium for writing.

caleb: i kena flak… a parent wrote to me telling me to be more responsible for my language.

THIS IS HORRID.

:(

Your identity is less secure than you think, Caleb. The wish for less publicity is not inconsistent with maintaining a public blog.

I so agree with everyone here. Your post sure hit the nail on the head.

For the record, im not Anti-Tomorrow.

I do like Tomorrow, i do visit it to read up on news. Why? Some other blogs definitely do it better when it comes to news and latest stuff. Better than papers i say. I think papers are getting alittle tight under the collar with blogs giving them a tight competition nose for news.

I wouldn’t want my blog publicized ‘nationally’…

Firstly it’s for my privacy reasons, i can’t disclose who i really am, and where i work at. It’s detrimental. And i strongly adhere to my principles unless i deemed its fit to do otherwise.

Secondly, i hate being ‘mass-ly judged’…my blog for personal friends and some good friends i made by blogging, that’s fine. But when it comes to exposing myself nation wide…there will be many…many ‘anonymous’ people who are game to destroy a person’s life for their own entertainment/benefit. Damn trolls

Singaporeans are basically a whiny bunch (no, im singaporean to answer that causeway question), and yes im ashamed, not of all, but most, they complain too much. Always making a mountain out of a mole hill. One example would be the Forum in ST…stupid people like threatening to sue the authorities because a tree branch fell on her shoulder…i mean…she’s juz unlucky…have to pinpoint a scapegoat meh? Pui…

ok basically, my blogging style is fairly controversial, due to my oppressed anger in society, but im been toning down, writing lame, boring entries…so i can be more aloof and friendly. Am i? hahaha

Anyway…like everyone says…worst come to the worst blogicide. Then mushroom somewhere else. :P

p.s Should i write a disclaimer for this comment? Nah…im lazy. You can’t those invisible trolls anwyay. Those who don’t like what i write, then don’t visit! Sorry im definitely not a bloody conformist online…haaa
I think i should blog bout this some day..haha.

And no, im not anti-caleb…im an avid reader of his blog! When someone else’s blog is cooler than yours…read it! =)

Beating up on dead horses

Or not quite. But CowboyCaleb talked about the issue of blogs and privacy again, and I thought I’d link to it from here because I can, and also because I pretty much agree with him.

I don’t have…

Hmmm… Your lines of “You sign away your privacy when you blog” sounds so eerily similiar to the comment I left on “One little twit”
http://onelittletwit.blogspot.com/2005/06/cloth-covered-good-nude-bad.html

this is an interesting discussion. I shall put my 2 cents worth. Freedom of choice and speech is according to the individual and yet restricted by the masses. a person can write watever she wants as long as it doesn’t offend anyone reading her stuff. a reader can link her entry or publicise it provided she is agreeable to it. things only happen when the blog is read by the wrong type of ppl who dun like her style of writing or when her readers expose her blog without consent or her edit. Morally, the concept is simple, anyone should be able to do whatever he/she wants as long as it doesn’t offend.

but obviously, human nature gets in the way.

Hey there~ Was shocked to see a post of mine on your blog. Not unhappy kinda shocked but just… shocked. Maybe next time you can post a comment on my original post saying you are linking to it? I wouldn’t have realised it if I am not a frequent reader of yours.

But anyway, I don’t think the article I mentioned is out, yet. Maybe they are waiting for the girl’s reply, I don’t know.

Privacy on blog… I can only say that once you post something online and allow public access, you have to risk privacy invasion. The chance of public exposure is still high even though there are so many blogs online. Like I have no idea how caleb found my blog.

Bloggers like you and me blog and therefore we asked for it? As in, whatever we say can be taken and twisted and manipulated? I don’t think so Cowboy. I think in SPG case, the mainstream media’s view is skewed. You know how these papers are and I think as bloggers, we should voiced out against such unjust treatment. The mainstream media is read by millions, the only voice a blogger has is his/her blog. A lot of people don’t read blogs to get another perspective to issues, they form their opinion just by what the papers report.So, Who wins in the end?

[…] to say about that.
June 27th, 2005

In response to Cowboy Caleb’s post on certain bloggers not […]

Caleb, some of us wrote for awhile and has got a small niche set of readers. As per what shion says, we chose to remain ‘underground’ and keep to this group of like minded folks. A sudden explosion of attention, getting folks who do not understand what we are writing, not of the same wavelength, is not what we look for.
Judge not others by your own set of values and others will not judge you. I hope there are other editors on Tomorrow who can balance out this extreme view of yours.

I’m sorry Cowboy, but you’ve certainly touched a raw nerve here. Your little post here is filled with assumptions, which may sound like justifying your argument on the issue of privacy, but they sound very flawed to me.

First things first, I am not a lawyer, but I shall attempt to uncover those assumptions of yours:

[In the past few months, there has been anti-Tomorrow sentiments going around the blogosphere.]

This is very true. For starters I admit that I am one of them. However, for the good of this great thing which your lot has started, I think it is time for a bit of a rethink and personal reflection on how, why and what this Tomorrow thing is for. This is subjective, of course, but in my opinion and in my eyes, Tomorrow now serves as a vehicle to inflate the egos of a few “chosen” ones within the editorial team. Either that or some of you really need to take up some crash courses on public relations, specifically “how to deal with criticism positively”.

[Some people (who stake claim to the pure-blogger mantle as opposed to the usual attention-whore label) think that being Tomorrowed is the worst thing that can ever happen to a blog because it dramatically increases your traffic/audience/popularity - which is a bad thing because they “blog for ourselves and not for anybody else except maybe a small closely-knit community”.]

If people do not want more traffic than they can handle on their site, does anyone have the moral right to blame them? Not everyone wants fame. Not everyone craves for attention, be it from the blogging community or the media. Has anyone thought of this one perspective which some might have missed in the midst of trying to throw in a legitimate reason for this “anti-Tomorrow” sentiment?

[So now we even have people coming up with a linking policy that features a button to specifically state that they do want their blog to be Tomorrowed, EVAR.]

Fair enough. It is their blog after all. Even if it is hosted by Blogger or whatever, it is still THEIR site.

[Don’t forget the SPG fiasco, where this chick expressed her right to bare her tits on her blog only to be slammed by the media as a whore-in-the-making.]

Miss Bare-it-all decided to post her nude photos on her site, knowing well that she has a huge readership and she should be aware that word gets round this huge readership well enough for the media to pick it up. It was her bloody right, but there is such a thing called common sense or foresight.

[Blogging is mental masturbation. You can either do it in the privacy of your room (albeit: pen and paper) or you can be kinky and wank off in public, where the thrill of other bloggers discovering your nasty habit is high.]

In your view, blogging is mental masturbation? Are you speaking based on your experience or from the collective experience of those bloggers whom you have come into contact with? I am blogger. Blogging to me is just an outlet of expression for me, be it an angst-filled rant or a post full of joy. Sometimes, I write things which I observed and they lead to some thought-provoking sessions later on. Sometimes, I will pose a question or two, be it to solicit for responses or for me to revisit the issue again on a later date. It is as personal as it gets for me, but no way I deem this blogging thing as similar to masturbation. I do not get the thrill of other people discovering my non-descript site. If they find out and appreciate enough of my drivel to stay on, I am easy. Other than that, they can go somewhere else to get their kicks out of watching others do their own mental masturbation.

[Admit it, you want to be caught. It gives you a sense of exhiliration.]

Sorry. What is there to be caught? Caught doing what? Caught for being an attention-seeking whore or a comments-counter-go-up whore or to write extremely controversial things so that the rags will pick it up and wala, some company desperate for anything offers you a deal or something to endorse their product? I don’t get a kick out of being in this popularity rat race. I get a kick out of writing my heart and sometimes, my guts out.

[You blog because you want the rest of the world to share the experience with you, otherwise you might as well just kill a few trees and start a diary instead.]

Another assumption of yours? What if I feel that being anonymous on the world wide web is my strange choice for journaling and sharing my experience of the day, week, month or whatever with myself and a small group of people? What if I am not inclined towards the idea of starting a handwritten diary for some strange reason?

[But when you get caught, you cry bloody murder.]

Another assumption. Some may cry bloody murder, but there will be many who will revel in the fame and their egos will start to inflate. Having an ego inflated is not wrong, but there are lines which should not be crossed. Lines of decency, civility and common courtesy.

[Nobody forced you to post those pics. Nobody put a gun to your head and told you to write those words. You did it - all by yourself. You wanted to.]

Yes, I wanted to. However, you must have thought about the many, many reasons why people post photos online (be it nude or not) or write about their juicy sexual encounters, no? Or is this an attempt to paint all bloggers in Singapore with the same brush?

[You practically sign away all your rights to privacy when you blog]

You can still remain anonymous when you blog. The trick is how one does it without announcing it to the world that you have arrived (unless you want to announce it).

[Remember this, your blog is like a gift to the rest of the world/blogosphere. Once given, it cannot be taken back.]

What if I say that my blog is more of a gift to me than what the mainstream media or some popularity-crazed bloggers made it out to be? Is this another assumption of yours?

Tomorrow served as a brilliant platform to showcase bloggers who have interesting things to offer to the local blogging community or have insightful things to say. However, if the revamped Sunday Times now reads like a trashy female mag to me, then I am sorry to say that, with the tons of almost infantile material that gets published on Tomorrow (e.g., the “groundbreaking post on the first Singaporean blogger to pose nude on her site”), it is not much separating the tabloids from this site, which, I must admit, started with all the right intentions.

(Sorry for the long post.)

look, why don’t you just strike a compromise? Before ‘tomorrow’ing anyone, ask s/he BEFORE assuming that it should be shared. Why is a simple non-issue blown to gargantuan proportions?

as for the writer’s privacy, it can be easily solved by putting some sort of code to make it password-accessible, or gasp! retreat to LJ where all posts can be locked anyway. Whinging that peeps found your PUBLIC blog is devoid of sense.