See the little frog in the picture here? He didn’t ask me to, but I exposed him to the world when I opened my patio umbrella today.
I seem to be doing that a lot this week — unintentionally exposing people (or frogs) who didn’t sign up for that. In my effort to publicize the blog within my Facebook friends group, I didn’t realize that I modified the comment box to be a Facebook posting.
In response to my “I Dare You” post yesterday, which encouraged readers to leave comments, a friend in Germany asked if her comments would be visible to “the whole Facebook world.” I first told her no, but then I looked more closely and saw that my blog comment box was, indeed, supplied by Facebook.
This has been another thought-provoking development (as Eckhart Tolle says, even so-called mistakes always have a purpose). For you folks in this initial group of subscribers drawn from friends and family, I should assume that only a tiny percentage of you may be comfortable posting personal stories on a blog, let alone on Facebook.
Facebook raises the vulnerability stakes, without a doubt. It’s why I avoided it myself all these years. And though I am answering the call to put myself out into the world at this point in time, I totally understand your reluctance to do the same.
So, to make it a little more palatable at this very early stage of the project (and certainly against the advice of PR experts), I tweaked the blog again and replaced the Facebook comment box with the blog’s original “Leave a Reply” box. The link to the blog is still posted on my Facebook page, but reader comments will not be posted there.
Also, it seems the current layout of the blog requires you to click on the individual posts listed under “Recent Posts” in the right-hand sidebar to reach the “Leave a Reply” box on earlier posts. You can also read other people’s comments that way (thank you, Dan, for being the test case for that with your beautiful reply to Finding the Purpose Behind the Pain).
Thanks for your patience as I claw my way up the learning curve. Though the intent of the blog is to nurture readership and interest in Feng Shui Animal House (which is still in the early stages of development), it feels like taking my readers’ exposure down a notch is the right thing to do.
I feel a little like a flasher, having opened my coat for just an instant before closing it again.
Isabella Friege says
Martha, I love how your little photos always go so well with the point you are making. Great choice of pictures :). The pin-studded orange in particular wowed me.
I don’t know if it gets too complex in terms of technology and eventually management of threads to set up both options. But it would put your German friend’s mind at ease – I’m sure she’d be fine posting even personal stories to the blog and thereby to a community who’s familiar with the subject and demonstrably cares about what others have to say. At the same time, those readers who are a step further and ready to disrobe could do so on fb and help you a little more with the marketing. Certainly the PR experts have a point and one can’t really deny their advice.
Martha says
Thanks so much, Isabella, for your input. I am perfectly comfortable keeping comments within the blog itself (that was my intention all along). I can feel it’s what I’m supposed to do at this juncture, regardless of what the PR people tell me I “should” do. This is how I’m living my life across the board these days.
As for the pictures, thanks. So far all of the photos are my own. The day I was writing about being stuck with needles it was raining out, one son had my car, the other son was out with friends, and I had time on my hands to stick pins into the grapefruit (which looks like an orange in the picture). I wondered if I should be worried about myself (what worried me was that it was so fun).