Second thoughts.
I value my anonymity. Some of you may, as well.
I may take the widget down. I'm leaning towards doing so. If any of my readers have a preference one way or another, let me know and I'll factor that into my decision.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The widget
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6 comments:
I have google analytics on mine. I like knowing who comes to visit. And I also have a blog stalker, a woman who delights in making my life as miserable as she can by leaving disgusting comments about how much she hates my "stupid blog." Yet, she visits nearly daily. She is the reason that I moderate all of my comments. It is important to me that I know when she visits, just for my peace of mind.
Anonymity is an illusion anyway. If someone wants to, they can easily find out who you are (as my stalker did when she e-mailed me to let me know she had the blueprints of my home) so I say keep the widget up.
And isn't it just lovely to see how many people visit? I was dumbfounded to find out that I have some readers in Germany, in Iraq, in Egypt and Ireland. How incredibly cool.
Most people are good and mean no harm, but I say keep the widget up just in case you need it one day....
Hate to sound like a wet blanket, but there you go.
Either way is fine with me. :)
I don't like it. Sure, it is interesting to see but does it really tell you anything.?
I think the only thing it shows is that a lot of people never ever comment. And in the case of one of your link bloggers, it shows that people do some really bizarre google searches and land on her blog. In fact, it is a bit disturbing in that case.
Google analytics is less invasive and isn't an eye sore. I just don't like these kinds of widgets on blogs. But maybe that is just me.
It is true that a computer expert could probably figure out who was visiting a blog in some other way, as Maria suggested.
But what I need to know is whether this widget is making any of my blog visitors uncomfortable or feeling as if their privacy is being invaded.
Because if any of you tell me that, I will take the widget down as quickly as possible.
What I like about it is that it is helping me to see which of my posts interest people.
Surprisingly, some of my oldest posts are still getting visitors.
I've been lucky so far. I don't have a stalker like Maria or, apparently, any p*^ophiles coming to visit.
Just a couple spammers, which is why, reluctantly, I imposed that annoying word verification thing on us all.
I have removed the widget. It made at least one of my blog friends uncomfortable. The word "hate" was used. That was enough for me.
I do not wish to cause anyone, especially a person whom I respect very much, to ever feel uncomfortable.
Some of you have shared various secrets with me about this and that and I vow to keep those confidences locked away forever.
I will not share names, locations or anything else that you have ever asked me to keep to myself. This widget, as fun as it was, had something of that kind of an effect.
I value your trust in me.
I have carefully selected all of your blogs for the Isis list, out of the many that I have scanned on Blogger these last two years, and I chose them to feature on Isis because I found your sites to be intelligent, to cause me to think -- often to change my mind about a subject -- and to make me smile.
All of you, male and Female, are beautiful human beings.
I have a theme for my life. I thrive on the company of people who think, people who hate censorship, people who speak up, people who speak out and people who love beauty -- whether in a vision of the Earth or in the structure of stomach cells.
All of you, in one way or another, meet these criteria. I regret only that I cannot visit your respective sites as often as I would like.
You are not afraid to chide me when I need it, to call me a weird little crumpet or even to warn me if I am getting a little too "creepy."
I may be a little odd. I may lavish adoration a little too heavily for some of you, on those of You whom the Creator honored with the nature of Womanhood. I may be afflicted with incurable and perplexing capnolagnia.
But I hope that if nothing else, I have shown you all that I can be trusted and that, almost always, your wish is my command.
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