Today I got an email from Feedspot. I will not reply to this email or click any links, because I don’t really know for sure that it’s from Feedspot. I had never heard of Feedspot before today, but it is a legitimate site. You join. You type in all the blogs or websites you want to follow, and you can follow them all from there. Apparently, my blog has 20 new followers on Feedspot. Only, they don’t show up as followers on my blog—just on Feedspot. It’s a bit creepy. How did they find my blog? They’re nearly all men, and I can’t imagine that they would find my blog to be at all interesting, unless……
Now, I realize that my blog is public and that anyone in the world can view it—I’ve considered this before. Up until now, the only people who seemed to find my blog are people who are homeschoolers, parents, or educators. The only way they have found me is if I comment on their blog or share my post on another blog. In 4 years of blogging, I still have less than 100 followers. I told my husband about this email, and he’s very uneasy now about my blog being public.
I’m strongly considering making my blog private for a time until I figure out what to do. This makes me very sad, as I love sharing my ideas with others. But my family’s safety and privacy need to come first—I guess I should have considered it long ago. I may make this blog private until I can remove all my kids’ photos and real names. I may start a fresh blog—maybe it’s time for a change. If anyone has any advice or points for me to consider, please, please share! If you regularly read my blog and would like to continue to view it, please let me know. Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure out a way to fix things so that I can make my blog public again.
I am a follower of your blog and have always enjoyed reading it. I am a homeschooling mom from California. I totally understand why you would want to go private but I will cerainly miss your blog! Blessings on whatever you decide to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks, for now I won't go private. It's a lot to think about.
DeleteDebbie, I hadn't heard of Feedspot before but understand your concerns.
ReplyDeleteIf you do make your blog private, I would be delighted if I could still read it. I use your blog as a resource often. In fact, I was responsible of a fair number of hits to the Russian resources last week and the week before!
Thanks. I'm still trying to figure out what to do, but I won't go private yet. I'm working on fixing my photos.
DeleteSome things to think about before you go private (if you decide to):
ReplyDelete1. Could this be men who share their account with their wife? (many people do)
2. Are these homeschooling dads?
3. Are they following you in hopes you follow back
4. Can you get any information on them?
5. Is there anything in particular that makes you nervous?
I'm asking these questions because all of these are things I"ve run into when someone odd has followed me through some various social media source. And some of them have been pretty weird. I just try to be very careful of what pictures I put up of my kids so that none are ones I would be feeling nervous about.
Thanks, Ticia. If it involved only one or two men, I might not think anything about it, but they were almost all men. I looked into Feedspot more, and they have categories you can search for blogs in. So I guess they found me and randomly decided to follow my blog. The only thing is I can't get any information on them unless I follow them, and I have no way to block them. I'm guessing that there are many other feed readers like this one, so I may have all kinds of people following me that I don't know about. I guess it's just made me think about what I post. I'm used to mostly homeschool moms reading my blog.
DeleteHi Debbi,
ReplyDeleteFirstly - I just want to say I love your blog :o)
Secondly - I totally get where you are coming from. It is alarming to have men following a homeschooling blog. I share your concerns about my own blog and have found one or two 'suspect' commenters. In fact on my traffic feed I see a rather suspect source of traffic!
I don't use my children's real names and I am also seriously considering removing pictures of them - perhaps only taking shots that obscure/hide their faces.
If you do decided to go private I too would love to still be able to read it :o)
Blessings
Thanks, Shirley. For now I am "fixing" pictures, a very long process. I have over 300 posts to go. If I do go private, I will add you. Blessings!
DeleteOh this is scary, never heard of of feedspot:(. I have been blogging for 4 years too and every once in a while something or someone strange finds me. Sometimes I can contact them or block them other times I can't. HOw are you going about fixing your pictures, I am computer challenged in many ways, but I try my best to protect my kids:) Good luck and hope you find a solution and if you do please pass it on
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, there are lots of feed readers like Feedspot, so we may never know who is following us. On my oldest posts, I click on my pictures, which takes me to the photo storage I used, and I use tools to blur, black out, or crop faces. Then I edit the post and replace the old html code for that photo with the new code (for the edited photos). This works for my oldest posts where I used photobucket and wrote my blog posts right on blogger. I use Windows Live Writer for the majority of my posts, and I'm not sure how I'll edit those. I may have to cut those photos out altogether. :(
DeleteHi. My blog was also taken by FS. I have had numerous email communications with the owner and founder of FS. He promised to take my blog down and did for a day or so. He then promptly allowed the feed to go back through. There are NUMEROUS bloggers complaining and writing complaints. You are not alone in this. I was made aware of this on your blog, from another blogger.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I am a homeschooling mommy as well! :) Be blessed in whatever you decide.