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28 may 2011

People in my Field Don't Blog

very much, at least using their real names. I wonder why that is. There are some Hispanists whose blogs I follow, but they are pseudonymous and I don't know all their identities. It never occurred to me not to use my real name to blog, when I started in 2002 and already had tenure. Being out in the open protects me from the fear of being found out. Of course I can't talk about departmental matters or speak of my colleagues in unflattering terms, but would I want to anyway? I assume anything I write will be known to anyone. The few times I've even left anonymous comments I didn't really like the feeling it gave me.

Academics seem particularly drawn to pseudonymous blogging, probably because of the viciousness of academic politics. It wouldn't make much sense for a writer promoting his/her work to blog in secret.

6 comentarios:

  1. After the fight that developed in my last post, while I was out having dinner with friends and before I had the chance to erase some of the comments, I am happy I am anonymous. You can get yourself in an uncomfortable situation even without intending to do so. Now I have to figure out how to enable the feature to moderate the comments.

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  2. I don't maintain anonymity because of colleagues and administrators. They found the blog anyways and the reaction has been very positive.

    I need to be anonymous because of the students. It's important to me to cultivate a certain distance from the students. On the blog, I want to feel free to write about my personal life, about autism, politics, anything. I don't want to come to class and hear, "So is it true that you first got married at 19?" or "You don't look like you have autism."

    Spanish prof: I can't believe I missed a fight! Why did nobody invite me? :-)

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  3. To moderate comments on blogger just go to "settings," then to "comments," and then scroll down. It will give you several options. For example, I moderate my comments on posts older than 14 days. You can also turn off or hide comments for individual posts.

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  4. Jonathan:
    Thanks!

    @Clarissa: don't worry, you didn't miss anything. It was just petty gossip regarding the author of that particular essay. Not interested in it, nor on having it on my blog.

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  5. I'm pseudonymous because I started the blog to develop a different voice.

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  6. Anónimo10:44 a. m.

    I guess my blog isn't entirely pseudonymous, but I don't use my full name usually. For me, it's because I'm a grad student and I have this constant fear of saying something careless or making an off-handed remark that might offend someone with the potential to impact my career.

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