Ive had a few blogs over the years.
Anonymity is important primarily because it allows me to write unfettered by the thought of other people reading it. Anonymity helps me explore contrasting, controversial or uncharacteristic subjects without being burdened by the thought of being judged, or the pressure of committing to the blog continuously or the necessity to follow a certain strain of thought or theme throughout the posts.
I have my identity, and if I KNOW that people who know me read the posts, I WILL change my style of writing, to conform to my identity, and sanitize the posts. This is the biggest problem, since writing for me is a way to break down walls, its a way of meditation..and by becoming my own censor, I'm just creating additional walls thereby defeating the whole purpose.
Since I have no interest in making money off my blogs, maintaining anonymity is slightly easier.
I create a random gmail account. I create a new wordpress account. I select a theme in keeping with the subject I want to write about. I NEVER log in to that from my home/office computer or cell phone. Write about the for a few weeks, then discard the blog.
It is important to maintain anonymity, at least initially, because there are very real consequences to your online activity... and in a lot of cases, your actions remain visible for years to come.
By remaining anonymous, you still retain the option of going public any time it suits you in the future, or of continuing to blog anonymously.
By never logging on to the blogs from home, and never logging into personal mail/facebook/linkedin from wherever one blogs, it is possible to physically separate those two identities, and imho, is a full-proof way of continuing to maintain anonymity from everyone, with the exception of hardcore stalkers.
Anonymity is important primarily because it allows me to write unfettered by the thought of other people reading it. Anonymity helps me explore contrasting, controversial or uncharacteristic subjects without being burdened by the thought of being judged, or the pressure of committing to the blog continuously or the necessity to follow a certain strain of thought or theme throughout the posts.
I have my identity, and if I KNOW that people who know me read the posts, I WILL change my style of writing, to conform to my identity, and sanitize the posts. This is the biggest problem, since writing for me is a way to break down walls, its a way of meditation..and by becoming my own censor, I'm just creating additional walls thereby defeating the whole purpose.
Since I have no interest in making money off my blogs, maintaining anonymity is slightly easier.
I create a random gmail account. I create a new wordpress account. I select a theme in keeping with the subject I want to write about. I NEVER log in to that from my home/office computer or cell phone. Write about the for a few weeks, then discard the blog.
It is important to maintain anonymity, at least initially, because there are very real consequences to your online activity... and in a lot of cases, your actions remain visible for years to come.
By remaining anonymous, you still retain the option of going public any time it suits you in the future, or of continuing to blog anonymously.
By never logging on to the blogs from home, and never logging into personal mail/facebook/linkedin from wherever one blogs, it is possible to physically separate those two identities, and imho, is a full-proof way of continuing to maintain anonymity from everyone, with the exception of hardcore stalkers.