Public vs. Private: Part I

I've been thinking about a knitting blog post I read recently. The author has a blog dedicated to journaling her fiber arts but she occasionally rants about her family members or co-workers. Most of us in blogland have gone on a rant at one time or another. OK, some every day, but you get my point. She hasn't shared the existance of her blog with all of her family, friends or co-workers as she felt they wouldn't understand "why" one would blog about their knitting. Also, she doesn't want Aunt X to read about her hatred of Cousin Y (who doesn't do the internet) and go blabbing all this to Uncle Z, etc.

So, her husband told a family member about the blog and gave out the web address. He also told his colleagues she had a knit blog and they wanted to read it. Private no more, although very public in knitting blogland.

When I first set up my blog, you know the story... it was to keep my friends from far away up to date on life back in MD. I didn't have this blog listed as "public" on the blogger site, although you can google certain terms and land on my blog. I have some good friends with blogs who have me listed on their links (and I to them). That's my little circle.

For about a minute (a few days), I turned on the listing feature. Nothing came of it, but I turned this off because I didn't necessarily want to share my blog with the entire universe. Just my little universe, you know? Plus, I noticed a couple ADVERTISEMENTS disguised as anonymous comments (Rejected!) and I figured maybe being totally public wasn't a good idea.

So here are my queries:
[1] Do you share your blog with your friends, families, co-workers?
[2] Are you listed on any type of bloglines or blogging community?
[3] How do you keep something soooo public a little more private?

This and more on the next episode of the Jallie Beans' Beanz.