Sciencewomen

It was 3 years ago today that I started blogging. I started with a pseudonymous blog, at the edge of the internet, as a lonely graduate student, trying to navigate my dissertation, a long-distance relationship, and unsure future career prospects. My blog, with my pseudonym, is still out there because the prospect of cutting it off made me feel like I was lying, like I was ashamed of what I wrote. But I’m thinking, on this anniversary, maybe it is time to take it down. Retire it, and the url too. Because maybe I could then bring my pseudonym back out of the shadows, where it has been dormant since I started co-blogging with ScienceWoman. I mean, my pseudonym still feels part of *me*. I want it here, even if everyone does know my name.

If there are any of you out there who connected the dots between my pseudonymous bloglife and here, what do you think I should do? Retire the old blog (perhaps behind a password) and bring out the pseudonym? Or do I have to let go of both? (Remember, my administration is watching me…)

Comments

#1 Scicurious
April 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary.
#2 Tinkering Theorist
April 17, 2009

If it were me, I would look at how many hits the blog is getting. Is anyone out there having the same issues as you did, searching the internet, and finding your posts? I really liked reading your posts as they went up, but I don’t think it would come up in many searches now or that people would go back much to a blog that’s not being updated. If not many people are using it, I think you should archive it for yourself, or put it up with a password in case you want to share with other specific people. But if lots of people are still finding the site, it would be a much harder decision . . .
#3 ScienceWoman
April 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary!
#4 Doug Alder
April 17, 2009

Putting a password on it after the fact will do no good. The information in those pages is already in Google’s and The Wayback Machine’s memory banks. If your administration is watching you and you do not want them seeing those posts then do not revive your pseudonym as doing so will reveal it to them (I’m presupposing here that they do not already know it) at which point a simple Google and Wayback search will bring up your old posts sans password.
#5 Kim Hannula
April 17, 2009

Happy anniversary!

About claiming your pseudonym: if you take down the old blog (and make password-protected or something), will the old posts still be archived and accessible somewhere on the net? (Through the magic of… ack, I forget the name, but isn’t there a site that takes snapshots of web pages and archives them?)
#6 Danimal
April 17, 2009

I mean, my pseudonym still feels part of *me*. I want it here, even if everyone does know my name.

There are lots of bloggers who use pseudonyms even though their real identities are known. So why not keep your pseudonym even if you do decide to retire your old blog? Hopefully you have a cool pseudonym. If it sucks, retire it, and find a cool new one. Happy Anniversary!
#7 Lilian Nattel
April 17, 2009

Happy anniversary! There are lots of writers who’ve made their pseudonyms known when they are secure enough in their professional identity under their own name.
#8 S
April 20, 2009

You only have to archive it if you want to. Anonymity is also freedom, and you don’t owe anyone anything. Sometimes it’s nice to not have the past trailing after oneself. I would go with your gut feeling, either way.

If you want to take it down, there is still usually a way to request a takedown on the net archiving sites, it just takes some time. But it’s true that it’s difficult to erase completely.
#9 Lab Lemming
April 21, 2009

I haven’t checked your old blog in years, but I liked it back in the day. Keep it on a shelf, to show your students that you were one of them once upon a time.