the network for radical unschooling families

I changed my username...

...because my page here came up while I was being Googled at a birthday party. Silly me. I used my full name but didn't know the site was fully searchable to anyone. I thought I was only visible to members here. Suddenly, all my radical thoughts were visible to people who already thought I was weird.

I changed it as a protective measure--didn't want just anyone who typed my name into a search engine to be able to access the furthest reaches of my psyche, some possibly intimate details of our family life. The jury is still out on whether or not I am a coward!

For now, I'll stick with what's comfortable. I'm of two minds about this, though. Why am I hiding? Why don't I want my friends and neighbors to really know me? Why do I think they'd actually take the time to Google and probe this far? I think I want to stop people from judging me. Won't they do that anyway? I also want to control the flow of information about me/us into their lives. That may be an impossible task.

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Comment by Jules on September 2, 2008 at 5:31pm: Hi Julie, I have a hard time w/this too (see my response in Jane Bertone's Internet Privacy topic: http://familyrun.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2184370%3ATopic%3A4422&x=1&page=2#comments).

I think what Diana says about inspiring another unschooler is a great way to look at it.

Regarding controlling the flow of info, yeah, it's pretty hard to do. I noticed already a couple of places here on ning where others have used my full name, and I think I may have referred to you by full name on one of my blog posts (the door bells video -- I can remove if you want).

I try to keep in mind that anything I post on the internet or email lists is being *published* and out there for anyone who may happen across it or anyone who actively seeks it out. So I just try to be aware of what I'm writing or uploading and hope it's of use to someone somewhere.

Comment by Julie B on September 1, 2008 at 10:56pm: Ooh, nice feature. Thanks! And good point about the googling.

Comment by diana (hahamommy) on September 1, 2008 at 4:13pm: On your page, click "My Settings" then "Privacy" and you can change what can be accessed and by whom.
You may inspire someone to google you, who really needs this tribe... It'd be nice if they could find us via you, the *real* you ;)