Blog Honesty - Are You Guilty of Self Censorship

In it's infancy blogging was nothing more than a weblog, an online journal, of an individual or group's daily, weekly, or occasional activities. Weblogs gave families, friends and other associates a means of "keeping up" with one another online.

Blogs have evolved into a method of communication being utilized by everyone from CEOs to school age internet gurus. Some blog for fame; others for fortune and most importantly many blog as a means of self expression. As hi-tech as blogging has become, it's still all about conversation and opinion. So why then should blog honesty and making sure you're not guilty of losing it ever be an issue.

Perhaps certain bloggers get lost in the need to be more popular than be themselves. I don't mean misrepresent a product or other information available on their personal blog. I'm referring to self-censorship...and without utilizing wikipedia or google to define that...I'll take a stab at it myself.

Self-censorship is the act of not being completely forthcoming about your personal feelings regarding a topic in fear that what you say or how you say it might be taken the wrong way or be viewed as down right offensive by some.

Staying true to your readers but more importantly yourself is the only solution to this issue.

Keeping your blog honest will help the author gain respect from readers, critics and the occasional visitors that stray in from time to time. That means -

Keeping Your Comment Section Honest

Don't be so quick to delete comments that call a post into question. A respectful "debate" about certain topics is always a good thing. There certainly are more opinions out there than just the bloggers. Ask yourself, am I moderating comments to keep out spam, trolls, or opinions that challenge what I'm saying.

Know What You Know

We're all experts in our own right. Blog about what you know you know. What you're unsure of - leave it for the "experts" in that field or credit other sources when using their information

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Don't Turn On The Stove!

Certain topics i.e. religion, politics, sexual orientation, etc. are already hot, heavy and highly controversial subjects. If you don't plan on sharing your honest feelings about any subject that could be viewed as such, don't post about it.


Does Your Blog Represent You
This tip/question isn't mine. It was posed by Robb Sutton in a post entitled "Would You Subscribe to Your Own Blog"...if you weren't you. He goes on to say:

Is your personality coming through on your blog? I fall into this trap pretty regularly. As I draft blog posts, I have to step away from the form of writing that has been beat into our minds our entire lives…term papers and reports. Let’s be honest, throughout our professional and educational careers, the powers that be have advocated EXTREMELY BORING writing. A blog should be an expression of who you are and the more you bring yourself into your blogging, the more people will be attracted to what you have to say! Your blog content has to be an extension of your personality and life and not a reference manual with footnotes. Not only is it ok to stray away from normal writing styles and language…it is encouraged!

Well honestly...that's about all I can say on that topic. I guess the idea for the post stemmed from the occasions when I've read a post on another blog that I strongly disagreed with. I normally just don't comment at all. It's almost as if I think leaving an opposing comment is the same as being rude to someone in their home. Is that weird or has anyone else felt that way?