How private is your LJ?

[dreamer_easy]

Do you consider your LJ to be your private space, or a public arena, or somewhere between the two? I think of mine as very public, and flock anything I don't want to share with the universe, but I often bump up against people who consider their LJs to be much more of a personal space, and don't want the likes of me friending them, disagreeing with them, etc. I think that attitude is understandable and try to respect it; but it's not always obvious that this is someone's attitude, and suddenly I'm right where they don't want me, ie, in their face. who_daily has caused a bit of trouble now and again by linking to folks who didn't expect the whole of fandom to suddenly turn up in their journal, and who weren't actually looking for a debate, thank you very much. So tell me: how public do you consider your LJ to be?

Comments

[fazia.livejournal.com]

I just stumbled across an article about a similar idea with regards to Facebook:

"Facebook and the Social Dynamics of Privacy"
James Grimmelmann, New York Law School
http://works.bepress.com/james_grimmelmann/20/

"This Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of the law and policy of privacy on social network sites, using Facebook as its principal example. It explains how Facebook users socialize on the site, why they misunderstand the risks involved, and how their privacy suffers as a result. Facebook offers a socially compelling platform that also facilitates peer-to-peer privacy violations: users harming each others’ privacy interests. These two facts are inextricably linked; people use Facebook with the goal of sharing some information about themselves. Policymakers cannot make Facebook completely safe, but they can help people use it safely. "

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Yah - that "Is it public? Is it private? Is it speaking? Is it writing?" confusion plays into so much Internet conflict. Very many of us have discovered our pants around our ankles after posting something we thought would only be seen by a few people. :P