Going Private, Mostly

For the longest time I've wrestled with whether or not I should make my blog private.  Unlike some of my blogging friends, I haven't had the unsettling experience of an unknown person leaving obscene comments on my blog.  But I do have a husband who is much more private than I am, and I've known for a long time that he isn't exactly comfortable knowing that, in theory at least, I'm sharing our whole life with the whole world.  Of course, I have an ISP tracker on my blog so I know who's coming by, and the vast majority are people I know.  But there are always the unknown visitors that make me just a teensy bit uncomfortable, just because I have no idea who they are but by reading my blog they could know an awful lot about me.  It's just too uneven to sit right with me.

So why didn't I go private a long time ago?  Well, it has to do with this nifty thing called an RSS feed.  I actually don't even know what RSS stands for, but I do know that it lets the majority of my readers know automatically when I've updated my blog.  I also know that, as someone who uses RSS feeds herself to follow all the blogs she reads, it's a really valuable tool.  And here's the problem:  when you go private, your blog no longer generates an RSS feed.  As other friends of mine have gone private, I have to admit that I have a hard time remembering to check their blogs for updates, because I can no longer get those automatic updates.  So I don't want the same thing to happen with my blog.  I love my readers, and I don't want to lose any of you by giving up my RSS feed.  So what's a blogger to do?

Well, thanks to my lovely blogging friend Cami, I finally have the answer to my dilemma.  She shared a simple strategy with me that one of her blogging friends is using, and it's so simple, I don't know why I didn't think of it ages ago.  Here's the deal:

I will keep this public blog, but I will delete all my posts.  Don't worry--they've all been exported to my new private blog (litterofleaves.blogspot.com).  When I post something new on my private blog, I will also post the title only of the post here on my public blog, thus alerting everyone with a subscription to my feed that I have updated my private blog.  You will then come to my public blog (thecantareros.blogspot.com) and click on a handy dandy link to my private blog (litterofleaves.blogspot.com).  If you've been given permission to view my private blog, you'll be able to read the full post and comment just like normal.  If you don't have permission yet, just ask me, and I'll be happy to hook you up. Of course, if you come to my blog by typing the URL or clicking a bookmark, all you have to do is change the URL to litterofleaves.blogspot.com.

That doesn't sound quite as simple as I wanted it to, but I think it's like explaining the rules to a new game:  It's easiest just to start playing, and it will all make sense!  My main goal is to not lose any of you, so please let me know if you're feeling lost. :)

Also, please be patient while I make this transition.  I'm not quite ready to send out all the invites, but if you don't get one in the next few days, please let me know!  I'm sure you don't want to miss out on all our Utah adventures, which is the next thing slated for the blog--just as soon as I get this going private business sorted out.