Anonymous...or Not?

Six months ago....

The phone rang at midnight.  Late night phone calls startle me. I immediately think there is something terribly wrong.  I rushed to answer the call.

I did not recognize the voice on the other end of the phone.  After a long pause, a person began talking but did not disclose their name.   The person asked me a series of questions.  I did not respond other than to ask "Who are you?"

I was about to hang up the phone but the next question froze my hand to my ear.  The caller made a specific reference to a post I wrote on this blog. 

The caller knew who I was but I had no idea who they were.

I hung up the phone.

How did the caller connect my blog to the dojo phone number?  After hours of online searching, I figured out how the person found the phone number. 

Facebook. 

A setting was automatically changed which listed my site URL on the public profile page.  In a few clicks and searches, I was able to connect the blog-dojo-organization-instructors-work information.  I corrected the setting.

When I started my blog, I decided to be semi-anonymous.  Yes...Michele is my real first name but I try to be cautious about disclosing too much information.  It was months before I told family members about my site.  I am sure their are nuggets of information scattered throughout blog posts and comments which could connect all the pieces. 

Are you anonymous?  Do you blog using your full name?  Is it even possible to be semi-anonymous or anonymous?  Has anyone tracked you down through your blog?  In the age of social networking and instant connections...does it even matter?

2009 Blog in Review

I wanted to briefly list the highlights of Just A Thought for 2009. I do not often look at the Analytics of this blog so I was surprised by some of the details such as top search inquiries and most popular pages. Somehow this ACL and Martial Arts site has "In The Kitchen With Bob" making the list of Top Search Inquiries and Top Pages.

Top Search Inquiries

Shimi Igiri Bo Ichi Video
In the Kitchen With Bob
Please Stop Laughing At Me
Functional Braces
Tunfu
ACL Recovery Blog
ACL Surgery Blog


Top Pages

What Is That Sound?
ACL - 17 Months
Review - Please Stop Laughing At Me
In The Kitchen With Bob
ACL - 2 Years Later
10 Things Not To Ask A Traditional Martial Arts Instructor
Functional Brace
Fear of Injury A Response


It is interesting how many people searched for knee noises and reached my blog. The list includes: crunching, knee noise, cracking, noisy kneecap, clutching knee, clicking, creaking, crackle, squelching noise, terrible noise, bad noise, snapping, sounds like paper, tearing noise, rice crispy sounds and quinching sound.

The following were the top 8 referring blogs to this site. Thank you for including me in your blogroll.

Mokuren Dojo
My Journey To Black Belt - Sue C
Martial Views
Middle Aged Martial Artist
Martial Arts and Modern Life
Traditional TKD
Martial Arts Mom
My Self-Defense Blog

Thank you to all the 2009 readers and followers!