For those who don't know already

[silverthunder]

LiveJournal has released a feature that allows users to track journals and posts without listing the journal among your friends. Basically, you click a button and BOOM! All posts on the journal or all comments on the post (depending on which you're tracking) are sent to your email.

Sound harmless? Well, maybe.

I think it's creepy. I'm already about 90% friends-only; only the fluff posts and memes are left un-friends-locked, and those who don't comment to me and let me know they want to know the boring details of my daily life don't get added as friends. But still.

Suppose I make a public post - for whatever reason; I have friends who don't have LJs and I link them to certain posts sometimes - and someone wishes to make a comment on it that's really only meant for me. The easiest way to do this has always been to comment and then quickly delete it. That way I get it in my email but no one else sees it. Well, now someone COULD see it, because if you're watching a post, you get those comments in your email as well.

Not to mention the fact that I'm sure we've all had those moments when we post something and then think 'oops' and delete it because it's not necessarily something we want everyone seeing. 'Oops' isn't going to cut it if someone's already watching you, is it?

At the very least, I think we should be informed when someone is stalking our journals or our posts, and who those people are. Paranoia could sink in pretty fast otherwise.

anax provided a nice handy link to the release post for those who would like to express their concerns. I've already expressed mine.

Comments

[replica.livejournal.com]

I never said that everyone was going to feel the same way about it xD Nor did I ever call it silly. I'm not saying that you should like it, I'm just not really understanding the concerns about being watched, because it's all stuff that people can watch already anyways. The notification system just makes it less work. I mean, if I really wanted to follow your online movements, I could refresh your journal a lot for new posts, I could watch all your comms to see your posts/comments in them, I could watch your friends and check for your comments in there, I could check out your userpics every day to see if you've uploaded anything new... yes, it's more work, but it's the exact same thing the notification system is doing. So, I guess I'm just not really seeing the difference here?

But I do agree that there should be an opt-out for those who don't want it. There are a lot of features on LJ that I don't like that have opt-out, so this one needs it as well.

[silverthunder]

I'm not really that paranoid about being stalked - I just feel uncomfortable about the idea that people I don't know are being emailed the content of comments and such made in my journal posts. Sure, they could just check and find them - but if they ARE creepy, why make it easy for them?

Also, suppose I make a mistake and comment something I didn't want the general public to see? I've done it before. Then I delete it.

I don't like the fact that this means any number of people (who I don't even know) could see it despite the fact that I've deleted it. It's not just because I'm worried that some obsessive stalker (which is pretty much the only kind of person who would refresh every five seconds on a LJ post for hours on end) will see it. I don't want ANYONE to see it. It's bad enough that the person I'm replying to will see it; do we have to add to that? It basically means I don't have the luxury of making those kinds of mistakes.

I don't know if you see this as rational or irrational. Personally, it doesn't matter to me. Whether the uncomfortable feeling is irrational or not, it's there and I don't like it. That's reason enough to want the opt-out available.