What kind of tape is best for creating a sculpture?

Heaven forbid, I'm at it again...I've been thinking and not just about random questions provided by my blogging software.  In fact have been thinking about social networking/blogging or more to the point how folks use these tools to "share" intentionally and unintentionally. 

I'm a recovering Facebook gamer, along the way I added several hundred "friends" via the gaming mechanism. Pulling the plug earlier this summer I defriended most of the gamers but kept a few as we had developed a connection beyond the game. 

Since that time, I've had a several leave after some very public displays of poor decision making including a couple of drunken co-dependants that would sit across the table from each other and type an argument online when they should have been talking face to face in private.  At the same time they were communicating privately and publicly (online) with mutual friends saying things that fueled their co-dependency even more.  In a "train wreck" sort of way it was fascinating to watch but after a while it just grew tiresome and frankly they hit too close to home on a professional level that in the end I was really happy to see them go. 

Then there were a couple of nasty divorce and custody issues that went into bizarroland rather quickly.  One pulled the plug herself when the briefest of hints of it became public.  I applaud her common sense.  The other example, it seems EVERYBODY had a point/side to make/take including both parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and the kids themselves and they posted it online, to which I ask WTH were these people thinking?  

Are people oblivious to the fact they are sharing this information?  In some cases I think they are...while others are doing it for the attention.  Still I really don't want to know who slept with who, caught what disease, and absconded with how much money.  Again too much like my day job.  Sorry I just don't need it in my off hours particularly with folks I don't even know or want to know beyond  a "number" needed for a game I'm no longer playing.

Seems pretty easy to me...thanks but no thanks and you're gone. Have you have observed such train wrecks?  What was your reaction?  Did you offer support or advice?  Are you still watching the train wreck or did you cut them off?  

If that isn't enough, what happens when folks you do know and care about do something unfortunate online?  For example, when they add less than charitable comments to posts, think better of it and suddenly delete them....do they not realize in many cases recipients may have a copy  in their mailbox anyway?  What about information leaks of a highly intimate nature that could be damaging both personally and professionally appearing in feeds for all to see?  Then there is having secrets outed because information was shared with some but not others or because of carelessness on the part of the secret holder(s).  Do you simply pretend you don't know? In this brave new world, what is the etiquette for this sort of thing?

Then I started thinking what are the rules about the intentional sharing under the cloak of anonymity in a blog?  The blogger is anonymous,  the readers may or may not be.  I've witnessed folks who pour their heart and soul into their blogs in a genuine effort to find comfort and solace; only to find unsolicited advice and criticism flung at them. Then there are those who respond expecting to be lauded for their support and witticism and become angered when the blogger responds only with a polite thank-you (which is the only thing required). 

I still shake my head when I think about the blog I lurked on for over a year, where the author created a charade where all readers were unknowing duped into his wacky world simply for book fodder. Not surprisingly the author received not glowing admiration but scorn from his readers after “coming clean”; thanking them for all the caring and sharing he had put them through and announced the newly finished book could be procured via amazon.com.uk.

For my blog I have chosen anonymity, however in my fledgling state I think it is safe to say most folks either know me in real life or know me from other aspects of my online life. At this time I provide the option of unmediated comments as they are few and I continue to go undetected by spamers. As a reader I tend to be a lurker and if I comment I usually will do so in the form of a private message until I get to know the author and their readers.  A little something that until recently I had not made available to my readers.   That has now been rectified; the biggest chore will be remembering to check it. Feel free to leave a anonymous comment saying check your email ;-)

So dear readers I ask, what kind of an online image have you created for yourself and how do you respond to such twaddle? Am I off base with reactions?  Talk to me please.