“You wouldn’t say that if your account were public” (watch me)

I have been on twitter since January 2007, member number 730,253 to those who care. I joined like most people, because the cool kids, in my case my friends @manxomfoe and @zecariahs, were doing it. I started out the way most people do and what twitter was originally designed for (“what are you doing”). As I got involved in the Seattle tech community my usage increased and moved from a publication to conversation with other people. However as my interactions grew I found it necessary to take my profile private as I do talk about my work quite frequently, and working in emerging technology markets, and would rather not have the competition knowing my personal feelings about it. I took it private in 2008. This has given me a nice insulary layer for the past couple of years allowing me to foster relationships on twitter to the point it has become my principal communication medium. I am fairly liberal with what I tweet leading some of my friends and followers to DM me with that magic statement:

"You wouldn't say that if your account were public"

To those that know me well, this is as an ammusing statement as one could ever say about me, but I can see their point. Having a private profile does lead one to conclude I would not have the testicular fortitude to say much in public. Also, having a private profile, as comfortable as it has been, it has left me somewhat cut off from the broader conversations happening on twitter, save from the occasional retweet some of my friends let leak out.

So, I have been wrestling with this for a while, an ability to have a public outlet, while keeping some semblence of privacy for things that quite honestly, should be kept between friends. I believe I have found a solution that sould make me comfortable with some semblence of privacy and people who wish to see have a more public account. After today, my existing I will be transitioning the @jchenry screen name to a public account, and keeping my existing private account, just that, private. This will protect certain statements I have made out of the public eye, while maintaining giving me a public outlet for non uber private conversation and statements. Some of you will not be kept on the private account. for that I apologize, but you will be added immediately to the public one and we can continue our conversations. I will no doubt get detractors and people who will say “F!@# You, I thought we were friends” and invitabley lose “street cred” for haveing a newer profile but it is the only way I have been able to reconcile the requirements.

Nov 28, 2010