The next stage of Brainstorm Warning

When I first set up Brainstorm Warning, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with it. The site was a blank canvas; I had only a vague plan for sharing personal news with family and friends. Nearly all of my early posts were visible only to users who registered an account. The bulk of posts are still private, though the frequency of public posts has increased.

The first two images I uploaded to the gallery, aside from test images, were icons marked with the text Private and Public, respectively. Included in the logos were the kanji for honne and tatemae. Wikipedia explains honne and tatemae as follows:

Honne (本音) refers to a person’s true feelings and desires. These may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one’s position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one’s closest friends.

Tatemae (建前), literally “façade,” is the behaviour and opinions one displays in public. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one’s position and circumstances, and these may or may not match one’s honne.

As I begin the next stage of Brainstorm Warning, I plan to invest more time in the public face (tatemae) of the site while continuing to make private (honne) posts viewable only by friends and family with registered accounts.

I mentioned in a recent post that 7/8 of the site was not visible to the public. That ratio will change in the coming weeks as I post more material in the vein of my recent guide for spotting job listing scams on craigslist. Public posts and tutorials will cover a range of topics, as explained in the site’s updated About page. I still plan to write private posts for family and friends.

My motivation for posting more public material isn’t entirely altruistic. I am still unemployed after nearly 9 months of searching for a job and continue to pay $10 per month for web hosting. As you’ve likely noticed, I’ve added ads (which I hope are highly visible without being obtrusive) to the site’s sidebar. I hope to help cover my domain renewal and web hosting services (and maybe even make a little bit of spending money) through ad revenue.

Brainstorm Warning is, like any site, continually changing to fit the desires of its audience and its authors. While I have a few rough ideas for tutorials and “how-to” guides I hope will attract more traffic, I’m open to suggestions from my readers.

If you have a technical question or any question regarding the topics listed on the site’s About page, then please use the site’s Contact form to share. Thank you in advance for your input.

Please stay tuned to Brainstorm Warning by either bookmarking the site or adding the site’s RSS feed to your RSS reader and check for updates regularly.

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