Alex and Chloe have both made strong starts as new bloggers (they started last month). Let’s take as one measure of blogging success the ability to initiate a discussion:
Alex – 24 posts, 49 comments: 2.04 comments per post
Chloe – 8 posts, 21 comments: 2.62 comments per post
(They’re doing much better than me on this count. PR Studies – 356 posts, 187 comments: ratio of just 0.5.)
Yet Alex has opened a can of worms (17 comments) by appearing to criticise her fellow students. I’d encourage her to keep going even though she’s opened the highly competitive atmosphere among our final year students to public scrutiny. We’re all learning from experience, and I think this was far from the most regrettable post she’s written (from her point of view, not mine). No clues as to which I think that was…
PR Studies 
If Alex feels that this is a regretable post then no doubt she’ll come through it a better blogger than before.
She’s clearly passionate about PR and that’s a good thing, and to be honest, it looks like the other students are passionate too.
I’m not sure if any blogger hasn’t thought to their self at least once, “I really shouldn’t have posted that”. I know I have. I sometimes look back at previous posts and cringe. đŸ™‚ But that shows I know more now than I did then.
We’re all learning this stuff.
I wonder how many extra hits Alex has had from people going back to try and discover which WAS Alex’s most regrettable post…
For what it’s worth, I think bloggers like Alex and Stephen Davies reflect well on their respective courses. And I bet most ‘experienced’ bloggers have found that one or two of their posts have brought unexpected (and unwelcome) consequences – it has certainly happened to me. I am keeping my biggest blunder to myself but I learnt a lot from it.
Although I have been thinking about this for some time, I am only just beginning to realise the scope of the ethical issues that surround activities played out in public – and permanent – view.
In a word – WOW! I had no idea that a posting on a small and insignificant blog would cause so much madness! Well I suppose it shows the power of the blog. It blows my mind.
In a way I do regret writing it, but there is no point sitting around procrastinating on what could have been I can only learn as Stephen said. This whole experience has not dented my enthusiasm about blogging, nor are the comments of my peers causing me to loose any sleep (I have a dissertation for that!).
But I have to say I am intrigued as to what my most regrettable post may have been. Perhaps you could email me?
Private email sent, Alex. There’s no great mystery, but some things are best said in private. (This is not a comment on your blog, which I admire very much.)