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I would like to start a technology oriented blog. A short description should contain something like: A personal/private blog about...

Is there a major difference between personal and private ?

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    There is no "private" blog. Anything available on the internet is guaranteed to leak into publicly viewable sites.
    – Carl Witthoft
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:11
  • @CarlWitthoft There are absolutely private blogs on the internet. If a blog hidden behind a login system has its content stolen and reproduced elsewhere without the creator's/owner's permission, the blog is still private. Its contents might no longer be, but that's not the question.
    – talrnu
    Jun 26, 2017 at 18:47
  • My intension was to clarify that the blog reflects my opionions. So your answers helped me a lot! Thanks!
    – OCram85
    Jun 26, 2017 at 20:49

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I have to disagree with Lawrence.

A personal blog is simply one which represents the owner's own work, own opinions, etc. There are plenty of personal blogs maintained by people who have separate, perhaps company-sponsored blogs, for example. The personal blog need not be private in any sense of that word, said blog being open for viewing to anyone who knows the URL.

A private blog is one which requires permission to access.

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    Since you say that you're disagreeing with me, I thought I'd point out that my answer doesn't say that personal blogs must be private. I actually pointed to the difference between the two. Having said that, access permissions is quite a separate issue from calling something a private blog.
    – Lawrence
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:18
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    I suppose it is beginning to mince words, but I would say you might have private or restricted access to a personal blog... a 'private blog' sounds to me more like a private journal or diary... unintended for a wider audience) ... except perhaps when you publish your memoirs ( ;) ) (and then terms like journal or diary would be better than blog . That being said, I'm not sure there is a 'correct' answer here as certainly if people hear the term used, it is used and means something.
    – Tom22
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:36
  • @Lawrence The first sentence in your answer says they're synonymous. They are not ... I suspect that is why this answer disagrees with yours and also why it has more upvotes.
    – user428517
    Jun 26, 2017 at 21:51
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In this context, private can carry an explicit sense of not for public viewing, whereas personal carries it only as a connotation.

Likewise, personal carries an explicit sense that the entries are the blogger's own (and not their company's, for example). That sense is also within the semantic range of private, but slightly less explicitly so.

You ask:

Is it called personal blog or private blog[?]

The choice between calling it a personal blog or a private blog depends on whether you want to emphasise that these are your own posts, or that the posts aren't really intended for public consumption.

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    as mentioned in a comment to the other post, while people are certainly free to call personal reflections unintended for distribution a 'private blog', calling them something like a journal or a diary feels better to me, as I think of a blog meaning published and presented to the public. (you wouldn't have a 'private column', for instance)
    – Tom22
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:40
  • @Tom22 Hm, this definition doesn't require blogs to be public. They're just frequently updated, as the 'log' in 'blog' (web-log) suggests. Web pages in general have varying degrees of accessibility - from public pages to password-protected private pages, with intranet-only and other schemes in between. So it's only logical that frequently updated web pages vary similarly. On the other hand, columns are entries in publications which are typically printed for public consumption.
    – Lawrence
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:51
  • @Tom22 I think 'private blog' isn't a contradiction of terms, but I wouldn't disagree with your use of the words journal or diary for the same concept.
    – Lawrence
    Jun 26, 2017 at 14:52
  • I have to take issue with the statement that "they're synonymous." While they're not antonyms, they have, as you noted, very different meanings. To say that they are synonyms is like saying thumb and finger are synonyms. While all thumbs are fingers, not all fingers are thumbs. More so, however, while some personal blogs are private and some private blogs are personal, neither implies the other. Some companies, for example, might have a private blog intended only for employees (mine does); that's not a personal blog. Contrarily, my personal blog is very public.
    – Roger Sinasohn
    Jun 26, 2017 at 16:19
  • @RogerSinasohn Ok, point taken. I've removed the offending line.
    – Lawrence
    Jun 26, 2017 at 23:42

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