I completely agree with your quote above. sometimes i need to purge my thoughts, sorrows, struggles by writing them out. For me, the writing is therapeutic, but having someone read and acknowledge their visit gives me some sort of validation. Being heard is important to me, so I guess that’s my ‘being authentic’, my true motivation for blogging.
Rocky posted Jamie Cullum takes me for a spin

As for blogging personae: are we actually who others think we are, who we think we are, or who we think others think we are?

Jesus, my head hurts now.
Major Bedhead posted Paterfamilias

I don’t think blogging is about rules or a quest to find the right way to blog. I feel like this exercise results in different self-righteous camps and/or insecurity.

I have the feeling that a lot of discussion ends up as a quest to define “the 10 commandments of blogging” … but not matter how much you light bushes on fire and wait for that booming voice, you will always have different voices.

I think blogs, quite simply, reflect the people that write them. It reflects their motives, attitudes and beliefs… their view and experience of the world and what is/isn’t important to them. Those differences are precisely why they are wonderful. Even the artifice reflects a belief– “I won’t be acceptable unless I write this way” or “I will impress people if I write this way”.

We’re human: flawed, confused, happy, sad, mixed-up, lovable, detestable, sleezy, sweet, delightful and hateful.

My own belief is that blogging is not a flat playing field anymore than novels are. I love to read something trashy and artificial on vacation: it frees me from real life worries and it suits my expectations. Similarly, if I want my heart to soar or weep, I love Anne Tyler or Alice Munroe or Richard Russo…

We need to be critical readers and blogs need to be just what they are. What that person has chosen it to be. Sure there are probably a million “best practices” for different types of blogging and different intentions behind blogs… but I’m dousing my burning bush. (And now I’m laughing… because I have a dirty mind…)
ingrid posted conan the barbarian- the musical

You are also the perfect person to ask about humor. Authentic or not? My real life is kinda messy right now, more about death and dying than anything amusing. But at the same time, I write tweets to Canadian women about their beavers. Online, I am considered “funny,” but I don’t consider myself funny. Are you or the Bloggess being authentic when you write something humor based? Of course you are. And you are authentic when you don’t.

Actually, the best thing for my writing is to learn to write in different voices so I can have characters that speak differently. I’ve tried a few times to post as if it was written by a woman — and it usually failed, because I guess if felt inauthentic. But I would like to perfect that voice that isn’t me, until it is so inauthentic that it fools you into thinking it IS authentic.

Then I will be a writer!