But in the Triangle and across the nation, bloggers can go from anonymity to notoriety in an instant, as the family of Paul Berkley, who was shot and killed last Sunday, has demonstrated.

The Clayton man and his two children all had blogs, as did his wife, who is accused of arranging his killing. They left there a chronicle of their daily lives, their fights and even an extramarital affair. In the wake of Berkley's death, the sites became clearinghouses for condolences and provided windows for voyeurism.

Blogs, free-form journals posted on the Internet for all to see, play an increasingly prominent role in scandals and criminal cases. Some people use blogs to confess. Some people's writings become grim entertainment after a crime or tragedy. And some people get in embarrassing trouble when they post what they shouldn't.

"Most people don't see any value to privacy until it hits them," said Paul Jones, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor who teaches a course on blogging and virtual communities. "My so-called life, there it is."

Bloggers can feel insulated in a cyber-cocoon of their own friends and contacts. That can lull some into a false sense of security.

One of Jones' colleagues recently conducted a survey among a sampling of the thousands of undergraduate students who blog on facebook.com. He asked them questions about what they'd feel comfortable posting. Then he went to their blogs and saw what they actually put on their sites.

"It didn't match," Jones said. "People exposed much more than they said they would."

Blogs are a tempting place to vent. Sometimes the therapy backfires.

On Wednesday, an 18-year-old in Florida pleaded guilty in a drunken-driving and manslaughter case after he confessed in his blog to causing a fatal crash by grabbing the steering wheel while he was in the passenger's seat. Blake Ranking initially told investigators he didn't recall anything about the October 2004 crash that killed one friend and seriously injured another. But several days after the accident, he wrote "I did it" on his blog.

He tried to take down the incriminating post, but investigators dug it up.

Kevin West, agent in charge of the State Bureau of Investigation's computer crimes unit, capitalizes on such carelessness.

West found postings made by Brian Tod Schellenberger, the Cary man convicted in October of creating child pornography and plotting to kill his wife, that dated back to the mid-1990s. West said he found about 60 pages of Schellenberger's activities in chat rooms frequented by pedophiles. The FBI used the evidence to help win a 100-year jail sentence.

"I don't think people realize sometimes everything that's out there," West said.

The Berkley family blogs document both the prelude and aftermath of Paul Berkley's shooting.

Police said Monique Berkley confessed to plotting with Andrew Canty, with whom she had a romantic relationship, and Latwon Johnson, Canty's friend, to kill Paul Berkley in a North Raleigh park days after his return from Iraq. Insurance money was the apparent motive, police said.

Paul Berkley's daughter, Becky, posted on her blog two days after the slaying to let people know she and her brother were on their way to California. Innocuous archived postings about Becky's love for Johnson now seem chilling as he stands accused of helping to kill her father.

After The News & Observer published excerpts of Becky's blog, some readers complained, saying that the newspaper exploited what were meant to be a private documents.

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