Stuff happens, and you use what’s available.
If making public announcements in the town square was still an acceptable means of communication, I’d be doing what Paul and his friends did in the New Testament. Most towns don’t even have a public square these days, and yelling your declarations could get you shot, or at least arrested, never mind what you had to say. So aside from carrying signs or wearing t-shirts with silly slogans, I can either fund an expensive paper newsletter or just use the Internet — such as it is.
For a couple of days this past week, Google was dinging around with Blogger. You could read the blogs, but nobody could post anything new for about two days. My other blog is hosted there, the one where I post almost nothing but Bible studies. I started that one before this one; this one started out at MyOpera. Frankly, I love the service here, and spend more time writing here. But I wanted to keep certain things separated, and having two blogs seemed a good answer. There is also a different readership for each service.
At any rate, that wasn’t the first time Google made my unhappy. On the one hand, no has to use Google at all. On the other hand, most of the world does use Google, and if you don’t, you’ll be left out. Some of their services are really good; most are just a trap. Right after finally getting Blogger back online, they hit everyone with this demand for a cellphone number. Their intention is to use text-messaging to communicate password resets and other administrative traffic. This isn’t the first time they’ve pushed the idea, and this time they promised: without it, you aren’t going to get any answers from them.
I realize they have a massive user base. They reject any notions of accountability, though. Their track record is simply horrendous. Granted, they’ve never harassed me for anything I posted, but who’s to say when they might find a reason to cut me off? They’ve done it thousands of times to other users, and all the anecdotal evidence I can find indicates they can be very irresponsible and unresponsive. On the flimsiest of excuses, they’ll cut you off and refuse to discuss it. By comparison, WordPress might cut you off, but at least they’ll discuss it. Other services are hungry enough to play even more nicely, but using them tends to reduce exposure.
Then there is the problem with Google tracking your searches, your surfing, their ties to the NSA and CIA, secret government funding, etc. So while I could care less what my government knows about what I think, and my privacy was compromised long ago when I enlisted, then started using the VA medical system, I get tired of it. Yes, as a former Military Policeman I’ll be the first to warn you innocence is no excuse; when they decide to come after you, there is not a darn thing you can do, so long as you breathe and have a heartbeat. But sometimes it’s worth it just to make it more difficult by refusing to stand in the mainstream and expose yourself so completely.
Yesterday, I ceased posting new material on my Blogger account. I moved all that to MyOpera. I also will be switching all my Gmail traffic to a MyOpera (soulkiln AT myopera DOT com) account. For some things, a private Norwegian Internet company is better than the supposed international Google-octopus. I’ve continued using the Opera browser, not for everything, but for enough reasons I keep installing it on new systems and updating it. It’s the one best tool at reimporting it’s own email account data regardless of which OS it ran on last.
I suppose if free blogging somehow becomes impossible, I can always try to offer my writing via email newsletter, or I can self-host stuff on my account at Serverforest (which holds my soulkiln.org website), but it wouldn’t be the same. If you think it matters, drop me a line and I’ll keep your email address just in case things go crazy. If you are really determined, you can ask for a snail-mail address. Given my emphasis on helping everyone think and act independently from their own convictions, I rather hope the only reason anyone really wants that is plain old friendship, not some dependence on my writing.
In the grand scheme of things, as an old civilization collapses, the replacement may not be able to salvage all the technology. This Internet stuff my go away, or change so much it would seem gone by comparison. While it’s convenient, we post and read on our blogs here and there, and maybe we are somehow made stronger in the process. But nobody owes us anything, and we use these things at some risk.
