I've been blogging here for nearly seven years. It's had it's ups and downs. I've posted all kinds of stuff here, from deeply honest personal stuff, to off-the-wall bad taste lunacy. I enjoy blogging, I do it for myself. I've never sought out readership, I just let regular readership grow from natural evolution. If I made my blog private with only myself there to read it, I would continue to blog. Narcissistic, but that's what would happen (in fact, for the first 2 years I omitted this blog from internet search results, as I didn't want other people reading it). That said, I really enjoy the interactions from readers. The idea that people are sometimes entertained from what I put up makes me happy.
What this preamble is trying to achieve is set up a context to what this blog means to me and how I've felt about recent developments within Google's terms and conditions for public profiles. A lot of people have had their Google+ profiles suspended because of the name they chose to use. If it doesn't look right ("John Smith" type names) to Google algorithms, or human Google employees, your profile gets suspended. The scary part is that not only are their Google+ profiles being suspended but stories of their entire Google accounts being deleted have arisen. If that happened to me, that would mean my Google+ profile, my Gmail account and even this blog would suddenly cease to be. From the beginning of hearing of these stories I refused to believe Google would follow through with such draconian measures (especially with old Blogger users like me). It would be nothing less than image suicide; thousands of blogs and gmail accounts vanishing overnight. The stories of deletion however, continue of regardless.
They have said that all private and suspended profiles will be deleted tomorrow [when Google+ is hinted at becoming public]. So do I dare assume that if my Google+ profile remains intact at one second past midnight tomorrow morning; it, my Gmail account, and my blog(s) will be safe from deletion? Safe at least from Google's current "Pseudonym Holocaust" anyway? Or will Google's rebranding of "Blogger" to "Google Blogs" herald a new Internet Order, where only those with Anglo-Saxon sounding usernames will be allowed blog?
After nearly 7 years of faithfully using Blogger, thinking that Google would continue to host it even after I was dead, I have begun looking what other blogging platforms are offering. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but this Google+ fiasco has dented my trust in Google and their overall vision.
Did you ever think of going down the self-hosting route? Be your own master!
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused, in general, and, specifically here. If you were to cancel the G+ profile would the Google account still run the risk of deletion because Blogger rules are changed as well? In other words, would cancelling the Google + solve the problem? Google say don't be evil, BUT THEY'RE KIND OF EVIL LOL.
ReplyDeleteNo, quite frankly. I've always thought that paying for blogging would remove the element of frivolous fun for me. Plus, who will pay for the blog's upkeep when I'm gone (who'll pay for it now even!). That's what annoys me most about Google's spate of profile deletions. People used to fight for the right to make Google to delete content (take the initially missing "delete" feature in Gmail for instance). Now it seems Google are all too eager to commit an act of cyberspace genocide the likes of which haven't been seen since Yahoo blew up Geocities!
ReplyDeleteI used to feel all nice and comfy in the knowledge that Google didn't like to delete stuff and that http://gammagoblin.blogspot.com would be around for even a few years after my carcass began to melt into the soil, six-feet under. Not anymore though. Google have shown that they could do the old switcheroo at any moment.
Plus, if I felt the reins of morality slip to level an independent blogging platform would bring, I'm not sure people would enjoy the Anders Breivik Bisgaard styled blog posts :D
Ah! Dear old Geocities. My very first spot on the Interweb lost for future generations.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is the point, surely? If Google zap your site then all the years of work will have gone? And where will I get my regular chuckle?
G'wan.. it'll cost less that a Yoyo a week. Think of the freedom and independence.
Make it a condition of your will that the benefactors must pay to keep the site running in perpetuity.
Heh!
They'll love you for it.
Ironclad Ken: It's funny where you keep ending up. This time it was the spam folder, possibly because you were mentioning how evil Google is. You better watch it. Google could SEO-nuke your ass to Mars! It's all fun and games until a website looses a page rank.
ReplyDeleteGrandad: No. No money will ever be made or payed for blogging. It is in my holy blogging bible, page 1. I don't like freedom either. I like tight bondage, where I feel the thrill of pushing the moral envelope. Just like how you aren't really living until you suffer your first heart-attack, you aren't really blogging until you get your first legal letter threatening defamation. Having your blog hosted by a third party is no protection from that anyway. Isn't that right Ken!
ReplyDeleteIronclad Ken: I forgot to mention in my earlier reply. I'm pretty sure those who got their entire Google account suspended/deleted were people who recently signed up to gmail specifically for the Google+ invite. Hence it looked like spam accounts.
It's the lack of clarity from Google that is causing the problem. Google's VP said it's not about legal or "real names" but names you are known by. This seems fine and dandy but some of the deleted were using 10 year old handles. Again though, I'm confident that having this blog authored under the name "Gammagoblin" for 7 years is enough to keep the Googly people happy.
I moved from Geocities to Blogger to Wordpress over the first half of the noughties for both features and control reasons. If you want to stick with someone else taking care of the platform for you, it might be worth thinking about wordpress.com. They have a Blogger importer.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about the same "posterity vs hassle" thing re Twitter the other day. I have trust issues with Twitter and think I should be backing up my tweets to "somewhere else".
How do we use systems like Twitter/Blogger/Facebook to hold all of the stuff we generate whilst avoiding the Geocities cultural terrorism.
Conor:
ReplyDeleteI moved from Geocities to Blogger too, well kind of. I had a "Maddox" styled page where I ranted about stuff for a while. It had a few juicy posts that I wish I still had but it's not a patch on this place though :)
Wordpress is definitely "the alternative" at this point. I make regular backups of this blog so migrating in an emergency wouldn't be too painful. Again though, to make the most of Wordpress, the cash must be parted with. Blogger is really a different beast than what it used to be in the "dark ages". Features wise, there are zero reasons to move from here for free hosting.
The problem with Google is that it's just so tempting. I can't fault any of it's services up until now (nothing major anyway). You also have the might of a company that is, lets face it, less likely (though not impossible), to go "dot bomb" overnight than somewhere else. You get massive resources (free unlimited image hosting for images upto 4MP in size). And most tantalising, extensive backup solutions via your Google account page.
If one is worried about loosing one's content, a Google profile is the way to go. You can download everything belonging to you: your Google+ stream, your images, your contacts, even your profile page... that is of course, if you manage to get in before they delete it for you ;-)
As for backing up Twitter as is now: I added my Twitter accounts RSS feed to Google Reader a few months after signing upto twitter, that way I'm backing it up onto Google's servers. Not sure how I could ever download it, but the tweets from the last few years are there anyway. Annoyingly, they are only searchable upto the last 12 months.
Then of course there is always linking your Twitter stream to Google Buzz, the stream of which you can download from your Google Accounts page in a zip file. But how much more time has Buzz got on Cyberspace before Google does the old hack and slash with it. Not long it seems, but they will probably integrate it with your Google+ stream anyway.
I can understand what Google are trying to achieve with Google+ but they have made an absolute balls-up with their handling of issues regarding it. It shows up major weaknesses in the company that have definitely tarnished its image.
I get ya. I still have problems with the "we can shut your account down any time we feel like it", even tho I know they are unlikely to.
ReplyDeleteOne thought I just had was around having your own domain. My geek blog is conoroneill.net on Posterous. I'm getting pissed off at them and I'm thinking of switching to Wordpress.org (yet again). BY having my own domain and using a few WP plugins, I'll be able to do that seamlessly with all the old links still working. I _think_ you can do that with Blogspot?
Images would be my problem with moving. My post images are hosted on Picassa Web and the older ones on *shudder* PhotoBucket. I have an unfinished program I was writing to migrate all image links on blog posts to corresponding links on picassaweb, where I rehosted the old images. I'm not sure what I'd do in the case of a Wordpress migration.
ReplyDeleteAs long as Google lets me blog as Gammagoblin here, I won't be moving, but will they though? What's this "Google Blogs" integration with Google+ going to bring. Why aren't they making announcements, assuring people, either way?
Google appears to have all the technical foresight of a man tumbling down the stairs. You have Google developers coming out in interviews sounding like a confuzzled user stating "we didn't expect Google+ to be this big".
It makes people nervous about their motivations. Use your "real names" in your profiles, the real names you buy stuff on the internet with? This is mighty stuff for conspiracy theorists. And what if they integrate Google+ with Youtube. That will really throw the cat amongst the sausages. "Google herald a new era of bullying free internet" might be the tag line, "No more pseudonyms to hide behind".
Not to worry though, as the Google terms and conditions suggest, you can still call yourself "Junior Jones", and I think that's what we all should be calling ourselves.