I’ve mentioned the Mullenweg Skirmishes already in my re-introduction post. However, I first started out with Wordpress in the early 2010s and even won a Wales Blog Award for the technology category in its inaugural year.
However, it was in essence a second phase of maintaining a home on the internet. The first phase was in the days of Netscape Communicator and Frontpage. I would build static websites before they were cool. Sure, they looked dreadful by today’s standards, but they were mine.
The decision to give up my own little corner of the internet was one borne out of despondence more than anything. I was getting frustrated with the LLM fad, the flagrant disregard of platform holders –particularly Wordpress, to respect the efforts of their users in the pursuit of training materials for Grand Theft Autocomplete.
At the time it felt easier to just walk away entirely. I nearly did, but not having a place to call my own didn’t feel right somehow. I hope that Micro.Blog will serve me well.
As the web becomes an anaerobic lagoon for botshit, the quantum of human-generated “content” in any internet core sample is dwindling to homeopathic levels. - Cory Doctorow - The Coprophagic AI crisis
I’d like to think that humans continuing to write or create art solely for the benefit of other humans is something worth clinging onto, however futile it may seem right now.