@JohnPhilpin A well written piece, itself at the edge of a rabbit hole through which I am often tempted to travel. In fact, if the podcast medium was ever primed for anything it would be multiple episodes on this subject; I wager you could build a business on the back of talking about "Ownership".

Your earlier link post about physical items pairs nicely with this post. I continue to be fascinated by people who genuinely think they have a firm definition of such an idea, as if it wasn't already murky water in the days before network-enabled computers.

@JohnPhilpin Great job, John! That goodbye piece by Belle tore me up that night. I couldn't sleep until after 6:00 am, because she stated more than once how much she liked the micro.blog community and didn't really seem to want to leave. Maybe she felt she HAD to, as a matter of strong principle, even though there did seem to be some confusion about ownership in her strong position. It seems like she had painted herself into a corner with her thinking. If she ever wanted to come back, I'm sure everyone would be happy to give her a Do Over. I think a good deal of discussion can be helpful, BEFORE a decision to act is made, much better than after. As for you, that was a very clever trick you pulled. I won't say any more, for those who haven't read it yet. That's all the content I have to offer right now. ;)