I have one of the oldest websites on the web, in its 24th year. It’s fast, LOTs of data, no popups, no ads, no tracking techology of any kind, but Google plans to begin warning people not to visit it. All About the Convert to HTTPS Button.
@Ron 👏👏👏, fellow owner of an old website. I keep intending to jump into this debate, too, but I keep running out of time to write, with so many things to say about it flying through my head.
Your post has cemented one thing, though: "It's the content, stupid!" is a large part of what Google is incapable of seeing (also the "The Internet is for everybody" bit, which you have also ably argued).
@smokey Your thoughts please me very much! You really got what I was saying. Thanks so much. I look forward to reading what you write, when you are able to get to it.
@Ron Sigh, there are so many people smarter than me, conveying clearly why this is a bad move -- makes me empathize with all of this. These points are valid, wish I felt equally strongly against the move. May be I just was never part of the golden, complete open days of web.
@smokey @ron good post, from you and dave. I am very much a learn by googling person with no training in internet stuff. I was able to uograde my site to https yesterday in about half an hour. I am of mixed feelings because, on the one hand, it was less complicated than setting up the website in the first place so no big deal, but on the other, it is just another layer of complexity to maybe make people opt out of the independent internwt altogether
@Ron Honestly, nothing much can be done about it. Seems that's the way the online world runs these days.
I moved all my websites to HTTPS a couple of weeks ago. Did take me a couple of days to read up and get it right though.
@amit Please don't despair, there can be many more golden ages of open web, maybe Microblog is even a seed that will grow into such a thing. You have the chance to see far more great things than I do, because it is very likely that I'm now living in the last 25 years of this lifetime for me. Enjoy and help to create a great future!! :-)
@akurjata Yes, you've just mentioned Dave's point #3, "It's easy." which I also addressed in my article. You also make an excellent point about complexity, which I heartily endorse. I'm getting EXCELLENT feedback here on Microblog, much appreciated, and I will surely have a follow-up article before too long.
@unoabraham It took you a COUPLE OF DAYS and I think you're pretty technically savvy. I'm an expert tax accountant with decades of experience in accounting & tax, an arcane subject in itself. But I'm NOT a web developer, even though I built an outstanding website with a simple text editor and one book. If I were doing it again today, maybe the book would tell me how to do HTTPS and WHY. How many arcane subjects do I need to be an expert in?
@ChrisHannah You got me grinning ear to ear. Thanks so much!! As for lasting content, great art can inspire a huge amount of great work by others. That's especially evident in the Dylan community, I'm only one of many, verrrry many, in the world created around the lifework by Nobel laureate, Bob Dylan.
@Ron i also came across this post, from last year, from Matt Gemmell suggesting https is part of being a "responsible internet citizen". I wonder if the thing to do would be to treat https sites like twitter verifications-- an added bit of assurance this page is up to modern standards. It doesn't mean all other sites are dangerous, but it is a further stamp of approval for those with the padlock