Doing some research for the next issue of my newsletter, I saw this table. Obviously blogging software does not have green credentials. WordPress, the biggest player (as far as I’m concerned) is tracking with a D rating. @manton any ideas where Micro.blog fits into all of this?
@bix It might be big in Asia. Having said all of that, they are pretty spot on with WordPress automattic.com/sustainab...
@bix Actually, I said the previous Asia thing flippantly - turns out it might be correct, in Korea. Could it be a service name change?
@kaa I really have no idea. Most of Micro.blog is hosted on Linode, so it's up to them to use more renewable energy. Micro.blog's footprint is tiny compared to a much larger company like Automattic.
@manton I see this as a clear opportunity. This is not a Linode issue, rather this is a Micro.blog issue as you choose Linode. Being an indie platform that is also powering its infrastructure (no matter how small it is right now) from renewable sources is still a very positive message - clearly the rest (except those powered by Google) don’t give a monkeys, so this is a clear gap.
You don’t have to be running on renewables from day one, rather there might be different things that you can implement that take you in that general direction. Ask Linode, how they power your servers, maybe they have options available?
@kaa Linode has not historically prioritized this issue. In a recent customer survey I had to use the free-form comments to voice my interest in green operating choices and better transparency from them since the topic was absent from the questions asked.
@fgtech That is a shame that they don’t really care, but not surprising tbh. By and large most traditional servers are run in a dirty manner.
@manton Considering the lower power overhead that Micro.blog will likely have (not sure how many servers you have running, 2-3, 4-5?) but you could review the general amount of power they consume over a year and then see how many customers would need to pay say $5 to allow you to offset that load? It could be an optional thing and honestly then it’s definitely something that you can certainly make into a moral point. Micro.blog generally takes the moral high ground, add another one maybe?
@kaa @fgtech I sent a support request to Linode today to see if they can provide some basic information, so we at least know where we're starting. Most of my servers are in Dallas, and I'd be surprised if at least some part of the energy doesn't come from Texas wind farms or solar. (I'd like to explore the offsets idea too.)
@lasar @kaa That's great. Yeah, switching hosts would be a big project. We also use Amazon Web Services for a few things. According to this link they are 50% renewable with the goal to get to 100%.
@manton That’s great news about reaching out to Linode, would definitely love to be part of a greener Micro.blog and even make sure it’s clearly advertised on my own site.
Sadly AWS are one of the worst offenders in this area (the least transparent, with the least clear ambitions).
@kaa Amazon is really turning out to be a monster in deeds as well as size, aren’t they? And they’re everywhere....
@grayareas on the one hand, at least I know exactly where they stand on a number of subjects (whether I like it or not), unlike say Facebook. On the other hand, their approach is somewhat aggressive, which I don't particularly like. These tech companies wield the powers of small nations. I don't like how many nations are run, so I make decisions as to who I want to support and who I do not.
@grayareas No probs! I think its an important conversation to have. My hope being that MB grows to great success in the coming years, and like many areas that are purposely different, I think this would only bolster that reality.
@grayareas since this isn't a place with Like-voting, I'll just reply here with this, old-school:
+1