Re: Why I’m Leaving Micro.blog

Couple questions about ‘owning’ your content on the Indieweb.

@manton Oh boy—man, I am sorry! FWIW I think you are doing great with micro.blog. I already have my own setup and I’m just glad I can still participate in the network from the outside. What a gift! I actually think you’ve figured out a great way to keep the Indieweb humming AND build a nice smaller network. You deserve a lot of encouragement—and Belle could use it, too, I’m sure. It’s difficult to build these things. I think the larger problem right now is that there are so few good choices. This puts a lot of pressure on you and your team. But I think that your work could encourage more small networks like this—just as you said in your recent post. This all takes a lot of patience to wait out. Let’s hope you, Belle and the rest of us can see this through. Peace, brother.

@kicks Food for thought. Suppose you bought a shiny new car, then flew to Seattle for a business meeting, leaving it at the airport. Do you still own the car while on the plane at 24,000 feet? What if you give the keys to a kid for valet parking out in the Avenues and he parks it somewhere in the neighborhood while you eat, so you don't have any idea where the car is and don't even have the keys. Do you still own the car while you're eating your ham and cheese?

@Ron Haha—ok, well, I definitely own the ham and cheese! Am I close?? With my car, it depends on the legal jurisdiction, the name on the title for the vehicle, the ability of the government to enforce my ownership—and maybe ‘owning’ a car isn’t nearly as important as ‘controlling’ it. I wonder if that might be the issue here with Micro.blog—perhaps Belle feels like she can’t ‘control’ her stuff enough. I guess I’m trying to draw a parallel between the public_html directory and Micro.blog. If a platform ultimately just feels like a folder that I can sync ‘in’ to and ‘out’ of—then I think it reaches the ideals of ‘ownership’ and ‘control’ on the Web. But that’s me—am I missing something? (This is also clearing up why I’m seeing TiddlyWikis spring up—that’s a platform where EVERYTHING is local and is likeliest to have longevity because it doesn’t rely on ‘anyone’/‘anybiz’ else.)

@kicks Thank you!

@Ron @kicks @Manton I co-sign Kicks’ response: “I actually think you’ve figured out a great way to keep the Indieweb humming AND build a nice smaller network.” I also felt the original petition was too personally hostile given the relatively abstract nature of the complaint.

OK, class, there's the bell. Remember, two paragraphs for tomorrow comparing Locke and Bastiat’s theories of property and notions of ownership, enjoy the rest of your day

@donmacdonald Ohhh, no, not Bastiat again. Can I write mine on Henry and Edsel Ford?

@kicks Yes, the ham and cheese is totally key! I can't speak for Belle, but I found myself unable to sleep for six hours after I read her going away message. It tore me up. She stated many times how much she liked the folks here, but was going to have to leave anyway over some very technical points of programming and the definition of some words. Fortunately I'm a tax accountant, so I can keep my blogging very simple and don't find myself having to deal with any moral or ethical crisis in the meantime. As for the cars in my examples, keep it simple and you know you still own the car in both of cases, even if you don't currently control it, or even know where it's located.

Even with Facebook, the hated silo, I have posted some brilliant things over there about Bob Dylan over the years. As far as I'm concerned, I own all that content, regardless of what their TOS says. I would have no backoff at all on posting those same comments here. And do you think the FB attorneys would come after me for stealing the content I put over there, which "they own?" Of course not, they couldn't care less.

I think the emphasis around here should be to write, write, write. Don't worry too much about the technical nuances or the careful splitting of hairs in the definition of terms. Just write blog articles and post them. Repeat. Repeat.

@Ron Mmmnhmm—ok, good, good. See, now I just really want to read your Bob Dylan stuff. I watch Don’t Look Back like once a month. Wish I could have experienced those days.