I think my internet life started out in the Frogpond, an early beta chunk of the pre-internet Microsoft Network. A bit later, I was part of the first wave of weblogs, way back in (waves cane) early 2000. You can dredge some of that out of the Wayback Machine if you care to go hunting. There were fewer than 500 weblogs in the world at that time.

After that, I ran a reasonably successful (i.e., it made money on advertising) weblog focused on Microsoft-centric software development. Then there was a more popular but less paid weblog on open source development, when I gave up on Microsoft. I tried to put that one in the memory hole when I retired, but some well-meaning person grabbed the domain registration and restored the content, to my mild annoyance.

Somewhere in there I was one of the first Twitter users, back when it was literally possible to read the entire firehose of all tweets, and one of the first Twitter developers, back when they had a free and open API. I ran a land business in Second Life for a bit too. So yeah, I’ve bounced around the internet.

I finally retired from software development, disgusted with the way the industry was going, and walked away from all social media to spend time in the real world.

So why am I back now?

Well, let me draw a couple of analogies:

  • I’m a vegan, not because I think I’m going to convince everyone to become vegan, but because I view the treatment of animals and the carbon footprint of the meat industry as major problems, and choose not to be even a minuscule part of those problems.
  • I eat local, conserve electricity, limit driving, try to use less plastic, and don’t fly. I don’t do these things to convince everyone to become a climate activist, but because I view global warming as a major problem, and choose not to contribute to that problem as much as I used to.

I also think the internet media environment is a major problem. There are too many people posting false and hurtful information, and too many people who view politics as a zero-sum game that they intend to win by oppressing those less fortunate. So I’m choosing to try to not be a part of that problem by shouting into the void from an opposing point of view. I don’t think I’m going to convince everyone (probably not anyone), but I’m not going to stand idly by. (Shouting into the void is not all I do, but I don’t feel any particular need to enumerate my other avenues of resistance).

All of these things are, I think, good for my soul.

Or as Arlo Guthrie put it

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

(Please bear in mind that this was 1967, a couple of years before Stonewall. I trust Arlo would modify the lyrics somewhat today.)