So, if I haven’t been de-platformed, am I Platformed?

Why did I choose the images for this post?

I didn’t. I’m using unsplash to select a random, freely re-usable image.

I’ve got almost zero ideas on the appropriate image for the concept of Un-Platforming.

I didn’t invent this term. I see a few other people using Un-Platforming as a term. In my view, it’s an idea who’s time has arrived.

Many of us are noting a feeling of getting ‘stuck’ in Big Tech mind trap. We can interact via youtube, joust on twitter and keep in touch with cousins on facebook. For well over a decade, we’ve known that We Are the Product when the service is ‘free’.

There were projects that gave me some hope - diaspora.org being the most hopeful and tragic story. A public part of the internet to interact. The chance of spending time without seeing advertisements. Some choice about how our data is used.

The Winners Took All. Yes, you can find communities on Mastadon. I’ve tried. I find myself back on more mainstream services.

It’s all a bit hectic and unchanging in direction… more gravity pulling in more people to a smaller number of Giant … things, that have been labelled Platforms.

We are stuck in a status quo of Ease… finding some smaller, less mercantile spaces online requires some effort. And some coinage sometimes.

I haven’t quite given up. Quite to the contrary, I’m having another go at pulling away from this Big Tech Black Hole effect. Let me tell you how Frustration has played a part in this current initiative.

As people diverged over their choices of media platforms (social and journalistic) and messenger applications, there’s been a frustrating aspect that I’d like to address. People split into brand-loyal groups that gain the ironic label of Tribes. Think iPhone vs Android, WhatsApp vs FB Messenger, Google Workspace vs Microsoft O365. More recently this is Zoom vs MS Teams and Paid Journalism vs Free Opinions.

For the longest time, I’d want to include as many friends as possible in conversations. If you’ve read my facebook feed, it’s been a reasonable source of developments in science and engineering, in a garden of Dad Jokes.

There are a substantial number of my friends that ‘don’t do facebook’. Fair enough. Other’s ‘don’t do social media’. Also fair enough. Other’s still who ‘don’t read their email’. Ok. Many that would kind-of like-to have some secure conversations, but never got in the habit of Signal (when they got dirty with WhatsApp over a change in terms of service)

The quintessential example is “I HATE facebook. Catch me on Instagram (which belongs to Facebook)”.

So, when there’s been conversations to route through so many options, I’ve often taken the painstaking approach of

• write up the post, including the links and access to content.
• post on facebook
• post on many Slack channels
• handwrite some email and paste in the post content in the email.

Too hard? You betcha. I’ve known how to simplify this process for a while.

An Old School Blog would do the job. Interacting with the world (when Speaking/Writing) might follow a process like this:

1. Read some news, ponder the world or watch a film. Decide to Write about it/share some news.
2. Knock out the blog post.
3. If there are some individuals who are very likely to be interested in the post, fire off an email or Slack message.
4. But, the above is probably rarely true and not necessary most of the time. What I’ve wanted from my post is my own record of the film review or new development in physics. example Stanford scientists develop water splitter that runs on ordinary AAA battery - this was on my Facebook feed from August 25 2014. I forget the details but remember where I saved a pointer to the article…. that’s what facebook as been to me for the longest time. My ‘blog’.

What’s a reasonable way to do this?

Let me start by listing what I don’t want to characterise my alt-platform/un-platform…

• I don’t want to be told what I can and can’t write about…
• I don’t want to have to painstakingly deal with each Tribes preferences about how the interact.
• I don’t want to get ‘stuck’ on a Platform, big tech or otherwise.
• I don’t want to recommend a Way Out of platforms that’s costly in $$ terms. But, it can’t be Free. I am getting sick of being the product.

Ok, sorry for the long rant. We are getting to the main points.

1. As the author, I remain the owner of my data. If the way I serve it up goes away or turns to the Dark Side, no big deal - I’ll just move on.
2. Ideally, I’m being web-served by a system that is reliable and well curated from a systems security perspective.
3. Keeping the site up should cost about $20/year. Services like Squarespace are potentially two orders of magnitude more.
4. Where I Publish stuff, I don’t want to:
   1. Run any services that need maintenance or monitoring.
   2. Expose any potential readers to any form of tracking or malware.
5. In short, it’s a read only, static website.
6. I’ll use some kind of framework that is popular and unlikely to die.
7. I’ll treat my writing like code and use git as a code management system.
8. I’ll find a way for people to Comment that doesn’t compromise me or the Commenter (I haven’t cracked this yet.)

If you are reading this, you are on my Un-Platform.

This post has become far longer than I intended. Get in touch if you’d like details sooner than later. Thanks

I’ll help anyone else who wants to try some Un-Platforming.