general

A New Blog

I’m re-starting up my personal site hartalex.com.

Typically I spread my thoughts throughout the internet. Now I’m thinking that it’s time to start to consolidate my thoughts into a single place.

Why?

It seems like every other day I come across another news story where people are losing access to their online accounts. It’s not that people are forgetting their passwords or being hacked or anything. It’s the platforms themselves that are locking users out. These platforms like twitter, and facebook have algorithms that are flagging accounts in error. When this happens the user who is locked out has no idea why they were locked out and in many cases neither does the company that locked them out. What’s even more scary there seems to be almost no recourse of action to correct the lockout.

Google User Locked Out After Years

This worries me, because I don’t want to lose access to everything I’ve ever done or said on facebook for the last 15 or so years. If I post my thoughts on the internet and some algorithm comes along and decides to lock me out, I could lose all of my data. In many cases there is the chance to appeal the lock out, but it doesn’t seem like this has been working for some people.

When I originally started this site back in, gosh, 2015. I was motivated by the same reasons, not quite sure what happend. I had heard about the IndieWeb and it’s focus on taking back your internet life from the big tech corporations.

Checkout the IndieWeb and their principles here.
IndieWeb

This blog is me taking back my personal data. I intend to post things I’d normally post on facebook or twitter here and then cross post them to facebook and twitter. That way my friends and family can still interact with me online while I get the peace of mind of taking back my data.

Am I worried about faceless tech corporations and their algorithms, yes I am, but worrying is kind’ve my jam.

On the upside, now I get the chance to resurrect my personal website, which is quickly turning into a fun adventure.