Change in Plans

This blog is in its fourth year, and I have posted almost every week. But in this fifth year (my years start in September), I have a dissertation to finish and some issues in my private life to deal with. For the past few months, writing a post every week has felt like a burden. So I am moving to an irregular schedule, with probably two or three posts a month. I may let myself post more lighthearted things about whatever inspires my whimsy, and not try so hard to balance different themes every month.

On this blog I try to practice a certain kind of Internet culture: one centred around curiosity, acknowledging other people’s hard work and good ideas, and trying to learn about other communities and share ideas from my community with them. That culture is important to me, but it is not useful to the people who are mangling the Internet so that power and wealth fall into their hands. More and more websites appear blank unless you enable a dozen Javascript libraries and download megabytes of cruft; more and more material is hidden unless you sign up for a service with a gigantic multinational which controls what you can say and what you can search for and makes its money by tracking you and propagandizing you. I have noticed many creative and sensitive people from the UK and USA stop posting to the public Internet in the past year. But while I don’t like slowing down, I hope it is better than stopping completely.

I hope to have some academic publications to announce and pictures of cats to share in the coming months. Thanks to everyone who stops by!