Who's Your Social Media Site?

Did something interesting, weird really.

Obtained a PayPal "business" debit card that is linked to the donate button on this site.

Every month $10 is automatically taken out by our hosting site. We have 8GB of space. And unlimited downloads. (We used to support the now defunct original mailing list.)

The business name is "Exotica Ring Music Club", the small sub-group that includes contributors and group administrators. A human must be connected to the money, unfortunately my name is still associated. So considering myself the first trustee or treasurer of this evolving a social media group that started in 1994. That now includes this website, Facebook page and the original mailing list.

Why? Has Facebook really destroyed the early promise of the internet?


This group/list has some interesting history. The Two Zombies Later compilation was created by list members. And many contributed information to the Space Age Pop Page. We lost some momentum without an active admin approving members for a few years. Or keeping up with technological developments with a central website. But we are back on track now.

A few years ago there was talk about another Two Zombies Later.  But has Facebook has really changed the social collaborative scene on the internet? Where it only takes one click to make a group. So there are a billion of them?  And a few seconds to post.

We shall see. The donate button is essentially a "go fund me" page for whatever ideas or projects members come up with. If anybody has the inclination.

Again, Why?

Many favorite blogs at www.blogger.com  have been shut down without notice over the years by Goggle, who owns Blogger. Google can do this without notice because it is a free service.  Our friend at Your Pal Doug's Pals had a thread on this. After a blogger is shut down the experience is so discouraging they don't bother to start up again. Think of all the lost work, typing, commenting. All it takes is one discouraging experience for a passion project to sour.

The TV episode Adam Ruins the Internet  remained us about how free services like Facebook and Google are not really free. Done to goofy effect around 20:30 or 26:00 on YouTube (also owned by Google.) But the conclusion is we pay for our free services with our very identify, that is profiled and sold. The early independent "Wild West" of the internet replaced by "The Matrix"?

"For every user they surveil, [FaceBook] makes only 12 dollars." So for every blogger using Google's free service. Instead why not spend about 12 dollars a year to be independent? It would only take about 13 bloggers to keep the bandwidth going year round. And we occasionally receive donations from mailing list and FaceBook members. If you only blog once a month that's only about $1 a month. And you have a built in audience. Between the 2 groups we have over 6000 members.

This site is funded for almost a year. Lets see what happens.