I am so tired of half the internet being locked behind accounts, paywalls, and other stupid ass things done in the name of nothing other than profit.

Several years ago, I made the decision to delete my social media accounts after hearing about the horrible shit people moderating for these companies were dealing with on a daily basis (The Guardian, The Verge), not to mention the awful effect all of these social networks and short-form videos have had on society as a whole.

The other huge crime is the fact that absolutely massive amounts of content on the internet are locked behind these silos. Want to see what your favorite band is doing? Oh hey, it’s a Facebook link and….bullshit. I can’t see anything without a stupid account so that The Artist Formerly Known As Facebook (aka Meta) can profit in some way. Did you manage to find something in the hellscape that is the modern web? Oh, it’s a link to a Discord server? Oh, fuck off. You can’t look at any of it without some idiotic account and running some awful web-based application. We used to have forums that sat around frozen in time for 10 years and were still durable sources of obscure, niche information. All of that is going on behind Discord’s silos, and one day, it will all be gone. You get my point.

It’s not like anyone asked my opinion on this, but all I can do is lead by example and encourage people to please try and pave your own way on the open internet. Don’t rely on these scummy ass companies’ locked-down silos. At the bare minimum, get a free WordPress or Tumblr! Maybe even post your stuff and forward it to the silos, if you must. Don’t put all your life (as insignificant as you think you are) in some dickhead company’s silo. Most likely that silo will end up a urinal at some point. All that shit will be gone and lost to time when the plug is pulled by the shareholders anyways.