Technology
I'm not missing Twitter
To be completely honest: I’m surprised that I’m not missing Twitter … at all. I’ve had a Twitter account since 2007, and during the years it had become my source for tech news. It was a habit to open Twitter in the morning, during the day and, in the evenings to read about what had happened. During the last few years I become more and more frustrated with Twitter - I don’t know why (I didn’t see the bad stuff in my feed) but it felt more and more like a place that I should avoid.
In 2018, I deleted my Facebook account (completely fed up with Facebook as a company, and as a social platform) and thought about deleting my Twitter account also … but I kept it since it was my news source, and I could see any alternative.
Then Musk came along, and started to “improve” Twitter. While I was a bit skeptical of Musk, I didn’t think that it would become as bad as some people said (I was wrong). So I stayed on Twitter, but I started to add blogs and news sites to my feed reader just a precaution. Which turned out to be a really good idea.
I made my last post to Twitter in October 2022, and was then satisfied with just reading my feed. Then Musk decided that no third party clients should be allowed. Since I never used the web site, or Twitters client, it was also the end of me using Twitter … almost. I still read the RSS feed for a couple of accounts that I checked.
Of course Musk killed that possibility also. Well, I can see when I’m not wanted so I stopped using Twitter completely, and a few weeks back I removed my account (still gone, just checked, I wouldn’t be surprised if Musk reviewed the account somehow).
Today, I was listening to a podcast, and they talked about Twitter. This made me realize that I hadn’t really used Twitter since February/March something, and I hadn’t missed it at all. In fact, I’ve probably missed FB more that I’ve missed Twitter - apart from the news, there was very little that tied me to Twitter. Compared to Facebook where family and friends are (my mother still can’t understand why I’m not on FB).
Today, I get my news mainly via RSS feeds, but also Mastodon and micro.blog. And I don’t miss Twitter at all. Perhaps I should thank Elon for making me leave Twitter 😋
Step 2 in my “move-everything-to-one-blog” quest is now completed. Should now be able to move about 1000 posts. Step 3 write script to move another 700 or so. Step 4 will be the move of 200-300. Step 5 about 2000. Unfortunately there is a significant overlap for step 2, 4 and 5
I’ve been using 1Password v7 and v8 on different computers for 1-2 years, and I still much prefer the UI of v7.
I remember having seen various discussions about read-later services, unfortunately I’ve forgotten what services was discussed and if they were any good (and who participated in the discussions). Anyway, I’m looking for a new read-later service, do you have any recommendations? I know about Pocket, Instapaper. I want something that is preferably iOS, macOS, web.
Things are getting interesting. I stopped using Facebook several years ago because … well, Facebook. I also stopped using Twitter because “recent events”. I’ve only used Reddit via Apollo and since Apollo has shut down I don’t see myself using Reddit anymore. I don’t watch TV that have ads within the programs because I find it highly disrupting. I can’t stand podcasts that have the same type of ads, but I do listen on podcasts where the ads are relevant and presented in good way. Now, it looks like I might be reducing my YouTube watching a lot in the future, if they enforce this “max 3 videos if you don’t watch ads or pay premium”.
I’m not really complaining, I’m just noticing that things are changing and my behavior is going to change (more time to spend on other things). These companies absolutely have the option to do this, and I have the option to not join in.
And before you go “but the content creators, shouldn’t they earn some money?” Yes, they should and that is why I’m supporting some of them directly.
Considering moving away from Smugmug
A few months ago I discovered that Smugmug have increased the subscription price significantly
| Year | Subscription |
|---|---|
| 2016 | $75 |
| 2017-2024 | $89.95 (I payed for three years in 2021) |
I remember thinking that $90/year was a lot of money, but since I liked SmugMug I decided to renew. However, the current price for my plan is $138 … a 53% increase compared to the last time I renewed. I also noted that they had removed the cheapest plan, and I’m now on the cheapest plan.
I’m starting to think that $138 is a bit too much money to spend each year for a gallery site. I’m not selling any photos so I don’t make any money that could help offset the cost. These $138 are coming from my “have fun” account … an additional 10 years means $1380 assuming no further price increases, and I can have a lot of fun that amount of money.
My main use for my SmugMug site have been to show off photos from various events, and to let people download photos. I’m very satisfied with how Lightroom and SmugMug integrates with each other, and the site looks good. So I have no complaints regarding the functionality of SmugMug. In other words, my only hesitation is about the price, can I really justify spending $138/year to have somewhere to upload my photos. I really don’t know, right now I’m leaning towards switching to something else.
The good thing is that I’ve payed for another year so I have time to investigate what my alternatives are before making a decision. I’m currently looking at Piwigo and jAlbum which are very different types of software. Piwigo is similar to SmugMug (although not as nice) in that it’s a dynamic web site where you upload you photos and manage them using the site. jAlbum is desktop application where you generate a static web site and then upload it to your server. Piwigo is free, while jAlbum will cost you some money (but you don’t need to upgrade each year). Piwigo and jAlbum assumes that you have a web site where you can upload your site (both have alternatives where they host your site, but I’m looking for the possibility to self-host), I already have this web site space so this is no extra cost for me.
I really don’t know what to do … but I have about 9 months to decide (need a couple of months to actually move my photos if I decide to move).
There is of course an additional alternative, sell enough photos so I could pay for SmugMug with that money … which is a very unlikely alternative 😁.