Re:Every person on the planet should have their own website
by vidarh on Friday July 07, 2023 @09:03AM
(#36631096)
That is an argument for not tying everything you write to your name in public. It is not inherently an argument for not writing it, or for not publishing it (it might - exercising some editorial instinct about what you publish is good).
As I noted elsewhere, the argument in the article basically boils down to leaving a record, and specifically leaving a record for your descendants, and then argues that archive.org will be reliable enough to ensure those records survives. By arguing for leaving it for your descendants it does argue for there being some way for your descendants to identify your writings, but that does not require them to be publicly linked to your name.
You can do both. Most of my writing is easily linked to my name either directly from usernames or profile links, or because I've left enough bread crumbs in things I've posted (HN is the trifecta; it's in my profile, my username isn't unique but the link is easy to guess, and I've given plenty of breadcrumbs). I take care about this, and think about it, because as far as I know my name is globally unique, and so I don't even have any hope of disappearing among others with my name in search engines etc.
Some of it would be embarrassing if some people dug it up in the "wrong" contexts today, but I have a good idea about the "worst bits" and none of it are things I am not willing to stand behind today even if I've changed my mind about them or now think they were dumb.
But not all my writing is possible to link to me at all, at least as far as I know. And that is also a conscious choice for some of the kind of reasons you gave.
Some I may not care to tell anyone about at all. Some there are plenty of notes about in my papers and digital records so it'll be easy for my descendants to find if they care.
As I noted elsewhere, the argument in the article basically boils down to leaving a record, and specifically leaving a record for your descendants, and then argues that archive.org will be reliable enough to ensure those records survives. By arguing for leaving it for your descendants it does argue for there being some way for your descendants to identify your writings, but that does not require them to be publicly linked to your name.
You can do both. Most of my writing is easily linked to my name either directly from usernames or profile links, or because I've left enough bread crumbs in things I've posted (HN is the trifecta; it's in my profile, my username isn't unique but the link is easy to guess, and I've given plenty of breadcrumbs). I take care about this, and think about it, because as far as I know my name is globally unique, and so I don't even have any hope of disappearing among others with my name in search engines etc.
Some of it would be embarrassing if some people dug it up in the "wrong" contexts today, but I have a good idea about the "worst bits" and none of it are things I am not willing to stand behind today even if I've changed my mind about them or now think they were dumb.
But not all my writing is possible to link to me at all, at least as far as I know. And that is also a conscious choice for some of the kind of reasons you gave.
Some I may not care to tell anyone about at all. Some there are plenty of notes about in my papers and digital records so it'll be easy for my descendants to find if they care.