Did you know Google keeps track of everything you do online, with any Google products, software, etc. You can't make them stop, not really. (You would have to eliminate Google from your life). Also, if you do want to control how much they know and share about you, the most you can do it pause it. There is no stopping Google.

Google is not the only option for web searches. Even if you are only looking for your own site to see where it comes up in a search -- why are you only looking at Google?!

The following screen captures are a mess due to problems with software I was using. Right now I don't want to fix them. But, they tell the story, as messy as it is.

Where did the RSS feeds go? It is harder to find them on any site, even if they do give an RSS link. Too many don’t have RSS at all. Why?

Newsletters are the replacement for RSS feeds. Newsletters which seldom have any news, just more marking. Subscribe used to be an RSS feed link. Now they want your email address. They don’t want to give you something when they can take something from you instead. No doubt this is about getting email addresses. No matter what they say, sites do collect and sell email addresses. They may not call it selling (that wouldn’t be nice or popular), but it is the same thing. All in the name of marketing and making a buck.

So much is based on marketing. It’s more important than readers, or shoppers. People are exploited by marketing, especially on the Internet. If people really mattered would they be treated like lemmings this way?

Why are RSS feeds disappearing – because they want to drag you back to their site where all those plump, juicy ads await you. Those videos that you can’t stop, those pop-up ads which have become popular again (mostly spamming newsletters ironically enough).

WordPress is the Cadillac of CMS for web developers making cookie cutter sites for clients paying thousands of dollars (sometimes). For end users, it is deliberately chopped up and dumbed down. Web developers don’t want clients tinkering, maintaining, changing, or even updating their sites. There are cases where the web developer actually owns the site, the client just has rights to the contents. Clients pay for the site, choose the content, but otherwise get in the way. But, they do pay.

So why is WordPress still free? Why not claim their share of the money being made? Or, will they? It happened with Movable Type.

For those dwindling few who can’t afford/ don’t want a web developer… why are you still using WordPress?

When Gutenberg replaces the current post editor it will take away more functions than it adds, for the end user, the people writing their own sites. WordPress will say it streamlines the editing functions. But, have you taken a look at it? I did. The editor is gone.

Posting to WordPress will become cut and paste with content blocks. This makes it much easier for web developers to configure plugins, themes and other services they can sell to clients who don’t really want to deal with any part of putting up a site themselves. Clients just supply the content, remember. Any editing of the content has already been done before it gets pasted into WordPress.

The new WordPress will be a lot like the old GeoCities. A lot of people won’t know much about GeoCities. It was an online web host, but your sites were on their domain. Sort of like Blogger which gives you the site.blogspot.com domain. I don’t remember if GeoCities let people add their own domain, Blogger does. Anyway, GeoCities made it easy to put up a site. The structure was there, all you really had to do was add your own content. GeoCities was free to use, but they did run a few ads on your site. If GeoCities had not shut down, would they be competing with WordPress now?

Online site building software: Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, and others, are just competition for WordPress.com because WordPress.org people still make their own sites, right? Yes, if people were making their own sites, but too often sites are made by web developers and people just cut and paste their content into cookie cutter sites built by web developers using WordPress software and assorted plugins the client doesn’t need to know about. How is this really different from an online web site builder? The online website builder is a lot cheaper but does require some hands on work beyond just dumping content into it.

Why not just write for sites like HubPages and at least get paid for your content instead of paying to put it online?

Maybe the only reason WordPress is still free is WordPress.com. If you haven’t taken a look at WordPress.com for awhile, go login and take a look at the features there. Long ago the .com and the self hosted WordPress were not so different. But, that was long ago. WordPress.com is free to sign up for but then it becomes a Facebook game. Features are offered like pretty treats, shiny extras, and premium goodies virtually yours when you pay with real credit cards.

At the end of the day you are paying to use WordPress.

I have moved out of WordPress. I'm using the multi-domain feature of b2evolution. After importing my WordPress content I have found problems with paragraph formatting and missing image files on posts. I will deal with that over time. Today I am just working on today and the post I write next. There is only so much time I want to put into old content when I suspect most of my readers don't have human eyes anyway.

Some of my sites rely on WordPress plugins which will only work with WordPress. I am deciding whether or not to keep the sites fully on WordPress or to move keep them partially on WordPress, in order to use the content I have on the plugin, Link Library.

Meanwhile, I have a lot to do in the admin on b2evolution.

My sites include my interests in web publishing, creative writing, urban exploration, ASCII art, and general art, culture, travel and history. I have several sites because I really like writing and publishing online and I tend to buy new domains on impulse when the idea always seems good at the time.

I have been online since 1996 running my own sites single-handed and self taught since before WordPress. I’ve also written for several other sites and networks: Suite 101, BackWash, LockerGnome, HerPlanet, HubPages, Squidoo, Twolia, and WZ.com. Before the WWW got going I also wrote for zines.

I was an editall with the Open Directory Project for over ten years. I’ve never been able to like or accept SEO since being on the side of having to clean it up in the early days of the web.

I’m never bored. People who claim to be easily bored must be half brain-dead. There is always something else to do, try, explore or get totally wrong. I’m a recovering perfectionist and find it hard to give myself credit for anything when there is always something that could be fixed, made better, in short, perfected. At times I burn myself out or just don’t get started at all. Yet, I’ll be back… always an optimist, too honest and eventually someone will sum that up on my gravestone in a unique and clever way that I will wish I could see. I believe in reincarnation because I really want the end to be just the beginning.

Should you be wondering… this is not a professional profile. I don’t think I could ever really manage that level of proficient, professional perfection.

Doing things my own way is so much a part of who I am. It’s a shame I have given myself so much to aim for. But, I am recovering… some days.