Today I was fired from writing for the Sims Community site. Fired is not the right word because it wasn't so much employment as getting paid a little for writing posts for the website, more like contract work (there's probably another word for it). Anyway, that's not so important.

Here is the note I was left on discord:

Hope you're doing well. I was emailed last night by one of our readers about your Twitter profile containing several negative and harmful remarks about the trans community. While I fully support the free exchange of viewpoints and opinions, I can't in good concience continue to work with someone who actively talks negative about the marginalized community that makes up our reader base, and our team of authors who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

This decision is effective immediately. Any finished content that you've completed for Sims Community that hasn't been paid for yet will be paid when / if you provide the filled spreadsheets.

Wishing you well in your future endeavours, Jovan

Cancel culture strikes again. I was fired for personal posts on a different social media account (I only posted about The Sims 4 on the bluesky social media account I used for my writer profile) by someone anonymous. They must have put in time to dig into my social media accounts. I haven't posted often or lately about women's rights. I guess the anonymous reader felt it was worth their time. Of course, I had no say in the firing. No information about what I actually posted that was so upsetting. But, who am I? Just one of the people who used to "make up the reader base" and thought I would enjoy contributing to the site.

Funny, because I only made 5 posts to the site. How many people actually read or knew about me there, not many I'm sure.

What I've thought about since, after being surprised and disappointed in society in general, is that most people who play The Sims 4 are women. Real, biological women. Also, most of the readers at the site are likely real, biological women. Like myself.

I'm not going to get into posting about the issue of women's rights now. I'm just making note of the facts. Cancel culture is very strong, determined and does not care about facts, understanding, or discussion. (In spite of what they claim).

I don't really care who made a point of digging into my social media and sending it to the site owner at Sims Community. It could have been one of the other writers who strongly supports trans people over biological women. The writing was on the wall really, when I attempted to write about the DEI mod and was denied because I did not write strongly against it and turn the post into a strongly worded advocate for trans political beliefs, bashing all those who disagree, or feel otherwise and don't say much.

Sims Community is just one site, about a game. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter a lot. I won't miss writing for it. I'd begun to lose heart in it after the DEI thing. If you want, you can read the very strong trans positive post they did post instead of mine. I'm not going to link it. (Comments were not allowed with the post).

I think its rubbish really, very slanted and biased. Its not what journalism should be and, I guess, its fair enough for them to post as they like. Its not a site with journalism standards. I'm not intending to backlash or put the site down. There are plenty of sites out to make money by getting people to click on ads, more of them are running AI instead of having people write any more. AI is cheaper and can spew out posts much faster with all the right keywords. I don't think a website, or a game, can have integrity if they push their own agenda so belligerently.

Back to the point about The Sims players mainly being women, biological women. What do we think about the game these days? I'm a player myself. I've bought far too many of the packs, etc. I've spent more money than I even want to admit. It bothers me, as a player, that the game is focused on gender issues far more than I am. If some players want it that way okay. But, there is no option to turn it off, to run the game your way. Why not? The Sims is a virtual dollhouse, run by one person, one player. Why can't I have the dollhouse my way?

Are we being brainwashed by EA, or whoever has recently bought out the franchise now?

What will the new owners bring? I'm curious. If they are of the Middle East culture they may not go with the trans culture and beliefs currently pushed in the game. I've read some people posting about this already, concerned about it, one way or another. I'm not so much concerned as I am interested. I'd feel better about spending more money on more packs and such for the game if the gender politics were removed, or became optional at least. I'm tired of feeling like a biological woman in a trans/man's world.

The most recent pack about imaginary friends for children, I am not buying. It gave me a sick, icky feeling in a game with so much focus on gender control and stereotypes. Of course, its being heavily plugged on the Sims Community site. I won't miss that part of writing there.

This is what I posted to the site owner. It may not have gone through because I deleted his account and the site from my discord account. No point in keeping them around, "effective immediately".

OK. But, I will post that I was fired for posting for women's rights on social media. I have nothing against you or the site, but it makes me angry that people are not allowed to discuss or disagree at all regarding trans issues. Anyway, no point in talking about it, as per usual. You can remove my author profile (if you haven't already) and show my posts as written by an unknown author or whatever you like. I won't send in for payment, that wasn't so important for me.

Is there some social rule about not commenting on social media posts of people who don't follow you? I'm finding this exchange on bluesky kind of weird. It started when I commented on a post she made to bluesky which was a video post from someone else. I'm not going to hash over that, because it isn't relevant to what came along next.

Her

Hmm. Sure, it says nothing to you and that’s okay. I don’t follow you, so perhaps you commented without realizing that, or thought I needed to know that. Not sure why. But it’s possible you followed me by mistake. Also okay. No need to comment, I was posting for me & my mutuals. I’ll be doing that.

Me - I don't follow people by mistake. This kind of post/ video annoys me. It assumes to say everything needed for both sides of an issue. Plus, it name calls people, which isn't useful. I think people posting something like this are judgemental and misleading. I wouldn't usually comment my thoughts.

Her

Again, I’ll point out that I don’t follow you, so the post wasn’t meant for you. That’s why I ask why you’d comment. If a friend of yours posted, sure - discuss. But I’m an internet stranger who’s never interacted with you. If it annoys you, move on? Unfollow? It doesn’t have anything to do with me.

Me - OK. You only accept comments from people you follow. If bluesky has an option for private accounts you might look into that. Or let people who come across your profile know you don't want to hear from them. Meanwhile I'll unfollow you since it seems to be upsetting for you.

I think it must be that she only wants to chat with people who agree with her completely, 'yes' people. I like to hear from those who have different opinions from mine. How else do you learn something new? Anyway, I did unfollow her. Partly because I won't remember who she is enough to not comment on something she posts again. But, I think she is not understanding what social media is, that it is public, not private.

If she has last words I'll post them. Otherwise its done for me.

Originally posted to HubPages in 2014. Updated at the end of the post.

I read a post with this very title (see above) on another site. Great title, low on real content. They talked about what you need but in generic terms. There was nothing there to really help anyone. It was a post created to generate traffic, get readers but it would not keep many of them because it did not back up the promise given in the title.

I’ve been publishing my own sites online since 1998 and I have done in with a sadly modest (miserly) budget.

WordPress Versus Blogger or Other Options, Like Joomla

I will not bash Google Blogger (blogspot.com) because that is a long-lived, free blogging platform which keeps up with trends quite well, has a lot of features and the ability to be customized. You get a lot from Blogger and pay nothing. I still think Blogger is a good way for anyone to start a site, give it some time to see how you like it and evolve your ideas. You don't need to rush into buying a domain, a web host or templates.

However, when you do have your plan and you know what you want to blog about (or create a site for, it doesn't always have to be a blog) take a look at WordPress (not the .com, I mean WordPress.org).

One of the best things about WordPress is the community support. People who like WordPress, get into the spirit of open source and giving and free exchange. This is why you can get such a variety of really good plugins and themes to take your site from out of the box (as is) to something of your own creation. Take a moment to thank the WordPress developers and theme makers who give so much without asking for payment.

Update 2025:

I would not recommend WordPress now. It's lost the focus of being about self publishing for individuals. Now its for WordPress site designers (NOT web designers, I don't think many of them know HTML) to build cookie cutter sites for clients. The software is bloated with things you don't really need and the things you could use are gone. Instead they are plugins you need to pay for. It is VERY hard to find any open source/ free plugins on the WordPress plugin directory now. WordPress is not what it once was. It's a good money maker for the people who sell their services for WordPress, its themes and plugins.

If you need a small site for your business, Blogger has not been entirely abandoned, but people tend to look down on it. You can use the Blogger software with your own domain. That would work well enough to put up a few pages to promote and give information about your business, while using your domain.

My best advice, in 2025, is to go back to the basics, build your own site with just plain HTML and text. You can find lots of guides for using HTML online.

Add images to your site from your own photographs or find someone who can draw and scan the images for you. Don't use images right from the digital camera unless you have settings to keep the images from being huge files that will take time to load or be very large in the space they take up on the web page. There are free image conversion services online. Make sure the one you use does not leave a watermark (ad) on your image.

Instead of a contact form, offer an email address people can reply to. That keeps it simple for you and them. Include your business name, address and phone number too. A photo of your business if you have a location people can come to.

If you want to have something more with a lot of posts, like a weblog, look for software like Chyrp Lite. This is the software I'm currently using. I like AlternativeTo, a directory of software alternatives if you want to look for something else.

Other than the cost of web hosting and the domain, you don't need to spend anything but time to have a site online.

If you only need a simple site to get your business online, keep it simple. Not only will it load quickly but people will not have trouble accessing it. It will be easy for you to update yourself, no need to pay someone to make changes and updates to your site.

Even in 2025, it does not need to be expensive, complicated, or troublesome to have a website or self publish for yourself online.

𖤣.𖥧.𖡼.⚘

Found included in a post from Witch of the Wildwood. I hope they copy and paste here.

Can it be done by someone who is not a programmer, code geek, etc.? Maybe not. I felt more confident before I started looking at ways to do it.

rokde - WordPress to Markdown lonekorean - WordPress export to Markdown Technicode - Converting a WordPress Export to Markdown Swizec - WordPress to Markdown Swizec - How to export a large Wordpress site to Markdown

I'm going to look for more options. Mostly because I've lost that youthful confidence and carefree attitude. Also, I don't want to muck up my WordPress files, more than I (possibly) already have. Although, in the end, who will care other than myself? Yet, I do and I'm the one still here.