Writing reveals something about yourself, and putting it on the internet exposes yourself for all the world to see.
While not maybe not all of the world reads your blog, you know the great damage you can do to yourself by expressing your thoughts to the world. You’ve certainly seen when celebrities and even half-bit middle managers have fallen from grace, lost their jobs due to stupid social media posts gone viral.
I generally stay away from politics and controversial matters on my blog, and a definitely don’t post controversial things to social media. But like many people, I have my views on the issues of the day, and I try to write thoughtful commentary about them on my little corner of the internet. Yet every time I write a bit, I know there is somewhat a risk, especially if my views don’t reflect the popular sentiment of the day. But sometimes it’s worth it to express oneself, especially when it’s a bit off the harsh light that social media often casts one’s words.
I have my own views. I am a conservative, and people respect me for my views. I am pro-environment, but I like my guns and the rural life with it’s cows, trees, bonfires and big jacked up trucks. I’m also a Democrat, I work for the Democratic Majority and I work hard to defend the interest of my paying clients, even if I don’t agree with them on every issues. Truth is I can’t think of a client I ever worked with which I fully agreed with on every issue, but I worked hard to get their message out and defend them politically. I don’t talk about my clients or even too much what I do professionally on the internet bar the broad strokes which are public record. You can figure out what I do for a living and how much I earn by visiting NYS Board of Elections and See Through NY, or the Assembly’s Public Information Office.
As I’ve gotten older, I enjoy less and less the public sphere, that is attending public meetings and fighting development in the Albany Pine Bush or attending protests and rallies. I generally shun newspaper columns, I don’t write letters to editor regularly, nor do I post anything political on social media. My blog while not private, is a controlled environment, where I can share my views, while controlling the format they are displayed and who can comment on each post. No name calling or inappropriate threads get started on my blog, as I have to approve comments and can delete or moderate as I so choose. Things only trend on my blog, as much as I left them trend on the feed.
This is part of the reason I thought about shutting down my blog, besides the sheer cost of running it — now hopefully defrayed significantly by advertising. I kind of don’t like how well I’ve gotten known from the maps I’ve made up over the years, it gets harder and harder to travel anonymously when people recognize Big Red parked places, along with my camping set up. At the same time, it does tickle me how many people know about my blog. Yet, sometimes I do wish I could go places, especially in the back country, without being a minor-half-bit internet celebrity.
I have had that since 2005, but I haven’t used it regularly since I adopted andyarthur.org as my primary domain in spring of 2008. While I occasionally get emails to that old domain, it’s not worth it with inflation raising the cost of keeping each domain to $21 a year. I will keep andyarthur.org and andyarthur.com which will work for email and visiting the blog. I doubt many people even know about the old domain.
I thought about ending the blog all together, as this year with rising costs the price goes up to $540 for three years of the hosting due the end of October, plus another $21 a year each domain in April and mayTfor the two domains I own. But then again, I like doing my blog and it works out to all of 55 cents a day. I don’t have the fanciest hosting service ever, but it works reliably most of the time and I’ve been happy with the servers which have been reliable except for a short while during the pandemic when everything was crashing on the Internet. Once I bite the bullet and renew the hosting contract it will be good until the end of October 2026 bar the cost of domains.
Sure it’s a lot of money to keep the blog running — but it’s something I like to do. Other social media services are free, but I don’t have the control over the content and presentation that I have on my blog. I pretty much have full control over my blog, and it’s free of advertising. I served out over 2.5 million web pages on the blog in the month of August, though it was only to 35,000 unique visitors. Still that’s nothing to sneeze at. I frequently run into people in the woods who have read my blog and used one of the maps. I know I probably could make money selling maps or other stuff, but it’s really just for fun.
Despite what I often think, I’m not really struggling for money. My salary is good, despite choosing to forgo many luxuries in favor of saving for a better future. I am frugal but I like my toys. My blog is one of my toys, which turned 22 years old this year — when I graduated from high school in 2001 — first a Geocities site, then a site hosted on a college platform, then I had another place host it, then it came on being fully on it’s own as the hosted blog in 2005. So depending on how you look at it, I’ve been doing it for more then two decades or most of my adult life.
I am sure there are many who say my life would be better off if I got rid of my blog, stopped telling the world about my views on things. Often silence is best, especially if you want those high-ranking positions. But I really don’t. I am happier being me. Delivering real results for my clients, even if some of the things I say on my blog doesn’t always make them agree with me personally. I want to be somebody who isn’t afraid to share his thoughts on the world around me.
Moreover, I have learned manyimportant skills with the blog, like GIS mapping and data analysis which I probably wouldn’t have for not the blog. The blog gives me a real world sand box to play with, learn web, mapping and GIS technologies, which are real marketable skills that I might some say really use in the real world. Plus owning your own name as domain name is great because it can become an online resume or business, besides being a portfolio as it currently is used.
Sometimes it's amazing to think I've been telling my story on my blog since June 2001, which makes this blog not only old enough to drink but also only three years shy of being a quarter century old.
Some of it is I am on vacation, some of it is my internet on my phone is spotty at camp and some of it is I’ve been using my other camera to take pictures – though not as many as some years because I’ve not been to as many new places this year.
I do not post anything political onto social media and have been known to delete political comments or even whole posts when discussions become political. But not the blog.
Why not? Because I have complete control of the blog, where content appears, how it is framed. I can freely adjust and revise posts later on. I have complete control over comments, all comments on the blog are moderated before approval unless I have previously cleared the user to post on the blog. Comments also don’t appear on the homepage, only individual subpages. Very different from social media.
And … I just don’t like how angry and mean spirited a lot of social media is these days.
is spotty at camp 
and some of it is I’ve been using my other camera 
to take pictures – though not as many as some years because I’ve not been to as many new places this year.
