After twenty-two years of owning and maintaining a website presence it is time to hang it up for now. There are a multitude of reasons behind this decision but I’ll keep most of them to myself. And yet after all this time it feels like I owe people an explanation for decades worth of loyalty.
Reasons:
As a friend once so eloquently put it: “I want to de-bullshit my life.”
It is costly to self-host your own website.
The articles have been stale because the day job does not allow time to create what I want.
Do I need to display a personal website on the WWW?
Why am I doing this?
Who the heck out there can remain interested in this site when I am not interested?
Alternative:
Grey Matter- it is my second brain. A digital garden where I have imported all my website articles, journals and notes into one massive database.
I have all those files backed up in plain text format so they are platform agnostic and portable with minimal file space used. These files are also linked and back linked together so if I performed a search on “Nikon” for example, then every article, note or mention will pop up and show me how my thoughts on the matter are connected.
When I now have the urge to write something for myself, I’ll place it in the “Journal” section and not the “Website” section. I was also paying an annual subscription service to the brilliant Day One journal app but now it is redundant in favor of my personal database.
Next Steps:
Now I am questioning the entire presence on the WWW and my software subscriptions. Regarding my photography website the same reasons apply as the blog:
“I want to de-bullshit my life.”
It is costly to self-host your own photography website.
The images have been stale because the day job does not allow time to create what I want.
Do I need to display a personal photography website on the WWW?
Why am I doing this?
Who the heck out there can remain interested in this site when I am not interested?
Once I have exported my articles from the website and import them into my database, I’ll shutter the website. I am still keeping the ChrisDenbow.com domain name and e-mail server of course. That is my digital real estate and no one else owns it. The same thing goes for PhotoDenbow.com. At some point in the future I am sure I’ll bring the website back online.
I am back in minimal essential mode to de-bullshit my life and maybe, just maybe, start to enjoy it again.
Thank you.
Chris Denbow
Saturday May 27, 2023 @ 10:30p
36.8.921, -95.58.145
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