Those people who died centuries (millennia) ago that were kind enough to putdown their ideas and thoughts onto paper (or some other kind of support) just to make sure that I (ok, I and a few other persons too ;)) would be able to read them and benefit from it. I appreciate that. A lot. As their writings helped a lot in becoming the person I am. Which is also why it makes me so sad to realize more and more people will never read a book, they just don’t know what they’re missing.

On a more mundane level, people being polite is one thing I appreciate a lot too and that I think is really helpful. It’s not a big thing, it’s saying ‘hi’, or just being nice to one another, not acting entitled and so on, but to me it means there is still an alternative way of life to this constant and quickly rising hate and anger that is becoming our new normal. Giving me some hope we’re not that badly screwed.

I seldom use it:

• I barely ever downvote and only stuff that is very hateful or really too angry and that somehow managed to pass through my filters.
• I may upvote content I find really useful/enriching in a discussion.
• I do not use up/downvote as a way to show I agree or disagree with whatever I vote on. If I disagree with a content and think it’s worth saying it, I will write a comment.
• Related: I also don’t care about being downvoted unless there is a comment accompanying it to explain the motivation/reasoning behind it. People are more than welcome to disagree with whatever I say and even to dislike me as a person, I’m fine with that, but if they really want to help me realize (and maybe admit) that there was an issue in what I said, a mere downvote won’t cut it. They will need to put in some more work ;)

Want to share a link to your blog?

BTW, I was an Apple user since the mid-80s (yeah, I’m getting old) and switched to Linux a few years ago. Would not want to go back. So, welcome ;)

I use it and their free plan works fine but I’ve quickly upgraded to a paid tier. They claim zero knowledge E2EE, that’s all I know. Free and paid plans offer the same level of privacy, as far as I know. But, if you plan on sharing files (I don’t) make sure the free plan still offer that feature as I think I remember it was removed awhile ago (but I may be wrong).

I also think most our governments will sooner than later decide those kind of fully privacy-respecting cloud storage should not be accessed by mere users like ourselves (because ‘think of the children’ and the usual bullshit). So, I don’t rely on it as my sole backup, I have another online backup solution (not cloud) and also keep a copy of all my files on a fully encrypted disk drive (two of them, as a matter of fact).

BTW, if you have not already created your account on Filen: use this affiliate link to get an extra 10G free, making it 20 total. At least it used to give you that but I have not checked recently: it works fine so I don’t often need to go check on their website ;)

Edit: typos.

Interesting, thx for sharing.

Created an account on mov.im in order to test it and get to better understand it.

Not really.

As a matter of fact, like I once used to when I was much younger, I realize I rely more and more on old tech (think pen and paper, printed books, physical medium) because they’re reliable, I can fully own them, and I know they won’t be spying on me and they will respect my privacy. Maybe it’s just me getting old, or maybe I’m (finally) becoming cautious?

(not that) Impatiently waiting for the first connected condoms…

Access to the content we create not being controlled by any corporation or any person. That’s about it for me, even though there were other things I did not like about reddit.

Le plus désespérant, quand la politique accepte de se laisser réduire à ce genre de singeries, c’est que ça prend la place qu’un questionnement sincère pourrait occuper et qui, lui, pourrait aider à changer les/des choses.

videos takes a lot of storage, so this will probably quickly cost if you have to pay for hosting.

Don’t be, probably means I will need to learn to do better (thx for the feedback ;)

Worst is a bit vague. Do you means worst in the sense of the girl, or me, being a real nightmare to deal with, or do you mean ‘worst’ as in ‘some random/stupid shit happening’?

As for some random shit happening (that would have been happening in my 20s, many decades ago), would being puked on in a pub, by my completely drunk best friend while he would have been trying to curl into my arms shooting into my ear, and for everyone around to hear, how much he loved me right when the girl I would have been waiting for would have been entering the pub… Would that count as a possible worst date? The girl would have been the classy kind of girl, the kind that would have made her parents proud and make a few classy boys chase after her. Exactly not the kind of girl I would have imagined ever willing to date a thing like me. But there she would have be, standing still, while would have been trying to get rid of my collapsing best friend.

Just asking because, quite obviously, nothing like that ever happened. And the girl, quite surprisingly, also never offered me to accompany her to her (absent) parent’s house to help me clean up the mess. Never.

To be honest, I did not have that many bad dates. I had a lot more failed attempts at dating, as I was already very clumsy, shy, and not handsome… And I had a few odd dates too, on occasions. But those would be a story for another thread ;)

Am I a bad person?

No idea, how could I know.

But what I do know is that you seem a little keen on over-generalizing:

So when I hear about these Bible Belt US states, I think the people in them are absolutely disgusting folks. I have no respect for them. None. If a disaster hits them, I will not feel sad.

Are you US citizen (I’m not, if that matters)? If so, and even though you probably live in some other state than the ones you listed, be aware you still live in the same country as them and are sharing the very same citizznship. But you, you’re different than them? Sure, and I’m even I’m willing to believe that but then why couldn’t other individuals, in those other states you seem to hate so much, be different too?

It’s too easy to reduce all individuals from some place (or some origin, or some culture, or some religion, and so on) to an abstract ‘bad’ group of persons that deserve what will happen to them.

Also: account blocked. Creating an account just to post that kind of thing is a pretty demonstration of what happens when someone is letting anger/hate overgrow them.

What a wonderful world we’re entering in.

Stupendous Man vs Mom-Lady. Hollywood can pack all its over-pixelated super heroes and villains.

If you want to protect the privacy of your readers to be respected you won’t have much choice but to create your own website, and store it on a privacy respecting webhost whil using non privacy-invasive techs to manage your blog.

For example, I use Hugo (a static website generator, but there are other similar tools), without any script running on the website itself. So, there is zero tracking going on on my blog (I don’t even know if anyone is reading it unless they decide to send me an email, as there is no web contact form either). It’s hosted on a small host that I’ve been using (& trusting) for well over a decade. Hugo itself is 100% free, but the webhost rarely is. So, unless you know how to self-host you will have to pay a little something (you don’t need much to host a simple blog, unless you want to post video?).

Like suggested in another comment, if you just want to limit access to the content, any simple ready made solution allowing for password-controlled access should do the trick.

Not only do I like to see that a lot but it also reminds me I really need a new pair of those too… Or maybe I just need to stop buying more (used) books? Scratching my head, not even trying to hide my sorry smile while I glance at the 3 books I just found at the thrift store that I wanted to read for so long…

All answers are about am*rican or british X.

Maybe you have not read my answer?

I don’t have ‘best female author of all time’ but I do have favorite writers some of which happen to be female. I don’t usually split them by their sex (nor by their height, distaste for bananas, or whatever) as for me they’re all in the same ‘people who have a great time staining paper with ink making me a happy reader’ league but here it is, in absolutely no order beside the first two, as there is them and then there is all the others:

• Virginia Woolf (the only reason I would love to be able to travel in time is to meet her),
• Jane Austen,
• Edit: (how could I forget) Emily Dickinson!
• Sylvia Plath,
• Shirley Jackson (if you have not already, go read The Haunting of Hill House, it’s considered a classic for reasons),
• la marquise de Sévigné (she wrote letters and they make for a great read, no idea if it’s available in English),
• Margaret Atwood (imho she deserves a Nobel Prize, next to Woolf and Austen),
• Mary Shelley (like mentioned by others already, she well deserves to be read and would still have a lot to teach to some contemporary authors too, imho).
• I love reading Lizza Tuttle. Her horror short stories are different.
• In the same vein, I also quite like Mélanie Fazzi (who is also a translator of some of Tuttle’s stories, btw). But I can’t find that much more female writers in that specific genre (a lot more males do come to my mind).

Being French, I realize I have not listed that many French female writers I would consider a favorite. But they are a few I would consider excellent read nonetheless:

• La comtesse de Ségur (one of my childhood companion next to, say, Verne and Doyle),
• Simone de Beauvoir,
• (very) few pages of Marguerite Duras,
• Fred Vargas.
• To which I would also add Pauline Réage, because I think her ‘Histoire d’O’ is well worth reading for anyone into erotica.
• At one time, I also quite liked Joëlle Wintrebert (scifi) but I have not felt like reading her for a very long time so I could not tell.

Soon available in every country, no doubt, as obviously we all deserve to be… protected from our-naughty-selves.