6 ms·

Dennis Cooper fears censorship as Google erases blog without warning

92 points by merraksh 10y ago

CarolineW 10y ago
Large discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063 Another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707 Yet another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980 Another submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543 And another: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781 Added in edit: As of 15:00 BST, 14:00 Zulu, all three major discussions (including this one) are still active and seeing contributions. If you want to know what people are saying, rather than just your own "fire and forget" comments, you'll need to visit all three submissions."
- D-Coder 10y ago
  The last link (12100781) is to an unrelated article.
vfclists 10y ago
So in effect Google lulled him into believing that they were okay with is work and it was secure.
- thinkMOAR 10y ago
  Seems so yes, and apparently, "His advice to other artists who work predominantly online is to maintain your own domain and back everything up." He never received same advice from others in the last 14 years, bit odd.. Reads to me as a case of (the dutch saying), who burns his buttocks has* to sit on the blisters
nine_k 10y ago
Can't help but repeat: See whatever you have in the public cloud as a cache copy of your information, a copy that can disappear at any moment, and you can't do anything about it. Have a local master copy of everything you care about, properly backed up.
amyjess 10y ago
What the hell is he going to sue for? Google is a private company; they have the right to ban anyone for any reason. It worries me that Dennis Cooper has no respect for Google's private property rights.
- Vivtek 10y ago
  Private property rights are not an unlimited license to be a jerk - although libertarians do seem to think so.
- spacecowboy_lon 10y ago
  The common good overrides that and if like Google you are going to stick to fingers up to the "man" over NSL's its very hypocritical. As Seward said "there is a higher law than the Constitution"
karmajunkie 10y ago
Is this a common thing? I can't imagine writing a book stores entirely on blogspot. UI aside, most of the writers I know are at least somewhat cognizant of the need for backups.
shams93 10y ago
Art is supposed to be challenging but if you think about it even porn hosts do censorship. We live under a privitized tyranny of terms and conditions with no due process.
- trav4225 10y ago
  We only live under those terms and conditions if we voluntarily agree to them. :)
- jlarocco 10y ago
  That's not a fair statement, and isn't any different than it's ever been. There's never been an obligation for other people to support and help distribute obscure and controversial "art". In fact, it's easier to get it distributed today than ever before.
wonkaWonka 10y ago
http://web.archive.org/web/*/denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com http://web.archive.org/web/*/denniscooper-theweaklings.blogs...
shams93 10y ago
Dont use windows10 if youre an artist ms could reach in and also kill your local backup work right off your pc.
- jasonkostempski 10y ago
  "local backup" is an oxymoron.
_Codemonkeyism 10y ago
We have not enough tech education "impossible for culture to be produced." It's rather cheap to setup or let someone setup your own wordpress server on a hosted server, made redundant with backups. So it's worrying that artists think it's Google hosting or nothing.
wooptoo 10y ago
How long before other companies (like Medium) will start doing this? That's why I'm advocating hosting your own blog. Github Pages basically provide free hosting for static pages, and you can use a blog generator like Pelican or Jekyll. Sure it's a hassle to set-up for the average person but the peace of mind might be worth it.
- cortesoft 10y ago
  If you use github pages, you aren't hosting your own blog.... GitHub is.
  - WorldMaker 10y ago
    Sure, but you are more likely to keep your local clone up to date and it is easier if the need comes up to migrate to any other static file host or jekyll build host that accepts a git repository push. Backing up and restoring most traditional CMS is much more onerous that git pull/push.
    - daveloyall 10y ago
      Right! And GP, jekyll can run on other hosts, not just Github.
breakingcups 10y ago
I can't help but feel like the word Censorship is being severely diluted by using it in cases like these.
- drabiega 10y ago
  Nah, It's been meaningless for a while now.
johnnymonster 10y ago
I think all this really does is remind everyone that they should review their current backup strategies
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ColinWright 10y ago
Question for @dang (or other mods) - this is now marked as a dupe and so won't appear on the front page, even though it got over 80 points and nearly 20 comments in just 40 minutes. Does that mean the comments here will sink without trace and forever be ignored?
- daveloyall 10y ago
  Feature request: merge
  - ColinWright 10y ago
    I've been asking for a merge feature for years. This is now a great example of just how bad the situation can get.
daveloyall 10y ago
[moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 ]
zeveb 10y ago
This is why IndieWebCamp came up with POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE). By all means, use Blogger, Facebook, G+, Flickr, Medium, Nautilus and any other outlets you care to, but remember that only you can be the caretaker of your own data.

92 points by merraksh 10y ago

Large discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 More discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063 Another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707 Yet another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980 Another submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543 And another: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781 Added in edit: As of 15:00 BST, 14:00 Zulu, all three major discussions (including this one) are still active and seeing contributions. If you want to know what people are saying, rather than just your own "fire and forget" comments, you'll need to visit all three submissions."

D-Coder 10y ago
The last link (12100781) is to an unrelated article.

vfclists 10y ago

So in effect Google lulled him into believing that they were okay with is work and it was secure.

thinkMOAR 10y ago
Seems so yes, and apparently, "His advice to other artists who work predominantly online is to maintain your own domain and back everything up." He never received same advice from others in the last 14 years, bit odd.. Reads to me as a case of (the dutch saying), who burns his buttocks has* to sit on the blisters

nine_k 10y ago

Can't help but repeat: See whatever you have in the public cloud as a cache copy of your information, a copy that can disappear at any moment, and you can't do anything about it. Have a local master copy of everything you care about, properly backed up.

amyjess 10y ago

What the hell is he going to sue for? Google is a private company; they have the right to ban anyone for any reason. It worries me that Dennis Cooper has no respect for Google's private property rights.

Vivtek 10y ago
Private property rights are not an unlimited license to be a jerk - although libertarians do seem to think so.
spacecowboy_lon 10y ago
The common good overrides that and if like Google you are going to stick to fingers up to the "man" over NSL's its very hypocritical. As Seward said "there is a higher law than the Constitution"

karmajunkie 10y ago

Is this a common thing? I can't imagine writing a book stores entirely on blogspot. UI aside, most of the writers I know are at least somewhat cognizant of the need for backups.

shams93 10y ago

Art is supposed to be challenging but if you think about it even porn hosts do censorship. We live under a privitized tyranny of terms and conditions with no due process.

trav4225 10y ago
We only live under those terms and conditions if we voluntarily agree to them. :)
jlarocco 10y ago
That's not a fair statement, and isn't any different than it's ever been. There's never been an obligation for other people to support and help distribute obscure and controversial "art". In fact, it's easier to get it distributed today than ever before.

wonkaWonka 10y ago

http://web.archive.org/web/*/denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com http://web.archive.org/web/*/denniscooper-theweaklings.blogs...

shams93 10y ago

Dont use windows10 if youre an artist ms could reach in and also kill your local backup work right off your pc.

jasonkostempski 10y ago
"local backup" is an oxymoron.

_Codemonkeyism 10y ago

We have not enough tech education "impossible for culture to be produced." It's rather cheap to setup or let someone setup your own wordpress server on a hosted server, made redundant with backups. So it's worrying that artists think it's Google hosting or nothing.

wooptoo 10y ago

How long before other companies (like Medium) will start doing this? That's why I'm advocating hosting your own blog. Github Pages basically provide free hosting for static pages, and you can use a blog generator like Pelican or Jekyll. Sure it's a hassle to set-up for the average person but the peace of mind might be worth it.

cortesoft 10y ago
If you use github pages, you aren't hosting your own blog.... GitHub is.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  Sure, but you are more likely to keep your local clone up to date and it is easier if the need comes up to migrate to any other static file host or jekyll build host that accepts a git repository push. Backing up and restoring most traditional CMS is much more onerous that git pull/push.
  - daveloyall 10y ago
    Right! And GP, jekyll can run on other hosts, not just Github.

breakingcups 10y ago

I can't help but feel like the word Censorship is being severely diluted by using it in cases like these.

drabiega 10y ago
Nah, It's been meaningless for a while now.

johnnymonster 10y ago

I think all this really does is remind everyone that they should review their current backup strategies

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ColinWright 10y ago

Question for @dang (or other mods) - this is now marked as a dupe and so won't appear on the front page, even though it got over 80 points and nearly 20 comments in just 40 minutes. Does that mean the comments here will sink without trace and forever be ignored?

daveloyall 10y ago
Feature request: merge
- ColinWright 10y ago
  I've been asking for a merge feature for years. This is now a great example of just how bad the situation can get.

daveloyall 10y ago

[moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757 ]

zeveb 10y ago

This is why IndieWebCamp came up with POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere (https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE). By all means, use Blogger, Facebook, G+, Flickr, Medium, Nautilus and any other outlets you care to, but remember that only you can be the caretaker of your own data.