Over the years, I have found that more and more platforms out there aren’t consistent with my way of doing things. This post keeps track of them, for the purposes of inspiring others to delete as many online accounts as possible.
Github
In August 2024, I deleted my Github account. I had a few repositories there, and I like programming. And there are various reasons why I deleted them. Certainly being owned my Microsoft, one company I dislike tremendously, is one of them. But the main reasons is this:
I want nothing to do with a platform that is so invested into artificial intelligence.
I have no idea when I deleted my LinkedIn account, but I did. It was truly a waste of time. I don’t want a traditional job anyway and besides, not one single post on LinkedIn seemed worthwile. The few times I got contacted on the platform were for thing I had no interest in.
DPReview
At the same time that I deleted Github, I also put in a request to delete my DPReview account. Here is a screenshot of my profile just for the memories:
I decided to delete it for various reasons:
- Too much moderation in the forums that I didn’t like.
- Endless bickering in the forums.
- Too many advertisements.
Not long after, I got a confirmation email that my account was deleted. I still visit the site from time to time to check camera news, but I no longer can post there on the forum. I think it was a great decision: the same old arguments got repeated there again and again about the same old misconceptions. I didn’t have much fun socializing there either, and I didn’t learn anything either because the vast majority of users just want to discuss gear.
StackExchange
StackExchange has got to be one of my least favourite websites. Again, their stance on AI was one of the biggest reasons to delete it, but I also disliked most of the communities and policies.
Medium
I didn’t delete Medium, but I completely stopped posting on Medium. Very few people on the platform seemed to care much about anything except satisfying their own outrage at the world. The only reason I didn’t delete it is because I left a post there explaining why I stopped using Medium, and that’s because of their lax AI policy.
Conclusion
I found all of the above websites to be a complete waste of time. There is very little to learn on them and pretty much all social connections are also superfluous. I did have a few nice interactions on DPReview, and it was kind of a shame to delete it, but far more users caused trouble there and the arguments were tiresom.
Over the years, I have found that most online platforms are a waste of time and it’s simply the most satisfying to write for my own website. The only platforms I really use now are Substack and YouTube.