I want to be a villager

Thoughts of Widdershins writes: I see a lot of posts about people leaving platforms. … What strikes me is that hardly anyone is leaving for something big. They’re going smaller. A personal site, a self-hosted app, a capsule nobody’s going to stumble onto by accident. Gordon over at Happily Imperfect wrote a reply and made some good observations I want to expand on here. I wonder if everyone who cares about a better, more open internet packs up and retreats to their own little corners, aren’t we also leaving the big platforms with an even bigger share of the conversation? No, because there is no mutually respectful dialogue between us the users and them the platform owners and the system they establish. On the contrary, platform owners always have control over us, and can do with our data as they please. It is our human interactions that give those platforms value. It’s the photodumps from celebrities, athletes, and college students alike. It’s the birthday wishes for family members,…