inquiry

People talk/type about federated posting wherewithal as though having become aware of a grail of death-by-excessive-drool-loss proportions.

But, Jesus Crimenies, is it really that hard to put a file-permissions-proper file in a web server's root directory?

Here's how difficult making one's own textural flabbergasterings available is:

> cp <path-to-file-containing-one's-thoughts-so-important-that-others-absolutely-must-know-of-them> <path-to-web-server-root-directory>/
> chmod 644 <path-to-file-in-web-server-root-directory-containing-one's-thoughts-so-important-that-others-absolutely-must-know-of-them>

Boom! Available!

And if you're the type who has tired of accoutrement (layout, colors, fonts, bells, whistles, modal pop-up shit that annoys everyone (especially videos/audio that play automatically) – you know the despicable list) having become more important than textural content, did you know adding a '.txt' suffix to your file's name tends to encourage browsers to “do the right thing” and display the text of the file in fixed-width font exactly as you laid it out?

Yeah, okay, I guess I'm being a bit of a dick, here, because of course those simple steps imply knowing how to login to a shell account, and get around and work a shell.

But, see, there are times I'd argue there might be no Eternal Septembers (aka true fundamental mine canaries announcing online misery soon to come) were the entry-requirements-to-play kept above the “shit-for-brains” level (which seemingly turns out to be well above median intelligence in this species).

So I get a sadness-tinged kick out of more technically astute web technologists bemoaning what “has happened” (emphasizing the passive voice en route to the point – with a healthy measure of sarcasm over such forces being some sort of inescapable fate) to the web (content embellishment seemingly more important than content, walled-gardens, identity theft/compromise, etc.), when it was the selfsame technologists that lowered the bar of entry so any (intellectual and/or character) moron could participate – including in originally unimaginably vile ways.

Said another way: of course “shit happens” when the playing field is even slightly – let alone teeming with – shit-for-brains.

I suspect the almost certainty of shit-for-brains making shit happen (we sometimes playfully refer to it as “Murphy's Law”) is near ground zero of the actual divide between so-called “conservatives” and “liberals”. I think “conservatives” fundamentally believe there are better and worse people, and it's best to not let the latter foul the water of the former; conversely, “liberals” seem to believe shit-for-brains somehow magically transmutes to intelligence when mixing the two.

But as a wise man put it my direction eons ago (he was referring to a software development situation, but the principle is sufficiently general to leverage, here):

Q: What do you get when you mix half a gallon of ice cream with half a gallon of shit?
A: A gallon of shit.

So, all the more power to those attempting to pretend they're enjoying online society's gallon of shit.

As for me and my digital house, we shall serve the Text....