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Shutting Down My Site

patdryburgh.com

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Re: Shutting Down My Site

#41

Post by simonbrown »

kijin wrote: post #35
codexon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a Wordpress blog with several million hits on it. I ran out of time to update it. I let the hosting expire because I was tired of wondering if there was a new exploit in Wordpress and dealing with dozens of spam comments every day even with Recaptcha.

That makes sense, but in this case the blog was hosted on Tumblr. Free, no need to worry about vulnerabilities, and virtually no spam. I wonder if there is a simple open-source tool that can convert WordPress blogs into static sites for archival. Like, just crawl the site, save everything as static HTML, and write some .htaccess rules to replicate WordPress's permalink structure. Everything will remain exactly where…

httrack?

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#42

Post by dextorious »

keithpeter wrote: post #21
swah wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is what you missed: __ | | No, seriously... I enjoyed looking at those photos once, it was just like an architecture magazine. No big deal to shut it off, just don't consider it your life's work.

wayback machine has some samples from 2010. As swah says a bit like Blueprint magazine circa 1985. I liked the older desks that had some marks on them, had been worked on. Does anyone not use a Mac?

"""Does anyone not use a Mac?"""

There's this guy in New Zealand.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#43

Post by dextorious »

hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

"""Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails. (...)"""

The music from Hoarders come to my mind reading this...

Compared to tangible-stuff-hoarders it's all to easy to be a bit-hoarder. I've kept my share of bits over the years (tons of albums I never listen to, old emails and such).

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#44

Post by dextorious »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #20
hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

This reply got me thinking: does the nearly-zero incremental cost of a bit cause people to be more likely to turn into virtual hoarders? Anybody who didn't through physical mail away ever would be looked at funny, but I rarely delete an email, either. Is there a psychological cost associated with virtual hoarding like there is with physical? Or is it truly not hoarding?

"""Is there a psychological cost associated with virtual hoarding like there is with physical? Or is it truly not hoarding?"""

Of course there is -- hoarding is the attitude towards preserving stuff (and fear of mortality / things changing / passing), not about whether it's physical or virtual stuff.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#45

Post by dextorious »

reinhardt wrote: post #32
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reply got me thinking: does the nearly-zero incremental cost of a bit cause people to be more likely to turn into virtual hoarders? Anybody who didn't through physical mail away ever would be looked at funny, but I rarely delete an email, either. Is there a psychological cost associated with virtual hoarding like there is with physical? Or is it truly not hoarding?

Coming from the opposite side, I wonder if there's an "anti-hoarding" disorder; feeling that most things (physical or virtual) in one's possession is a liability, a weight that would be better off discarded unless they are absolutely necessary. Almost everything I own adds to my psychological debt and I feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders whenever I can get rid of stuff, documents, files, emails or anything e…

"""Coming from the opposite side, I wonder if there's an "anti-hoarding" disorder; feeling that most things (physical or virtual) in one's possession is a liability, a weight that would be better off discarded unless they are absolutely necessary."""

There sure is one -- and the minimalist trend has a little to do with that tendency, but it's something much rarer than hoarding.

A lot of people do the "anti-hoarding" thing with emotions, memories, friendships and relationships, though, just letting them slip through without affecting them.

Coping mechanisms, if I ever saw one...

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#46

Post by __david__ »

So I appreciate that it's your site and you have the right to do whatever you want with it, but isn't it a tad arrogant to judge what other people may or may not get out of it? To call it "porno" is to make a big assumption of what people are using your site for. And even if most people are just gawking at pretty pictures, isn't it a bit much for only you to decide whether it's a net positive or negative on the world?

It reminds me of the whole "_why" thing. It's totally your right to stop hosting content, but it's also a bit rude.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#47

Post by rokhayakebe »

patdryburgh wrote: post #9
rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Well since it paid, why not sell it, or give it to someone who will run it. I check Freshome almost daily. You can say looking at other people's home is pointless specially expensive ones because most readers will never live in such a house. However some people may just find it joyful. Just check your logs and see the ten most frequent visitors, ask a couple of them to run it.

This was an option I considered and discussed with a friend who is well known in the minimalism/productivity space. To me, it's actually more of a moral issue: is keeping a site like Simple Desks online good, bad, or neutral to the world. I'm sure it's different for different people, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that in the end it was detrimental to people's time. We have better things to do with our time, a…

"Is it a waste of time if an artist spends a lifetime only thinking, then in the end write one poem that turns out to inspire thousands of people."

If people are coming to the site, then it has value. What is detrimental is what causes harm. What puts a smile on someone face, even if it is a simple desk, is probably more therapeutic than Prosac.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#48

Post by jasonlotito »

patdryburgh wrote: post #9
rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Well since it paid, why not sell it, or give it to someone who will run it. I check Freshome almost daily. You can say looking at other people's home is pointless specially expensive ones because most readers will never live in such a house. However some people may just find it joyful. Just check your logs and see the ten most frequent visitors, ask a couple of them to run it.

This was an option I considered and discussed with a friend who is well known in the minimalism/productivity space. To me, it's actually more of a moral issue: is keeping a site like Simple Desks online good, bad, or neutral to the world. I'm sure it's different for different people, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that in the end it was detrimental to people's time. We have better things to do with our time, a…

> We have better things to do with our time,

That's a fallacy of consumption. The assumption that consuming media, whether it be art, movies, books, or anything that isn't the direct act of creating, is inherently wasteful.

> and much more beautiful works of art to get enjoyment from.

Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. The words and hours spent on the Mona Lisa are wasteful when you consider what it could have been spent on. Practical things.

Alone, consumption is as wasteful as creation. Creating something no one uses or views... does a tree alone in the woods make a sound. In a very real sense, one cannot create without consuming.

Do not belittle consumption, for it is the beginning of creation.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#49

Post by patdryburgh »

jyap wrote: post #39

What Do you mean here? "I kept it up because, baby, it paid." You just put Google Adsense ads on the Tumblr page?

No, the site was a member of Fusion Ads starting in January 2011. Before that, a company that made hardware for managing desk clutter sponsored the blog.

Re: Shutting Down My Site

#50

Post by technomancy »

hpaavola wrote: post #7

It always makes me a bit sad when any site is taken offline. I haven't even heard of Simple Desks before, but it still makes me sad that it is gone. Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much. I don't delete emails (my spamfilter might delete, I don't). Once in a while it's nice to see what you were up to 5 years ago. My personal homepage is still running. I haven't updated it in many many years, but…

> Destroying bits is so darn easy, that people do it too much.

Really? This is only the third time I've heard of it happening intentionally in at least as many years. (the other two being whytheluckystiff.net and diveintomark.org). It doesn't seem like it happens very often at all.

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