This blog does not use Kuro5hin.org for several reasons. While I used to have my journal/diary/blog/whatever you want to call it on Kuro5hin diaries, I stopped having it there, instead preferring to host it on my own personal page. There are several reasons for this, which I will discuss in detail.

Democracy is the Living Death of Creativity

Democracy is a good system; it allows (in theory) the best and brightest articles to rise to the top, and the rest to disappear. Yet, rule by the masses excludes many other interesting points, that don't make it because they fall under the category of an unpopular ideology.

This is true anytime you give up sovereignty for a higher level of government through a social contract. You have to give up something to gain something. The advantages of K5 are obvious, less junk andcrap articles to read, a nice layout, less work. The disadvantages are that you can't customize it, can't talk about anything you want, can't do whatever you want.

See with this site, it is only my ideology, and what I want to write, that makes it to the top. I like this, as I am a selfish kind of guy (aren't we all), and I want some control in my life.

K5 System of Good Intentions

I can't stress enough that Rusty and the gang at K5 tried very hard to make a good site, and worked actively to use democratic methods (the best possible) to allow the users to select stories they want to see.

But like most democracies, few people vote, and the ones that most likely do are an K5 elite, that tends to dominate the site. The American system is very similar to this. If you're not a member of the K5 'in-club', you are considered an outsider.

Interests That Have Split

K5 has a truly international base of users, who tend to be libertarian or right leaning, computer oriented (particularly Linux users) and less politically interested (especially in New York State politics).

My homepage and blog tends to attracts more localized people (upstaters), who like politics, trucks, computers, outdoor activities, etc. It would seem these ideas are just totally incompatible.

I'd rather spend my time discussing things that I really enjoy talking about, then what some other audience prefers. This is my site, so I can just do exactly that.

I Don't Care if Nobody Reads This

The fact is, few people read this compared to Kuro5hin. That's find with me. If I something really important to say, I'll write a more formal article for Kuro5hin. But I still have a small audience of regular readers, and a larger one of curious web visitors.

From August 2002-Janury 2003 I've served about 25,000 (yes, 25,000) actual pages from this site. Most come from curious web searchers, but others are regular readers. From my statistics, I'm guessing that I am responsible for about 5,000 pages served (maintenance), and maybe 5,000 from search engines. The rest are regular or casual visitors. The most read page is the homepage and the one about Nelson A. Rockefeller on the Vietnam War.

If I can say what I want to, it's better then having restraint, and only being able to say select things. It's better here.

Conclusion

I'm doing just fine all alone here, I really don't need any help. After HVCC, I already have a backup server lined up (well, sorta) to hold me until the Fall '03 at the next college.