
Dennis Cooper fears censorship as Google erases blog without warning - merraksh
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/14/dennis-cooper-google-censorship-dc-blog
======
CarolineW
Large discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757)

More discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097063)

Another comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12097707)

Yet another comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12089980)

Another submission:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12088543)

And another:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12100781)

 _Added in edit: As of 15:00 BST, 14:00 Zulu, all three major discussions
(including this one) are still active and seeing contributions. If you want to
know what people are saying, rather than just your own "fire and forget"
comments, you'll need to visit all three submissions."_

~~~
D-Coder
The last link (12100781) is to an unrelated article.

------
nine_k
Can't help but repeat: See whatever you have in the public cloud as _a cache
copy_ of your information, a copy that can disappear at any moment, and you
can't do anything about it. Have a local master copy of _everything_ you care
about, properly backed up.

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breakingcups
I can't help but feel like the word Censorship is being severely diluted by
using it in cases like these.

~~~
drabiega
Nah, It's been meaningless for a while now.

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karmajunkie
Is this a common thing? I can't imagine writing a book stores entirely on
blogspot. UI aside, most of the writers I know are at least somewhat cognizant
of the need for backups.

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zeveb
This is why IndieWebCamp came up with POSSE (Publish (on your) Own Site,
Syndicate Elsewhere
([https://indieweb.org/POSSE](https://indieweb.org/POSSE)). By all means, use
Blogger, Facebook, G+, Flickr, Medium, Nautilus and any other outlets you care
to, but remember that only you can be the caretaker of your own data.

------
ColinWright
Question for @dang (or other mods) - this is now marked as a dupe and so won't
appear on the front page, even though it got over 80 points and nearly 20
comments in just 40 minutes.

Does that mean the comments here will sink without trace and forever be
ignored?

~~~
daveloyall
Feature request: merge

~~~
ColinWright
I've been asking for a merge feature for years. This is now a great example of
just how bad the situation can get.

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shams93
Art is supposed to be challenging but if you think about it even porn hosts do
censorship. We live under a privitized tyranny of terms and conditions with no
due process.

~~~
jlarocco
That's not a fair statement, and isn't any different than it's ever been.

There's never been an obligation for other people to support and help
distribute obscure and controversial "art".

In fact, it's easier to get it distributed today than ever before.

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wooptoo
How long before other companies (like Medium) will start doing this?

That's why I'm advocating hosting your own blog. Github Pages basically
provide free hosting for static pages, and you can use a blog generator like
Pelican or Jekyll. Sure it's a hassle to set-up for the average person but the
peace of mind might be worth it.

~~~
cortesoft
If you use github pages, you aren't hosting your own blog.... GitHub is.

~~~
WorldMaker
Sure, but you are more likely to keep your local clone up to date and it is
easier if the need comes up to migrate to any other static file host or jekyll
build host that accepts a git repository push. Backing up and restoring most
traditional CMS is much more onerous that git pull/push.

~~~
daveloyall
Right! And GP, jekyll can run on other hosts, not just Github.

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vfclists
So in effect Google lulled him into believing that they were okay with is work
and it was secure.

~~~
thinkMOAR
Seems so yes, and apparently,

"His advice to other artists who work predominantly online is to maintain your
own domain and back everything up."

He never received same advice from others in the last 14 years, bit odd..

Reads to me as a case of (the dutch saying), who burns his buttocks has* to
sit on the blisters

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_Codemonkeyism
We have not enough tech education

"impossible for culture to be produced."

It's rather cheap to setup or let someone setup your own wordpress server on a
hosted server, made redundant with backups.

So it's worrying that artists think it's Google hosting or nothing.

------
daveloyall
[moved to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12099757)
]

------
johnnymonster
I think all this really does is remind everyone that they should review their
current backup strategies

------
amyjess
What the hell is he going to sue for? Google is a private company; they have
the right to ban anyone for any reason.

It worries me that Dennis Cooper has no respect for Google's private property
rights.

~~~
Vivtek
Private property rights are not an unlimited license to be a jerk - although
libertarians do seem to think so.

