Many of my posts on this blog are the workings of my mind as I wrestle with the latest unfairness I have come across. Sadly, due to the proliferation of unfairness I am seeing from all over the world right now – including the lack of interest in the protection of the futures of our children I feel I need to go further in sharing my ideas for making a difference. They will be imperfect but better than silence.

I recently discovered that my eportfolios – lovingly created in Mahara and entrusted post retirement to foliospaces.org – have disappeared. The host site – without a word of warning or notification – just disappeared. This means many of the resources I had carefully woven into posts and shared for others to find are now broken. Making much of my carefully crafted online open practice meaningless. Fortunately I still have the original exports but my faith in hosting providers is greatly damaged. Yes, #enshitification continues apace.

Another even more recent event was the disappearance of many websites – including government sites of the Netherlands and Finland – as described by Chris Stokel-Walker in today’s Guardian I was really struck by Chris’ call to action in an AI enshittified online world and I am including a photo from the newsprint version as I have little faith in links working for everyone. Read from “This is where AI comes in…”

The techbros, as we know, continue to rake in fortunes and re-invest less than nothing into the open web that was the nursery for their wealth. As users we have to show them that we will not tolerate their exploitation. Money talks to these cash obsessed broligarchs and their empires sit upon mass investment flowing from governments and individiuals such as you and me. I am not a wealthy person but I can use what I have to support those who share my values. Here is my current approach:

• No more engaging with the data scraping tricks of Meta et al. Your “upgrade” is not to my benefit so sod off
• Regular funding goes to Wikipedia, Good Law Project and other causes who I trust to stand up for the common good.
• I refuse to but anything through Amazon, I will never get a delivery from Deliveroo or any such exploitative worker cost evading business
• I will not stay in your AirB+B with its shabby business model
• I will continue to lobby government ministers and anyone who listens to make them take notice of the real, existential dangers posed by AI data farms and AI slop to our future and that of humanity.

Don’t be whang!