My previous post was titled Mindset Monday. Tuesdays I am reserving for actual technical information, usually something I’ve learned during the week. Maybe it will help you, the reader. Maybe it won’t.
I write what I’ve learned because it helps me organize my own thoughts. Additionally, it’s a a record of what I’ve learned for future reference. Which is better than trying to keep everything packed in my head. I don’t need to write down every button push or feature. That’s what the manual is for. I write down what works for me.
Today I’m writing about email lists and opt-in forms on a blog (like this one). I’ve gon through a few plug-ins and looked at various options. There are a lot of ways to create forms on a blog. Each of those ways seems to require setting up a separate account on a marketing site or email list site. Furthermore, I will say that user information is something which carries a responsibilities with it. The more information I gather, the more responsibility I’ll have. The more I spread that information around to other sites, the more responsibility I have to keep track of what information I’m gathering and who I’m sharing it with.
Every bit of stuff on the internet requires money at some point. Money pays for the server it’s hosted on. And money pays for the bandwidth to access the information on the server. Also, money pays for the people who maintain the servers, software, databases, and physical communications lines.
Every site and service I add on to whatever I’m using is paid for in some way. That’s true of this blog, my computer, my digital camera, and anything else. I either pay for it with money, or I pay for it with access to my information. (I do know about free open source software, FOSS, and I support people who do that. Even there, services are only free because someone else decided to pay with their own time and effort and money to create something free for the rest of us.) Until I better understand what various sites will be doing with the information I give them, I’ll leave out opt-in lists.
Regarding opt-ins and email lists: gathering user information means the gatherer has to be aware of how they’re keeping and sharing that user information.
I know, if you’re looking for information about how to use technology you probably wanted a quick set-up guide. This blog isn’t for that. The quicker the set-up, the easier the sign-up, the more that’s offered for free, the higher the likelihood there will be a price in time or money or unexpected risk to be paid later. That’s how you wind up with your technology using you, instead of you using your technology.