It’s with sadness that I share these thoughts about how Corporate Social Networks killed Photoblogs. All My favorite communities that I was a-part of back in 2004-2010 are obsolete: Photoblogs.org, Coolphotoblogs.com, along with photos.vfxy.com/ and many others; too many to list. Along with their extinction came the death of some of the most prolific and beloved independent photo blogs whose websites no longer live and breathe and the photographers moved on. All I have is the memories. Alas, there is one lone-wolf still posting. Check out: Electrolyte.

In 2008 I installed my first copy of WordPress.org/ and used it for my personal journal which I still have at journal.talkingtree.org – albeit after I finally resurrected it from being offline for two years! Check out my photoblog on Wayback Machine: here and – here! Even the most cherished and favorited open source photoblogging platform, PixelPost.org, slowed to a grinding halt in 2009. That alone forced me to move my photoblog over to WordPress. Many compared Pixelpost as being the future WordPress equivalent for photographers. Back to the main point: The corporate monopoly of the Internet killed a vibrant renaissance that was once the Blogosphere when communities operated from independent websites and blogs, at least on a more personal and intimate level. Now Facebook creates echo chambers for us to become more self-centered and lost. It drew people away from their personal weblogs and journals.

I wanted to share a few of these thoughts I’m mulling over because because the birth of blogging happened in my late teens. Back then, the proper word was weblog. That’s when I discovered Movable Type and was instantly enthralled with the idea of self-publishing online! It was a BIG PART of my upbringing. The Internet was a place share my travels, along with poetry and prose. These corporate social giants like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter became the “middle guys” who co-opted our communities and took them over by attracting all the the bees to the honey. They now market and sell our information and exploit our friend lists because we let them. I’m not going to lie, I would be the HUGE hypocrite if I didn’t admit an addiction to social media but let’s not forget the facts and history and where are going.

In light of this, we still have blogging and the freedom to post on Indie open-source platforms and I hope to see a serious comeback in a future when the masses grow sick and tired of their lives being used and consumed by the greed. It’s time to return to the salad days of open and loose-knit communities of creatives, writers, bloggers, photographers and boot anything else that tries to exploit our efforts especially as content producers and artisans!

I’m not happy with Facebook, or it’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, or the fact that they had to buy Instagram. Cyberspace shouldn’t be place where these giants can simply run amuck. We need to start thinking about the future of a free and open society and along with it’s cyberspace.

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