On censorship (2)

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Click . . . to enlarge:

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‘Facebook Spam’

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Facebook activists complaining their posts and images have been deleted or blocked — sound familiar? Facebook’s “terms and conditions” drove me away in September 2011 and I published a post at the time [Facebook Fail] outlining my reasons for switching to Google-Plus.

My Facebook account is seldom used . . . and, just today, yet another reminder why:

Someone shared my ANZAC Day post on Facebook. When their friends clicked on the Link they were confronted with a warning that my Site may be unsafe. I checked it out. Yep, there it was, a warning from Facebook plastered right across the top of my post: “Facebook thinks this Site may be unsafe,” it says.

Unsafe? — unsafe for what?? — our minds???

😀
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‘Telling our Stories’

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“Keep telling your story. All must be heard.”  ~ Anonymous

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In 2009, a woman wrote asking my help to write her story which she intended leaving as a legacy for her granddaughter from who she’d become estranged following a family feud. I hitchhiked a week to reach her home, camped on the lawn, and, for several more days, sat on her porch drinking tea while listening as she answered my questions.

The project was ambitious — a broad, sweeping canvas comprised of all events that shaped and formed her life. Photographs; poetry; favourite recipes, prayers and quotes; family-stories handed down; birthdays and anniversaries. There were the celebrations; the triumphs and the failures, the tears and the laughter . . . a rich and human account.

I left her with a simple plan:

(1) Build a personal Blog using WordPress. Access to the Blog can be public, private, password restricted or limited to only certain people, as one wishes.

(2) To provide structure, run the Blog for a 12-month period (or, 365 days) with the beginning and end dates to suit oneself (here’s an example of this structure at work).

(3) Using a yearly planner, mark out all the birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates to be recorded, and schedule a post to be published on each of those days. This might also include days for such things as letters and photographs, or any event which can be dated.

(4) Remaining days can be used for anything and everything one might wish to write or post. Thoughts; dreams; hopes and wishes; one’s view of the world, much like a diary.

Had my grandmother left me such a gift  . . . it would be a priceless treasure.
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‘Blogging for Kiddies’

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― This is a blog post ―

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In the event you missed it — this is a Blog post . . .

When writing stories at infant school, I would always head up the page with STORY. The same when drawing pictures — across the top in nice bold letters — I’d write the word PICTURE (just to make sure that everyone understood my intent).

WordPress now does a similar thing; their recent “enhancement” of the format options removes any confusion that readers might have as to what they’re viewing. Bold notices rendered across the head of posts will tell you whether you’re looking at an IMAGE, a LINK, a VIDEO, or any one of the seven options.

Blogging-for-kiddies is how I describe this “enhancement”.

Last month I posted a question in the WordPress Forums asking for an option to turn it off. No such luck with this week’s announcement from WordPress their enhancement is here to stay.

My apologies to adult readers of my Blogs . . .
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UPDATE:

Big kudos to WordPress who’ve been listening and changed
the where and how this enhancement renders on our Blogs;
placement now more discretely beside the date and credits:

Examples . . .

● http://patrickobrien.wordpress.com/type/status/
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