Surprised? Really?
For the record this is a major part of why The Liberty Coalition came to being. Maybe it is a terrible name with awful connotations… I don’t know.
All I can say is I meant the name to stand for a loose association of liberty-minded bloggers and publishers. So far, it hasn’t worked out that way. My “vision” seems to have turned into a blog – a platform from where I, and I alone, spout off my ideas on liberty. Such was not intended.
Back to ZeroHedge and Grrrgle. Sorry if it sounds like sour grapes. It is not really. As a “liberty guy” I’m not into coercing anyone to do anything. I made it available and the only takers appear to be the growing army of spammers in my comment box. So be it. You cannot say I didn’t try.
Notice you have never seen Grrrgle ads on this site. This is by design. Yes they sometimes offer a nice carrot but ooooh! that stick! Screw Grrrgle. Fact is another goal of TLC (that is shorthand for The Liberty Coalition) is to end-around Grrgles search engine, among others. They are the 8,000 lb gorilla in the room. In their controlling peabrains what they say goes. Period. That’s not liberty, that is tyranny. Digital tyranny.
I do not care if any other publisher joins my efforts. I’d be just as happy if they snubbed their noses at me and did their own thing. THAT is liberty.
I like ZeroHedge. I visit the site every day. I refer to them often. I never would have known they existed if I depended on search engines like Grrrgle. When are we going to learn this?
So, no, I am not going to cry over ZeroHedge’s plight. Tyler should know better. There are lots of ways to monetize a site. Go find one.
The other part of this is we all need to extricate ourselves from tyrannical systems whether they be political, technical or something else. It does not good to whine over the FB’s, the Twits, the Grrgles of this work. I’m reminded of the phrase of a dog turning back unto it’s own vomit. Yes, I use all of these to some extent but I refuse to depend on any of them.
The bottom line for me is, I want to continue to build a network of liberty-minded bloggers, publishers and other individuals and groups. It need not be the only network. As a matter of fact, the more the merrier.
Once again that word “diversification” comes into play.
God bless,
Andy