Over the years I've been writing yearly reviews of what went well (and didn't work) and plans for the following year. It allowed me to keep things into perspective, plan and overall keep things as public as possible. I defined the things that I would write about, the things that didn't work and what I learned.
But in all these years I never stopped to write about the things that I would not write about and especially what I won't do on the website.
These are two important aspects, as important as having a plan on the things to publish, so today I'll start defining them.
Let's break things down into 2 major areas
- What I've avoided as much as possible: Things that I never touched (as far as I can tell) and actively avoid.
- What I try not to do: Each of them for their own reason, but things I don't want to do (for now and probably ever) here on the site.
But if you don't have time to read it, here's the 2-second pitch.
This is my place on the internet. It's my happy place, and hopefully yours too, to find solutions for automation problems, not discuss politics or other sensitive topics. Only I write here and I value your privacy as much as possible.
Let's start.
What I avoid as much as possible
As far as I can tell, here are a few things that I never did and won't do on the website.
No polarizing topics
As far as I remember I try to stay away from sensitive topics like politics, religion and other things that are not directly related with automation. The only exceptions are the "Merry Christmas" posts and eventually some books or podcasts that I put in the list that could be tricky for some people.
I want to focus on ways to make you more productive and have zero interest in commenting about things that happen in the world, so I usually stay away from polarizing topics or things that make people angry, sad or overall don't fit in the site's objective. To make people productive.
No attacking people or brands
As much as possible I try to be positive and present solutions not problems. There are instances where I get annoyed with Microsoft or other brands by silly decisions, but even in those cases I try to present you with solutions for those frustrations. No need to complain since it doesn't get us anywhere. There are plenty of sites that are focused on complaining, but this site is about solutions to problems, so forward is always the way.
No affiliate links (yet)
Again, this could change in the future, but I don't think I have had affiliate links on the site. I have books, podcasts and tools suggestions and I could have more that could give me a kickback. I'm not against this, but never got around to do it. I publish these things as a benefit to you and, in the case of the books, I link to the author's websites not Amazon for example.
I think my biggest concern over the years was that when I send people to Amazon or other sites they are 100% tracking you and relating that to my site and it's something that makes me uncomfortable. Redirecting you to a place where I know that they don't care about your privacy.
As things get more and more expensive, it's possible that I will include them in the future if I can make them as private as possible, meaning that if I have to pick between your privacy and making a few € I would prefer to maintain your privacy and sleep well at night.
What I try not to do
Here are things that, at the time of this writing, I would not do.
No guest posts
I was prompted a few times by people wanting to post on the website. They had the best intentions (some of them at least) and I knew that some of them were sad that I said "no", but there's a good reason for this.
The site began and it still is my way to control my piece of the internet. To experiment, write about things that interest me and learn. It also has my name. Having other people posting here would feel strange, so I prefer not to do it.
I also want to avoid issues with potentially people writing innocent stuff here and then being someone else on Twitter (I'll always call it Twitter sorry). There are so many vehicles for fraud that I don't want to be one of them.
I could change this in the future, but for now, all that you get on the site is me.
No advertising
A lot of people make money by selling ads on their websites. Copy and paste a small script from Google and then your site becomes a casino, with flashing lights, popups and completely unusable. Also the privacy angle is important here, but I'll discuss it later.
Any website that starts showing me ads for games and crappy things I would exit right away so why would I do that on my own?
A long time ago, I tried to sell ad space on the site. It would be great since I could put a banner controlled by me at the top and then help pay the site's bills (and my own), but never materialized. And then I started consulting and could use that to pay the bills while keeping the site as clean as possible. It's wonderful that I can keep the site clean as it is now.
No privacy violations
I removed Google Analytics from the site around 2 years ago and didn't look back. This is one of the things that hurt my SEO and potentially make my site a bit more invisible in Google since Google likes when they have more information about you, but I don't care.
I went with Umami because it's more private and I could host it myself. This way I had full control on how your data would not be retrieved. I needed analytics to understand what are the things on the site that people like, but now after these years it's becoming more and more clear what they do so it's possible that even Umami will be removed soon.
Privacy first!
Final Thoughts
I'm almost sure that this list will grow in the future and I forgot something for sure, but I want to have this list public in case I need to justify saying anything. Also it's a good thought process to understand why certain things didn't happen on the website.
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