The New Oil

Sometimes I sit on updates to the website for a long time. I wish I could say this is because of some master plan to hit a certain schedule or make a big deal of big updates. The truth is simply that I'm busy and often tell myself “let me wait til I do this one small change tomorrow,” then suddenly tomorrow is three weeks later and the updates have accumulated. On the plus side, that makes it easy to share big updates with readers all at once, like this.

The latest TNO commit includes a number of significant changes to the site and related content. Here's what's new:

Ghost

The biggest news is that The New Oil is now present on Ghost. Ghost, for those who don't know, is often compared to Substack, but it's open source and federating with Activity Pub (I say “federating” because federation is currently in open beta, but is well on the way.)

My main use case for Ghost is as a Patreon replacement. I've never liked using Patreon because it is so privacy-averse (and terrible as a company), but it's been difficult to find an alternative that wasn't catering exclusively to the alt-right, which is a crowd I have no desire to intentionally associate with. I tried Substack briefly as a blogging platform (before it became associated with questionable content, my departure predated that controversy as well), but I frequently forgot to keep it updated and it was difficult to integrate into my workflow.

Ghost, I think, checks a lot of boxes. Open source, federated, privacy respecting, self-hostable if things ever go to crap, and designed to be not simply a blogging platform, but also Patreon-style subscription, podcast platform, etc.

Currently, my plan is to use Ghost as a Patreon “replacement.” I'll use it to post early access to content, as well as a “mostly-daily newsletter.” (You can read more about that on our public inaugural post.) It should be noted that Ghost integrates with Stripe, so please check their privacy policy for a better picture of what they have collect, but I think this will offer users better privacy and TNO more audience sovereignty than a platform like Patreon. For now, the plan is to continue to offer blog posts here on Write.As since Ghost doesn't offer a way to email posts to people after they become free, but some of them will likely be posted on Ghost as early-access. If you'd like to support TNO and get that early access, please consider signing up. Otherwise, no change is required on your end.

Use Cases

Something I've been plotting for a long time and finally got around to offering is “use cases” for some of the tools we suggest. These are already live on certain pages, like Password Managers, Messengers, and Email. I may add it to other pages as needed. This gives non-technical users another tool – in addition to the “pros and cons” sections – to help determine which services might be best for them. It's not meant to be a comprehensive list, but if you see any examples I'm missing or got wrong, as always please let me know.

Blogging

I've also added a few blogging sites to the list of Fediverse services, including Ghost, Write Freely, and WordPress. WordPress will no doubt be a controversial inclusion for some, and I totally get why. However, we also list other controversial services (since when is anything in the privacy community NOT controversial?) that still offer value to the user. I understand this is an eternally tricky area – can you “separate the art from the artist”? Where is the line where such behavior becomes so egregious that it's no longer worth recommending the tool? I don't have good answers. For now, I think it's of value to list WordPress because it is so ubiquitous and powerful. As always, feel free to open an issue if you disagree. I'm not above hearing other viewpoints.

Contact

I have added two new contact methods to The New Oil: Signal and SimpleX. There is an argument going around that email was never meant to be secure and thus, should be avoided whenever possible. While I have a standing challenge to show me the person who exists in modern society without using email*, I think those people have valid arguments, so these new contact methods serve two purposes: one, they attempt to normalize this by offering contact methods other than email. Two, they serve as a beta test to see if this is even a good idea. If people abuse these contact methods – or if they become too much work to be worthwhile – then I'll have no choice but to remove them. But for now, for those who wish to contact me in a more-secure-than-email way, you now have two choices. As with everything, remember that I am one man so please be patient with my responses.

While You're Here...

There's a few other noteworthy changes, but wouldn't warrant a blog post on their own. But since we're here:

• We've added The Privacy Dad as a resource on the last page, mostly because he's the only person I know of so far who's talking about parenting and privacy, which is a desperately needed discussion. If you're a parent who wants to talk about privacy and parenting, let me know if I can help. As a child-free person, I'm not qualified to give that advice, but you would be helping parents everywhere.
• Conversely, I dropped a couple book recommendations, not because they aren't great, but because the “recommended books” section is getting a bit long (especially compared to other sections) and I felt like the “actionable information” value of those books wasn't high enough to warrant keeping them in the list.
• We've added Exodus and Blacklight as tools that readers can use to vet any apps and websites not directly covered by TNO. We're on the lookout for more tools, so feel free to suggest some.
• We've added StickTock as a TikTok front-end.
• We've added a small piece of advice about storing passkeys on a security token (like a Yubikey).

Thanks as always for your support. I hope to see some of you over on Ghost to help continue that support, but even if you don't move over, rest assured that nothing will change for readers here on Write Freely. I appreciate having you along for the ride.

* For those curious, the challenge is this: show me a person who is active in modern society (ex, not retired, not a recluse, etc) who does not use email in any way, shape, or form. Not “my grandpa doesn't use email, my grandma checks it for him” or “I have an email account but I never really check it.” I mean literally the person who has never once needed an email address. “I have a bank account, a job, and a healthy social life and haven't used email in the last ten years for even a single part of that.” Showing me this person should be even easier thanks to our new contact methods.

Tech changes fast, so be sure to check TheNewOil.org for the latest recommendations on tools, services, settings, and more. You can find our other content across the web here or support our work in a variety of ways here. You can also leave a comment on this post here: Discuss...