Blog News

New Features

This one is just for EN2 SS. He requested that he be able to save his credentials on the site, so I am enabling registration here. You can save your name and email address if you want. This is completely voluntary. You may continue to post comments as an unregistered user, and I am OK with that.

If you want, simply click here to to access the login page, and click the link for “Register”:

I am also trying out a sidebar to see if that makes the site more navigable. Let me know how you feel about both in comments.

By Divemedic, ago

Out of Pocket

The blog has largely been on autopilot for the past three weeks. I have been out and about, doing stuff. In the last three weeks, I was in the Dominican Republic, Bermuda, and New York. We walked in the door less than an hour ago. Now that I am back home, I can spend time on getting stuff done around here. It’s tough running this site on a cell phone.

I would have mentioned it sooner, but we all know that there are some loons out there that will take advantage of us when we aren’t home.

I got selected for “random” extra screening on both of the US legs of my flight. The second time, they swabbed me for explosives and spread my luggage all over the place. It seems that my checked bag was also randomly tossed and inspected by TSA. Random, my ass.

By Divemedic, ago

Technical Details

I spent the morning trying to get Tactical Hermit’s blog moved over to my server. He had an XML backup of the text, but all of the files, pictures, media, etc. are no longer accessible from the old blog because it was nuked.

My advice to all of you is this: As long as your blog is on a server that is owned by an entity that does not respect free speech, it is at risk of being lost. Every day that your blog is on WordPress or Blogger, it is at risk. XML backups only restore the text of the blog, not the pictures, videos, etc. Those are still on the old server.

Moving your blog before you get cancelled will preserve your stuff. Even if you don’t move your blog to here, move it somewhere that will preserve your blog. Every day you wait places your data at risk.

As long as you don’t violate the rules here, I won’t touch your site. I only have one rule with respect to content: Your site can’t be a porn site. Other than that, your site is your site.

By Divemedic, ago

Welcome

I want to welcome thetacticalhermit.com to our server. His blog was nuked and we were able to get him back up and running. He will spend some time getting things organized, but we won’t be silenced.

There is still room to share this server. The cost to host a blog on this server is $15 per month.

I will import blogger or WordPress to this site for the cost of the software license. (it isn’t much, and is free in many cases.)

The only rule that I have is: no porn sites. I am not interested in having porn on my site for two reasons: they are resource hogs (both storage space and bandwidth) and I don’t feel like having to expend my own time and energy defending porn distributors.Even if you don’t contact me, find an alternative server now, or your blogs and podcasts may be gone forever.

If interested in having your blog hosted here, the email is Divemedic@sectorocho.com.

By Divemedic, ago

It’s Over

If my attacker doesn’t take any other action, I’m not going to do anything else. I said:

 Let it go. As long as you keep this going, it keeps going. Or you can keep throwing your temper tantrum and stalking me, and we keep posting about this. 

I meant it. If she lets it go, I won’t respond further. I’m not an asshole. If she learned her lesson, we are done here. I’m only defending myself from an attack on my livelihood, an attack that was made because I expressed my opinion.

So, I’m gonna end it. If someone comes to me with evidence that she continues to try to come at me, or if I hear from her again, that will be a different story, but until that time, I’m done with it. I have other things to do than fixate on this.

By Divemedic, ago

RSS

I have received a report that my RSS feed hasn’t been working since 5/21. My reader seems to see all of the current posts. Is anyone else aware of any problems?

By Divemedic, ago

Threats

So the woke crowd is apparently claiming that they have emailed the registrar for this site and is requesting a takedown because we have pissed off the woke crowd. That won’t affect the server, but if the name host decides that they are going to bend… If that happens, we will be switching to our alternate address, divemedic.xyz

This blog and its domain are fully redundant.

By Divemedic, ago

Blog Rules

You will notice that I have added a link to a new page at the top of the page. This is a permanent link to the rules of commenting here at the blog. They are there permanently for your reference. They are simple and easy to follow. I like the way that Miguel over at gunfreezone put it: don’t be a dick. If you want to know what it means to be a dick, read on.

The overriding concept here is that I am paying for this server, the software that runs it, and providing the content. Since I am the one paying for it, that makes it mine. Some people have a problem with this and begin shouting about free speech. Free speech doesn’t apply here on my property. Want free speech? Pay for your own blog. I will even rent you some server space. You can say whatever you want on there, including calling me names. Your space, your rules.

I allow comments here because I enjoy the back and forth of a good debate. However, commenting here is the virtual equivalent of talking to me while sitting in my living room. Debate is a good thing. A well reasoned debate changes minds and can influence the opinions of others. If you make a good case for your opinion, you can win over the opinions of others by presenting them with a perspective or situation that may not have occurred to them. Name calling and shouting at people does not change the opinions of others, generates hard feelings, and is nothing more than chimps shouting at each other inside of the monkey house.

If you and some of my acquaintances are sitting with me in my living room having a conversation, there are things that you wouldn’t say without expecting either a punch in the mouth or being asked to leave and never return. Try to think of comments here as a face to face conversation, and don’t type a comment here that you would not say to someone’s face while sitting in their own home.

So with that out of the way, here are the rules for commenting on this blog:

  1. The owner of this blog (me) has the final say on what you can and cannot post. It’s my house, I make the rules. Content here is moderated, and I will not be approving any comments that I find, in my sole judgement, to be unworthy. If you make a comment here and it doesn’t appear within a few hours, it likely wasn’t approved for some reason. Or it wound up in the SPAM filter for some reason. You can always drop me an email and ask.
  2. Deliberately posting statements that are aimed at insulting the blog owner (me) will get your comment tossed in the trash. Feel free to disagree with me, just don’t call names or impugn my character. If I wanted someone to purposely insult me, I don’t need to pay for a blog server, I can just go to my ex-wife’s house for free.
  3. Don’t deliberately insult others. No personal attacks. Feel free to attack ideas. Heap scorn on silly or illogical opinions, just don’t make it personal.
  4. If you are making a comment about one of my posts, it should be made on the post that you are commenting on, not on another, unrelated post. Offending posts may be deleted or disallowed, purely at my discretion. This is an attempt to both maintain readability and to reduce trolls.
  5. No spam. If you come on here to sell your product or website, that isn’t going to be allowed. This is an ad free site, because I hate all of the ads on the Internet. I don’t make money on this Blog, and no one else does, either. Including you.
  6. Usually, I just don’t approve comments that are out of bounds. If you are close to the line, I may approve it, with a warning. If repeated out of bounds comments become tiresome, I will warn you.
  7. If warnings don’t work and you keep at it, I will ban you from ever posting on this site again. I know that you can pull tricks like IP spoofing, changing your name, etc. So don’t think doing that is going to earn you “I’m so clever” points. It doesn’t make you clever, it makes you an ass.
  8. Too many people using those tricks to circumvent the rules is what got us full time moderation, which is a major pain in my ass, and a major time waster for me.
  9. When in doubt, please refer to rule #1. These rules can change with no notice, and rules may or may not apply retroactively. That’s up to me. See rule #1.

Those are the rules. They seem rather easy to follow. I am resisting the use of registered accounts for the reason that I don’t like registering anything. However, if too many people violate these rules, I will be forced to have accounts. Please don’t force me to do that.

I have only banned a handful of people (less than 5) in the sixteen years of this blog. I think that makes me pretty tolerant.

Of course, you can always ask me any questions by email: Divemedic@areaocho.com

By Divemedic, ago

Comments

I spend about 2 or 3 hours a day on this blog, between researching posts, writing them, reading and moderating comments, and other miscellaneous tasks. I’ve been at it for about 16 years now- yep this blog is nearly 16 years old.

Up until this point, I have had one rule for comments- no personal attacks, and no spam. The last time I had to post on this was just a month ago. Apparently, people can’t handle the freedom of not having many rules. I had someone today compare me to Hitler for daring to be a part of a profession that obeyed the law. No one calls a gun dealer Hitler when they refuse to sell a gun to someone that fails a NICS check.

I have tried closing comments or not allowing comments on certain posts, but people try to circumvent it by commenting on other posts and referencing the one that is closed.

I am tired of having to remind people about personal attacks. I am tired of moderating comments. Some of the more outrageous comments come from first time commenters, or from people who are trying to get around the rules by using a VPN and not using the same name each time they comment. It gets tedious.

Comment moderation is active. I hate to have an echo chamber, but this is really taking a toll on me. There is a strong possibility that I will require (free) registration with a valid email address in order to comment. It will make things easier on me.

By Divemedic, ago

Blogger and the Old Site

I got a series of emails last week from Blogger, notifying me that some of the posts on my old site have been deemed to be against blogger policy and have been removed from the old blogspot site. The emails all looked the same:

As you may know, our Community Guidelines
(https://blogger.com/go/contentpolicy) describe the boundaries for what we allow– and don’t allow– on Blogger. Your post titled “xxx” was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our guidelines and deleted the post, previously at <link, now dead>

Why was your blog post deleted?
Your content has violated our Regulated Goods and Services policy.

Please visit our Community Guidelines page linked in this email to learn more.

So here are the offending posts, so you can read them yourself:

  • This is open? published January 2010 A post critical of the Obama administration
  • Indoctrination published October 2016 A post exposing that schools were requiring teachers to discuss the benefits of being a sexual deviant to children. (This one wasn’t deleted, but is now behind a “trigger warning” page in order to view it)
  • Discrimination published June 2012. A post about a man being removed from Barnes and Noble because men aren’t allowed into the children’s book section of the store unescorted.
  • More Receipt Madness published December 2014. A post on how I refuse to show receipts to the door trolls at stores.
  • Difficult to Keep Up With published January 2021. A post about the National Guard buildup for Biden’s inauguration
  • Identify Those Guns published October 2019 A post asking readers to identify a pair of handguns. They deleted this one more than once in a ten minute period.

Just so we are on the subject, I provide for reference the Blogger Regulated Goods and Services policy, retrieved from here on May 7, 2023 at 1542 eastern time.

Regulated Goods and Services

Do not sell, advertise, or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services. Regulated goods and services include alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons, or health/medical devices.

Note that not a single one of those posts was attempting to sell, advertise, or facilitate the sale of any goods and services. No, this is an attempt by Blogger to eliminate any opinion with which they or their employees disagree. They are slowly shutting down anyone with an opposing opinion.

This is exactly why I decided to move this blog to its own server.

That is why I set up this website on its own server. The idea here is that I setup and maintain the server for my use. That server has a lot more capacity than my blog is using, but costs a good chunk more than I can justify spending on a blog. So I came up with the idea of sharing that server.

This is what I did:

  • I set up a server in a country that won’t submit to US takedown requests. Being across the pond makes the websites run a tad slower, but they are more resistant to being shut down.
  • The server is backed up nightly.
  • There is a mirror server in a second country.
  • The entire thing is owned by a corporation.

The Pitch:

Last year, I moved to this new server and became my own IT guy. Because of this, I was able to realize significant cost savings that I am passing on. The cost is $15 per month. For that rate, this is what you get:

  • You get your own blog, run on the widely available and customizable WordPress software.
  • You get one email address with up to 1gb of storage. More options and storage are available for a nominal fee. The email address is attached to your blog, for example: You@yourblog.com
  • I will migrate your blogger or WordPress blog to this server.
  • You can use your own web address if you have one, or we can find one. There may or may not be an extra charge for that, depends on what you want to use. Some cost more than others.

What you don’t get:

I am not a web designer, graphic artist, computer expert, or any sort of artist. For that reason, I can’t offer custom websites, web design, or any of that. I recommend that you use any of the available WordPress custom themes that are widely available online, or that you go with one of the stock themes that comes with the software.

The only catch or rule here is that you can’t run a porn site. The risk for underage porn and the large amount of resources that they use just make that too much of a hassle. I just don’t want to be in the porn business or involved with that sort of thing. Other than that, I am hands off. Free speech and all of that.

How to sign up:

Email me to make the arrangements. Divemedic (at) areaocho (dot) com.

By Divemedic, ago