Google Analytics and Jetpack/Wordpress Stats — all gone!
I started this blog when I was a full-time scholar and found the constraints of academic writing were destroying my prose. I wanted a place where I could write without having to kill sentences with hedges and qualifications.
But then I started working in a marketing department. My problem there was writing fluffy BS, but that was not necessarily bad for my prose. It was bad for my mind in other ways, of course. But I also became sensitized to how aggressively we are tracked all over the web and have grown, frankly, to resent it. Also, in the same way that I wanted this to be a place where I could write and feel outside of the world of scholarship, now I want this to be a place where I can feel outside the world of A/B testing and conversion rate optimization.
I’m glad you’re here, but for the most part, I don’t know it. I still have some basic server stats, but to the extent that I can turn it off with WordPress, you are not tracked.
There is one exception (that I know of). I have it set up so that if you have made a comment in the past and gotten approved, then it knows that (based on a cookie, I assume) and approves your comment automatically. I could turn that off, but that just seems annoying and serves no purpose. If you don’t want to be tracked in that way, don’t leave any comments.
Be free!
Hi Tom
I landed on your blog when I was searching for some tips on Gmail. Thanks, BTW!
When I read your ‘Improved Roads’ post, I was intrigued. I was born in (the Territory of) AK and grew up there. My father (RIP) drove long-haul trucks in AK from the ’40s to the ’80s. In the early ’70s, when I got a Teamster’s scholarship, I decided to attend UAF. Shortly after, I took a six-month break from UAF and worked on the slope as a Teamster. I drove the northern stretch of the haul road, from Franklin Bluffs to Atigun Pass. I can relate to some of what you shared… Anyway, several years after I finished at UAF, I did two backpacking/climbing trips in the arctic (ANWR, Gates of the Arctic). Before the Arctic is gone, I hope to return to do another backpacking trip. Since my pack weighed in at ~90 lbs on my earlier trips, however, I plan to recruit one/more of my adult children to carry some of our common gear ;-)
Meanwhile, I still return to AK to visit family and friends. In my About page link that follows, I touch on my AK outdoor trips indirectly. In the near future, I plan to scan a bunch of my (vintage) 35mm AK backpacking/climbing slides and post them on my website. A retirement project.
Finally, I’ve been an IT guy since the dinosaurs roamed (see LinkedIn), so it looks like we also have that in common. And I’m also an introvert.
https://pnwphotowalks.com/more-about-mark-mcclure
– Mark
An add-on to my earlier post. Here is a comment I recently made about one of our public golf courses in Portland – https://www.flickr.com/photos/memcclure/49231229116/in/photolist-2hGL8Tm-2i1oVe7-2i1q5jk-SNQ83d-2hGL9n2-2ecTZT4-2hGMgZW-2ff666H
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the comments. Funny that this post is about tracking (or lack thereof) and your add-on was about tracks (of the railroad variety).
Anyway, I’m jealous of your ANWR experience. I drove the Dalton Highway a couple of times, but did not really have a lot of time to get far from the road. I’ve always had a desire to get back there for backpacking.