I have never seen the point in completing the About This Blog page. But circumstances have taught me that personal hopes and intentions are important. I have also learned that it’s important to share what’s going on behind the scenes, for me personally and for anyone else who gets it into their head to write a blog. This is the beginning of that effort.
My first domain, https://hammy64000.com was purchased in 2010 after I was blocked on Wikipedia. I have already explained on that website how Wikipedia influenced my decision to start a blog. Now I would like to explain how this blog came to be.
This Was Supposed to Replace My Other Website
The domain where I’m writing this About page was purchased in November 2023 because I was having trouble with my other website. I had asked my hosting company (Company 1) to build a new website for the hammy64000 domain. But not long after it went live I became concerned about its functionality. The technical assistance line was no help at all, so in late 2023 or early 2024 I redirected hammy64000.com to this website, 21stcenturyprogressivism.com.
The Disappearing Redirect
I tested this redirect several times to make sure it was working, and everything was fine for a while. It wasn’t until after the 2024 election that I realized it had stopped working. Not only was it not redirecting here, it was redirecting to another of my domains parked at Company 3, which I have never used. When I inquired about this, Company 1 said they had no record of the redirect. I still have not received an explanation.
In the meantime, I typed in the url for the parked domain and I was able to see my entire hammy64000.com website. My articles had not been updated while it was there because all of my new articles were appearing here on this domain and there was no redirect to the new material.
Too Many Owners?
Of course I had not moved my website or given permission for it to be moved. Then I remembered certain plugins that the design team of Company 1 set up on the new hammy64000.com website. I also remembered that the design team was still on my users list with its own email address.
Company 1 is aware of my complaints. But the functionality issue was the only thing that was ever explained to me. I was eventually told that the new plugins have licenses that have to be renewed every year. Considering all the phone calls I made to fix the problem, it’s strange that the technical assistance line never explained this to me. This may have been unintentional, but the lack of explanations makes it difficult to give them the benefit of the doubt. Then, while I was trying to straighten everything out my website address went back to hammy64000.com, apparently on its own.
Today both of my domains are here at Company 2. But during the time when my main blog was at Company 1, and after the redirect was changed, readers of hammy64000.com had no way of finding the posts leading up to the 2024 election. They were on this website. I’ll never know if those posts would have made a difference in the election.
Now that I have two websites I’m in the process of trying to differentiate them from each other. So far I have decided to place the more political articles here. However, when this site was my only active site I transferred articles here from hammy64000.com. I’m still in the process of reorganizing.
Why Write an About Page? The World is Changing and Personal Details are Now Part of the Conversation.
Providing this much personal information about a blog might seem unnecessary. At least I always thought it was unnecessary. But I’m including it now because it seems that the interference I have experienced has a pattern of some kind. Wikipedia was probably the first hint of trouble, or it should have been the first hint. But I didn’t suspect anything back then.
The other reason I haven’t shared this information previously is that I prefer to focus on the categories that I write about here. I’m sharing it now because something has changed in the world. The general violence and specific threats aimed at nationalities, groups and individuals should cause us to reassess everything we see.