Swinging a wrecking ball to end the year

After the year we’ve all had in 2020, who wouldn’t want to go out swinging a wrecking ball — even a virtual one?

I decided to spend the early morning hours of New Year’s Eve knocking down the internet accounts and properties that were no longer worth my time and money to maintain.

Almost a dozen long-held domain names are now being redirected to empty or nearly empty websites. Most of these domain names will lapse at the end of their current registration terms. The only domain names I’m keeping are this one (af7kq.net) and the one I maintain for my family’s e-mail.

Additionally, I deleted a number of social networking accounts, including Instagram, and I shut down my personal Fediverse instance. I also deleted my WordPress account, since I haven’t hosted a blog on the platform for almost a year.

Finally, I eliminated much of the internet infrastructure I’d accumulated over the past 15 years — shared hosting accounts, virtual private servers, and so forth. The only thing that remains is the small virtual private server hosting this site.

These changes simplify my life going forward, but they also save me a fair amount of money. It’s amazing how quickly a few dollars here and there can turn into such a large number of monthly and annual recurring expenses.

Here’s to a simpler, cheaper, and happier new year in 2021!