I live in rural Maine. I do what I can do, when it comes to the changeover. I am not opposed to the changeover. I managed to publish a test diary there--with my old OS and old laptop. I took me 90 minutes, and crashed my computer only two times--I took some advice and reconfigured some things. Before that, it wouldn't even load, though I still have to hit a diary to log in. Time: ten minutes.
OK, OK, this is not necessarily about that. I can't afford a better connection, though I have the newer computer to do it and I'm out of work (which is why I cannnot afford wireless right now) and just had to have major work done to my car. I am not, for instance, a great candidate for donating to a cause. I'm really not an important voice. I'm just getting ready to have to wait until I can afford the Daily Kos.
More over the fold
I'm just UID 158055. Two years, I'd guess. Lurked for a long time, and started my /snark reputation with my first, horrible diary on Christmas Eve, 2008. If you look at my very temporary sig line, you'll see that I am "up on" my DKos history.
I have written for: Brothers and Sisters, What's for Dinner (five times, by my count, in the last year) and have subbed for BiPM once for Cheers and Jeers and wrote for the Atheist Digest '10
I have a very little-read Wednesday diary series that comes out of my posts in Cheers and Jeers. And my sweetheart? I met him in C&J.
But I, see, am out of work. If I were not so fortunate to have an uncle who owned a condo he doesn't live in, I'd be homeless. Think about that. Were it not....I would be. And when the weather gets better, I'll go back to The Rock: an island off the coast of Maine where I crap in an outhouse and boil water on a coal stove for my bath.
The problem is that I'm about to be turned out of this community....not because they want to, but because folks in my position are few and far between. I don't have money to give. And I suspect that my voice is not that important. "A few people on old OS and dial-up? We have bigger problems!". Progressive, indeed, it is.
This Blog is my lifeline to the world. I have worked very hard to make beta, ie, the upcoming DK4 to work for me. It does, kind of. And Im hoping it works better after the changeover. But barring that, C&J, and any diary with lots of pictures? It will crash my system. And, being who I am, I'll probably spend three hours trying to figure it out only to crash my system again.
Those of us who cannot, or who have not, I think, are considered "well, what are they going to contribute to?". Because we don't have money, and we live in rural states. I know that's not what Kos is thinking, but let's face it: no one is designing a website from a ten year old laptop on dial-up. That doesn't mean those of us using them are "too bad, too sad".