Myknet is on WordPress now. This news will not make it into international headlines. If you don’t belong to rural and remote First Nations of Ontario you are not on myknet.org, and probably never ever heard about this free hosting service for aboriginal peoples of Canada.
I got to know about it two years ago from the Austrian anthropologist Philipp Budka, and since then was surfing it regularly.
Myknet users had a primitive content management system at their disposal, which made them create pages that were structurally mimicking contemporary social networks, but aesthetically were classic 1990’s home pages. I made notes and screenshots, but hesitated to make links or to tweet about them, and was generally not sure how to deal with content that is formally public, but obviously very private. Myknet users don’t consider that some outsider would crawl from profile to profile.
I was also aware that one day I would type this URL, and nothing would be there. Myknet can’t compete with Facebook, WhatsApp and alike, its users were long torn between posting here and posting there. But I didn’t expect that it could move to WordPress. Was shocked, this decision appeared to me more cruel than a total shutdown.
Myknet users are also not particularly excited…
“Good morning! Thought I’d give this a try! See how it looks and how it works. So is this like FB or what? Cause I don’t need or want unnecessary skeletons, Don’t scare me eh…. jk. BBL!”
“The changes don’t just impact the presentation of the webpage but the purpose for it also. After having a Knet homepage for more than 10 years, I am questioning whether or not to continue updating. I set this page up because I was asked to do so by people who wanted a way to stay in touch, but I am not sure if the new format will serve that purpose.”
“heh & I’m still not use to myknet! -_-..where did my shit go? lol..just shut down myknet already..not like everyone use to update everyday or few days now..facebook took over. that’s where the party is at now jk.”
“This is cool, but I’m feeling lost at the moment. I got to get re-acquainted with my new myknet.org!!”
“I think people are going to have to get used to the new format before it picks up. There is a small learning curve and it reminds me of an email account in the way it’s set up.”
“Okay so this is different, not very different from blogger though. I got the idea of it. A lot of playing around with it. I’ll get it in no time! I have a quick learning skill! :) Anyways, just thought I would give it a try. I wasn’t expecting this big of change when myknet said it would change. I honestly don’t like it. It doesn’t help with my creativity! Yup’ well I will get used to it, just takes time.♥”
… but willing to give the new system a try, there are already some redesigns, and the #FFFFFF background color is getting removed here and there. And I’d say the way data Services Architect Jesse Fiddle explains the move is very reasonable and respectful:
“We disabled the ftp access and server user accounts. There was too much hacking on the old server. The whole upgrade was done in response to the server being hacked. The php and server software were out of date and didn’t work on many of the new browsers. Rather than manually rewriting and updating all the custom php built softare, I went with using the WordPress software which provided the same functionality and even more features.”
But, WordPress is WordPress
