What is the longest you have been with an online service? I just realised I had passed twenty years with last.fm. This service logs the music you listen. That requires either a music app/service that includes that option or a plugin/extension. I was introduced to it by a work colleague back when it was called Audioscrobbler and I have used it ever since across various devices. I have their app on my phone that mostly picks up the podcasts I listen to, so they get logged too. On my Linux PC the Rhythmbox music player works with it and I have a browser extension that logs music played in Spotify, Youtube and some other sites. I used to listen to music all day at work, but tend not to do that in the current office, so I may not clock up as many 'scrobbles' now. I have still averaged around 6000 per year.
I was wondering what else I have used for a long time. We all know that online services can disappear. Google are guilty of killing many (Google+, Reader, Listen....), but Gmail has endured. I think I joined that in around 2005. It was quite radical compared to other webmail options and I still use it in addition to my own server. I have had my own web domain since around 2002. The web side of that is not doing much these days. I ran various types of blog on it, but Hive has replaced that aspect and so I just use the email part now.
I do have archives of some previous blogs, but I may not bother putting those online. I do not think the internet is desperate to read about what I was doing twenty years ago.
I joined this blockchain a few months after it started in 2016 and have been active most days since then. Just before that I used a thing called Tsu that paid users based on the advertising revenue. Their investors pulled out, so that was another dead platform. Hive should keep going as long as we have active witnesses, so I would hope it has a bright future.
We ought to think about our digital legacy. I usually think carefully about what I put online. I have not posted personal details of my family and friends to preserve their privacy. What you post can come back to haunt you as various celebrities and politicians have found out. Even if a platform gets taken down do not assume that the data is not still out there.
I joined Twitter in 2008. You will notice I use the same user name as on Hive and I have had that on lots of other platforms. I was fairly active there, but never had a massive following. For a while we had an alternative in identi.ca, but that got shut down. Mastodon is a similar thing and I use that in preference to Musk's site as I feel he is spoiling it. I prefer decentralised platforms anyway.
I am less inclined to join every shiny new platform these days as I just do not have the time. I have an inactive account on Instagram, but do not use Tiktok or much else. Hive is my main focus.
Another fairly long term account is on Soundcloud that I have used to share music and podcasts. We used to have something like that on our blockchain (@dsound), but it has been gone for a while. It is not viable to store audio or video on the blockchain, so we need alternatives such as IPFS for that.
I am pragmatic about what services I use. Often it is about staying in touch with people. I have been on Facebook for a long time, but do not post much there. It is mainly to be in a couple of communities. I just realised that I have not used Skype in years. That used to be a big thing for a lot of us. Zoom has replaced it for some things.
I could possibly find even older online contributions from me as I was active on bulletin boards before I used the internet and some of those may be archived. I think it is impressive enough that I have been using some services continuously for so long.
Live long and prosper.
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