(Yes, this and the previous post herald one of my typical flurry of posts. Deal with it.)
Like Aq., I too am frustrated with the recent outages of the Bloglines service. I’ve grown to rely on it, and when it is unavailable it is like a piece of me is missing (similar to, but obviously not as serious as, when my internet connection fails. <shudder />). I know these problems are uncontrollable, but I find them incredibly frustrating nonetheless.
So like Aq., I am now looking into the possibility of hosting my own (or possibly working with him, but duplication of effort is the foundation Open Source, Free Software and Linux are built on, and I do so hate to break tradition </sarcasm>). Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think I can do a better job than Bloglines, nor do I expect there to be less errors. In fact I expect there to be more, but they will be my errors that I* can (try to) fix. I’ve written in this vein before.
Having the right to make one’s own choices and of having the ability to act on them* is one of the definitions of empowerment, and this is some thing only Open Source and Free Software give us.
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I couldn’t agree more and it amazes me how many people will pour hours of time and effort into storing their creative works and essential services on someone else’s turf.
This isn’t geekery or snobbery or "just because we can"; there are solid technical and sociological reasons why people should take more care before deciding to outsource something they really care about.
Rick Moen probably put it best:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/winolj.html