So, this is it. I'm leaving Facebook today, and cataloging how inevitably difficult Facebook is going to make it for me to leave.

I know many of you are rolling your eyes, but I roll mine right back at you! Many of you ask, "what do you have to hide?" "Since when did we become a surveillance society," is my reply. It doesn't matter whether I have something to hide or not. It should be my prerogative to share with the Internet what I wish to, not Facebook's. How is it that you trust Facebook so much? Would you not be upset if Hitler Bush or Obamao took your personal information without your permission and made opt-ing out extremely difficult?

This isn't for a me. I'm a child of the Internet. It's given me everything I have, quite literally. I started out on a 286/12 mhz machine with a 2400 baud modem, which I connected to various BBSes and ISP start-ups. I saw naked ladies that took an hour to see, put up my first online profile, chatted with strangers, and reverse-engineered technology. It was all done on my terms, though. Burgeoning Internet companies of that age either understood that, or did not have the technology to do anything more. User choice and control is what made the Internet what it is, and I'm not going to give that up. I'm not being a crazy Internet conservative - exactly the opposite. No company shepherded the Internet into what it has become. It's always been the people who USE the Internet. We made Myspace. We made Facebook. We made Twitter. Don't forget that. If we give the reins to our benevolent overseers, we'll only go where they want us to go.

So, here's my deal with Facebook.

I built this site in Drupal, an open-source content management system. On its own, it's nothing. But with a community behind it, helping each other, it can do just about anything. Facebook is a closed system. That's all well and good, and I can't say I haven't enjoyed my 5+ years as a member. I applauded the introduction of the application system that extended what Facebook could do. I loved Graffiti, I loved Scrabulous, and I ignored any applications I didn't like. Some of these applications tried to make money through dubious methods. Farmville has been known to give "farm points" or whatever the currency is in exchange for political collateral (votes). I don't have a problem with that. If the user is to stupid to recognize what they're doing, that's not my problem.

I think it's time to actually get the blog running!