Cool and Deactivated

Enjoying the office’s air-conditioning

Another hot summer week has come and gone. From people exhibiting their ugly flip-flop feet in the streets to the heat preventing me to game on my PC, this really isn’t my favourite season. We’ve almost watched five seasons of The Rookie in a few weeks and, while I really like Nathan Fillion, I could take a break from the LAPD and find back my life, which in normal times is absolutely great.

In other news, one of my Instagram accounts has been disabled. Not my main account, but a side one I was using to post World of Warcraft stuff. It’s not a great loss as there were only 5 posts but the way it happened confirms everything I always thought about social networks: you’re not controlling anything.

I woke up this morning to my account being deactivated with the possibility to appeal, which I directly did. After having provided many security codes and a video of my face tilting in every directions, I received a mail to tell me that, after review, my account was permanently disabled. My only way to get it back would be to go to court.

Apparently, the moderating AI identified my account as a bot and its decision is final, even after providing proofs that I’m a real human. I don’t really care since it was just an account to check other people’s World of Warcraft screenshots.

However, the way it happened makes me think that I shouldn’t put any effort in that platform anymore, since an account can be deleted without any form of appeal. Already being a social networks hater, this may be the final push to get me permanently disconnected.

So, starting today, instead of posting my pictures on my main Instagram account, I’ll post them here, as a blog post. Ultimately, after a few months, I’ll deactivate all my Instagram accounts and I’ll be entirely free from social networks. Long live blogging!

10 Years of Spacewocket

10 years ago, Soforah and I started Spacewocket but we’ve been blogging for much longer than that…

When we’ve met, 22 years ago, we started to write a blog called Darkheaven. However, after a few years, our enthusiasm for gothic culture faded. Since then, we’ve had all sorts of blogs but only Spacewocket lasted, probably because we’re very passionated about the main topics of the blog: playing WoW and watching horror movies.

10 years ago, we decided to move to Brussels to minimise the commute times. Despite our best efforts, we never managed to feel 100% in this place but Spacewocket was always there for us, our corner of the world.

So, here’s to a place on the internet, far from grey cities, electric scooters, autotune, hobos, drug addicts, alcohol, boring jobs, overheated summers, sunburns (don’t ask), soccer, sports on TV, politics, noisy neighbours, bad plumbing, contractors, internet dances, influencers, huge eyebrows, whitened teeth and photo filters. A place where people still believe that pizzas, video games and horror movies are the ingredients for a cool life.

Long live Spacewocket!