... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
... site owner pulls the plug on his personal server
Published on August 7, 2004 By mignuna In Internet
by stefanie olsen. staff writer, cnet news.com. Link



software developer dave winer disabled roughly 3,000 web logs from his former company this weekend, a move that drew sharp criticism from some people in the publishing community.

winer, a champion of blogging and the publishing format really simple syndication (rss), said in an interview that he had to move the web logs, or blogs, to his personal server from userland, a software company he founded in 1998 and left two years ago.

upon upon discovering the traffic load and time commitment involved in hosting the free sites, he chose to turn them off without notice. "it drove my server to its knees. i couldn't afford to do it," said winer, a fellow at the berkman center for internet & society at harvard law school.

"i'm a person, not a company."

the blogging community was atwitter about the move. people wrote blogs and posted lengthy comments to sites like slashdot that both came to the defense of winer and lambasted him for the abrupt dismissal.

"gratitude should be shown not just for the free hosting but also (winer's) efforts in developing rss and promoting blogging in general," wrote one blogger. "having said that, this could have been handled better."

userland began hosting the free weblogs.com sites in 2000. after a management change six months ago, userland set out to separate the commercial side of the business and noncommercial, including the rss format and weblogs.com.

last year, winer transferred the rss format to harvard, where it is available for use under a "creative commons" license, which frees it from commercial copyright claims. winer also agreed to migrate weblogs.com, a hub for recently updated blogs, and the 3,000 free sites to his server.

winer posted a brief explanation and audio comments to the old weblogs site this weekend. he said that he would honor any requests for copies of weblogs.com sites if they are made before july 1.

so far, winer says he's received 100 requests for copies. he estimated the number would double by july, considering a large number of inactive blogs in the pool




Comments
on Aug 07, 2004
FYI, that story dates from mid-June.
on Aug 07, 2004
FYI, that story dates from mid-June


you're such a fund of information, citahellion. you know, sometimes i think i'd be lost in blogging la-la land without your reason. (sometimes i am anyway ?).

needless to say, the filtering of 'minor' news to australian sources is kind of slow. i admit that i usually 'collect' my news input from the radio oh, (the shame. how very low-tech of me), and this was reported as 'news' here.

i had to search the net to get any reference on it, and the australian news search engines had no reference at all. after a hunt i found this article and thought it was a good talking point (heh. i'm always doing boring stuff like that. i'm soooo exciting).

thanks again for your comment

vanessa XXX
on Aug 08, 2004
Well, I read slashdot pretty regularly and it got a mention on the front page there. What can I say, I'm just well-informed.

Still, it does go to show that if you're posting stuff in your blog that you want to make sure is preserved, MAKE COPIES. Don't rely on the web site to be there forever.
on Aug 08, 2004
Well, I read slashdot pretty regularly and it got a mention on the front page there. What can I say, I'm just well-informed.


so am i (thanks to you hehe)

Still, it does go to show that if you're posting stuff in your blog that you want to make sure is preserved, MAKE COPIES. Don't rely on the web site to be there forever.


true. not that i think this could happen to ju, but it does go to show that the internet can be an even more 'temporary' place than we think.

vanessa XXX
on Aug 08, 2004
I think i could do with having some of the inange garbage i have posted wiped out of existance.
on Aug 08, 2004
I think i could do with having some of the inange garbage i have posted wiped out of existance


stePHen, what a naughty thing to say !. your 'comicstore cowboy' rocks. as do you. i will have no more of this talk !

vanessa XXX
on Aug 08, 2004
There is a new one that is in the idea stage right now...a collaberation with jesse's eldest brother, adam.
on Aug 08, 2004
There is a new one that is in the idea stage right now...a collaberation with jesse's eldest brother, adam.


i am very pleased to hear that, steve. there are a few more comic fans here on ju, you know. i have seen some really good stuff on spidey lately !. long live the comic store cowboy !

vanessa XX