A Little History
DeanLand, the blog, began a good few years ago. The first incarnation was around 1999, using either Pita [1]
or Pyra, not sure which exactly. Actually, I think I used both at
one time or another. The user interface and what appeared to be a
more "for the geeks" sort of application warded me off, as I am an apps
guy, not a geek.
A little later on, still in 1999 or perhaps early 2000, I tried editthispage, an early Userland [2]
blogging site. That was more to my liking, although there wre
still a bunch of technogeek aspects that counfounded me. Toward
the end of the year 2000, just before the witching hour when all those
fears existed, that zillions of computers and programs and applications
would go boom at 00:00:01 on 1/1/2000, I began a Manila [3] blog. Manila [3]was another blogging application from Userland [2].
I rather liked Manila [3]. There was a significant user support [4], a newbie list [3] on which one could ask questions, a discussion group [5], and a pretty clear user manual available on line [6].
The more I used it the more I learned it, and beamce more and more
proficicent in posting, using graphics, and all sorts of other
areas. I actually felt as though I possessed some expertise, and
was able to wend my way across an app and also become somewhat expert
in the app. To this day I have helped others overcome Manila
usage problems. and even managed to provide ongoing tech support to a
few Manila users.
The real deal there is that I know a little more than they do, ergo, I
am an expert. As Einstein said, all things are relative.
Which may or may not explain why Einstein married his cousin. But
I digress.
The 2004 Debacle
A little over a year ago, after 4+ years of blogging on weblogs.com
(Userland had been providing weblog hosting for free at
http://weblogs.com [7]), there was this outage/shutdown/debacle/fiasco --
whatever one wants to call it -- and suddenly all but a scant few of
the 3000 blogs hosted at weblogs.com were no longer working. Shut
off, kaput, end of story.
We learned a great deal as time crawled by: Dave Winer [8],
was no longer a part of Userland. He'd parted ways with the new
management, retained a seat on the board, but was otherwise no longer
working at or with, or associated with the company. He had become
a Berkman Fellow at Harvard [9], and apparently in the process of leaving Userland, Dave had kept the http://weblogs.com [7] domain and the server hosting all those 3000 free Manila blogs.
Over the years in DeanLand and elsewhere I've written about and linked to [10]
Dave. I take credit for coining the title "the BlogFather" for
him. Dave was at the very forefront of what now might be
called the revolution in blogging; he invented/coded/scripted and
enabled many of the original blogging and blogware tools.
To shorten a very long story, weblogs.com went down in June of 2004,
Dave posted a note on the site saying he had no desire to run a hosting
service, that backups of the blogs would be available, and in
subsequent posts and notes (as the blogosphere went wild over the
outage) he promised to come up with a solution.
Meanwhile, having lost "my brand," that being DeanLand, the blog that
served as my spot on the web, where I opoined, ranted, commented,
observed, took note, or just wrote the equivalent of my own column or
essays -- I needed to do something, and do it pronto. My son and
one of his friends came to the rescue, quickly crafting a faux-blog page [11] for me, which had much if the look and feel of the Manila DeanLand blog that had been hosted on weblogs.com.
But I was accustomed to using Manila, to having an RSS feed, and to various features, bells, whistles and the like.
Over the period during which the weblogs.com firestorm raged I spoke
with numerous people, trying to come up with a solution. The new
management at Userland, with whom I'd not had prior contact, were
extremely supportive and helpful. Mark Fletcher at Bloglines [12] sent a full backup in response to my open request to get one on an ASAP basis.
Various bloggers were very generous in their comments about DeanLand,
that they missed it, and links to the faux-blog site were
numerous. Many of those links exist to this day.
The Debacle Dissipates
A number of hosts and blogware providers offered to restore the
weblogs.com sites, adn to provide or offer deals on hosting. Dave
Winer was attacked and blasted in many quarters, and a few different
and very public arguments were waged. I had some correspondence
with Dave during that time, and he asssured me a solution was on the
way. Meanwhile the firestorm raged until it died down some (as
its the case with most stories, fads, mania, et al). And then a
solution emerged.
Rogers to the rescue!
Dave
decided to go with Rogers Cadenhead. Rogers was familiar to me
from afar: I'd seen his input on UseNet lists, liked what seemed
to be politics in league with my own, and a guy who can write
well. Rogers was a published author, having written a few books on software and how to use
programs/apps, Userland's Radio (a blogging tool), among them.
One of the
major concerns over the course of the migration from weblogs.com to
Rogers' server, where he'd host the blogs under the aegis of
buzzword.com, was referrals. Would the old blog URLs, permalinks,
and associated stories, gems, pictures, et al, be referred over when
the change was made? Rogers, Dave, and Steve Kirks (yet another
wise and capable tech-savvy fellow, who assisted in the process)
announced that
referrals would be no problem.
Rogers announced that buzzword.com would offer hosting for free for a
few months, and then he'd offer a pricing plan. He promised to
keep a "back up your blog root yourself" tool open at all times, and to
help any of the hosted move elsewhere if they so chose. In other
words, Rogers, who announced that he wanted to see what it was like to
run a hosting service, promised to do the right thing and to be a
mensch about it.
Shortly thereafter Rogers announced that the hosting fees were no
longer an issue. Dave (via Scripting News), and Userland and
Rogers' own Workbench.com would take a sponsor position on the
Navigator bar on all the blogs. It was and is very low-key, and
Rogers, in keeping with his open approach, let it be known that any
blogger who so chose could remove those links from their blog, with no
ill response or evil result. And in doing so Rogers ensured that all the weblogs.com blogs would remain free.
Rogers has been a man of his word. He's maintained the server, learned
about hosting, and provided a free and valuable service to many for
over a year now.
I want to use this very public forum to thank Rogers Cadenhead.
He's a good man, a credit to the blogosphere, and he has a sense of
humor and he likes sports. Gee, maybe he should have run for
President instead of Kerry!