{"id":1396,"date":"2003-07-09T05:19:15","date_gmt":"2003-07-09T19:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/07\/09\/the-great-bit-bucket-in-the-sky\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:58:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T16:58:34","slug":"the-great-bit-bucket-in-the-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/07\/09\/the-great-bit-bucket-in-the-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"The great bit bucket in the sky"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:10807,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.userland.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14245,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.feedster.com\\\/cache.php?id=2876569&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20060323134542\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.feedster.com\\\/cache.php?id=2876569&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 19:15:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 19:15:12&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:9857,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.scripting.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260310182807\\\/http:\\\/\\\/scripting.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 22:28:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-07 09:41:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 08:51:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-11 08:51:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14246,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.rklau.com\\\/tins\\\/002261.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6231,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.typepad.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20251029160650\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.typepad.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 22:37:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 14:22:32&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-17 22:48:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 17:24:57&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-29 05:12:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-01 15:22:58&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-05 17:00:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-10 10:12:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-10 10:12:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2527,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.djwudi.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250925222118\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.djwudi.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-04 15:45:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 23:19:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 19:59:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 15:35:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-30 11:11:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-05 18:27:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 23:28:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-08 23:28:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7949,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.sixapart.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20150703234919\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.sixapart.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/movabletype.com&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 17:25:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 17:29:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 17:29:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:7289,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.movabletype.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260306004502\\\/https:\\\/\\\/movabletype.org\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-09 20:10:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-15 05:52:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-24 17:25:01&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 03:37:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 10:45:45&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-03 16:49:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-07 00:00:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-10 05:19:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-10 05:19:44&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14247,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/nslog.com\\\/archives\\\/2003\\\/07\\\/09\\\/blog_at_your_own_domain.php&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20060318101914\\\/http:\\\/\\\/nslog.com\\\/archives\\\/2003\\\/07\\\/09\\\/blog_at_your_own_domain.php&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 19:15:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-12 19:15:23&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t been following the story too closely, but there&#8217;s been a small amount of ruckus lately because the CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.userland.com\/\" title=\"Userland.com: Easy Content Management\">Userland Software<\/a>, John Robb, abruptly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedster.com\/cache.php?id=2876569\" title=\"Feedster cache of John's final post\">left the company<\/a>, and when he did, his entire weblog disappeared from the web.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody seems to be too sure just why his entire archive of posts disappeared. Did John take them down? Did <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scripting.com\/\" title=\"Scripting News\">Dave Winer<\/a> (founder of Userland)? Were they just deleted because they lived on Userland&#8217;s server, and as an ex-employee, John wasn&#8217;t allowed to use Userland&#8217;s hosting anymore? Lots of questions, as as yet, few answers.<\/p>\n<p>Rick Klau <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rklau.com\/tins\/002261.html\" title=\"Into the ether...\">is concerned about the situation<\/a> (rightly so), and ends his post with the following advice:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Final lesson from this situation: never, ever blog at a domain that&#8217;s not owned by you. Don&#8217;t blog on your employer&#8217;s site, don&#8217;t blog on your blogging application&#8217;s site &#8212; make sure your blog lives (and stays!) on your own domain.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This comes at an interesting time for me. Part of my motivation for applying for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.typepad.com\/\" title=\"TypePad\">TypePad<\/a> beta program was that, after running <a href=\"http:\/\/www.djwudi.com\/\" title=\"djwudi.com\">my website<\/a> off of my own server under my desk for years, I&#8217;m considering finally relinquishing that amount of control and moving to a hosted solution. Should I do so, I&#8217;d be doing exactly what Rick advises against, and, admittedly, there is a small amount of risk in that. Should <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sixapart.com\/\" title=\"Six Log\">Six Apart<\/a> (creators of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.movabletype.org\/\" title=\"MovableType\">MovableType<\/a> and TypePad) fold, my site and all of it&#8217;s pages could go up in smoke (for what it&#8217;s worth, I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a very high probability of that).<\/p>\n<p>However, it seems to me there&#8217;s a very simple solution to this, that, for me, outweighs any risk of my web-based life disappearing into the great bit bucket in the sky, and that&#8217;s simply this: back up your files. I know that MovableType has an export feature that allows you to save a local copy of every post on your weblog, and I would assume (though I don&#8217;t know) that the other blogging systems have a similar feature. It&#8217;s useful both as an importing mechanism when changing sites or weblogs, but it also makes a great backup mechanism. Ever since I suffered the loss of my last webserver, I&#8217;ve been making sure to export my site on a regular basis. If anything goes all aflooey (a technical term, to be sure), I&#8217;m covered.<\/p>\n<p>It may very well be that John has done just this, and, once he&#8217;s settled in at wherever he&#8217;s going, his entire website will reappear on the web at a new address. From the number of posts I&#8217;ve seen about his &#8216;disappearance&#8217;, I&#8217;d say that there are a fair amount of people hoping for that to be the case. Hopefully it&#8217;s not too long before we find out.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, then, I&#8217;d worry less about relinquishing control of your archives to an employer or to your blogging host company, than I would about making sure you have a current backup so that, should disaster strike, recovery is just a few clicks away.<\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/nslog.com\/archives\/2003\/07\/09\/blog_at_your_own_domain.php\" title=\"NSLog(); - Blog at your own domain\">Erik<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems to me there&#8217;s a very simple solution to this, that, for me, outweighs any risk of my web-based life disappearing into the great bit bucket in the sky, and that&#8217;s simply this: back up your files.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2040],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}