Red's Ramblings v.2

I’m not referring to my own although you would be forgiven for thinking that I am such are the lack of posts. No, I’m referring to the blogs that are lovingly cared for on a commercial host where the owner has a met a fate most foul (or maybe just died) and has stopped paying the bills.

If you’re wondering why I bring up such a morbid question its not that I’ve just been delivered some news of impending health problems or other notice of doom. I just found out that the father of the author (Daniel Jalkut) of the software (MarsEdit) I use to blog passed away and, in a timely correspondence, a user brought up the subject of wanting to blog as much as he can for his son before he dies.

In my case I don’t suppose anyone will think to check my hosting payments and that within a nominal amount of time after the next payment became due the blog would cease to exist along with myself. With so much being published onto the internet on a daily basis its a fact of life that the scenario will be played out many times.

Of course there are free alternatives such as Blogspot and even social networking sites but while I don’t know anything of their retention policies nothing can be classed as permanent as Geocites users will tell you.

Maybe its a question for future digital archaeologists to answer as they pick through old backups and long forgotten caches.

In the meantime I offer Daniel my condolences.