Weblogs.com Authors Gain Reprieve

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After facing a virtual mob of outraged Webloggers following his abrupt shutdown of the weblogs.com service, Dave Winer says he has a transition plan for former users of the free Weblog site.

In an online posting Thursday, Winer said the weblogs.com sites will be transferred to a new domain, buzzword.com, which will be run by author Rogers Cadenhead. The sites will be hosted for free until mid-September, in what Winer calls a “90-day free evaluation period.”

After that “breathing room,” Winer said, customers can choose to continue with the buzzword.com service or pick an alternative. Several Manila-based services are preparing special offers, and members of the WordPress project are working on some translation process for the Manila-based sites, he added.

Winer said the new service could begin Friday or Monday. Redirection from the older weblogs.com domain would follow next week.

Winer had previously said he would export the content of weblogs.com and send the content to its users. But he admitted Thursday that compatibility with other common Weblog formats could present problems for authors. It is “possible, but not as easy, to convert your Manila site to other content management systems,” he said.

/zimages/6/28571.gifFor one bloggers take on the shutdown, check out eWEEK.com Senior Editor Sean Gallaghers Weblog.

Many weblogs.com users decried the sites sudden demise and expressed concerns about their content. Winer said Thursday that backups are stored in several locations as well as at the new buzzwords.com location. “So, theres no chance, barring an Act of God, that you will not shortly have a copy of your Web site on your local system,” he remarked in his message.

/zimages/6/28571.gifClick here to read more about the weblogs.com shutdown.

One of the first Weblog sites, weblogs.com offered free hosting until earlier this week. The site was first hosted on UserLand Software servers, but following a management change, the site was moved to one of Winers own servers. But Winer said personal problems caused him to end support for the service.

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