Writing: In preparation for Blogger possibly going away

[PerditaPickle]

Hi all,

Google Podcasts is going away, and a while back they took away something which didn't impact me, Google+ I think.  So, in preparation for Blogger potentially going away in the future, too, I'm looking for ideas where I could put my blog if this does happen.

The thing I liked about Blogger is that it was really simple, and although it's a bit weird to use without odd things happening to layout and such, it didn't take me anything to get started and get the hang of it.  I recall looking at WordPress and having absolutely NO idea where to even start.

So suggestions for a technophobe's blog would be most gratefully received.  Finances being what they are, I'll need a free option, as I cannot afford to pay for anything.

[atr]

Hi all,

Google Podcasts is going away, and a while back they took away something which didn't impact me, Google+ I think.  So, in preparation for Blogger potentially going away in the future, too, I'm looking for ideas where I could put my blog if this does happen.

The thing I liked about Blogger is that it was really simple, and although it's a bit weird to use without odd things happening to layout and such, it didn't take me anything to get started and get the hang of it.  I recall looking at WordPress and having absolutely NO idea where to even start.

So suggestions for a technophobe's blog would be most gratefully received.  Finances being what they are, I'll need a free option, as I cannot afford to pay for anything.

Ooof, that's a tough one. Most of the big old school blogging websites are gone.

Medium might work for you but they are slowly but surely working their way towards becoming a paid service (for both bloggers and readers, ugghh).

Tumblr still exists and can be used as a blog, but whether or not it'll be around for too much longer is questionable. They also have a history of changing rules whenever a new owner takes over, and the culture is... Not my thing.

Wix has a free tier for blogging, but there's really no telling how long that will stick around.

I understand that money is tight, but honestly your best bet would be to get a cheap domain for a couple dollars a year (like .xyz) and use a cheap WordPress webhost. Newer versions of WordPress are easier to use than older versions, and you can import your blogger blog in to it with a plugin (an option that I don't think other blog sites have).

I know that's not really an answer that you're looking for, but I really want to emphasize that options are way more limited these days because social media basically killed the old school blog.

Blogger is an outlier in that it's still around and still functional - I'm honestly surprised it's managed to survive this long, and being a Google product, IMO you're right to be concerned about long term support.

[atr]

Ooof, that's a tough one. Most of the big old school blogging websites are gone.

Medium might work for you but they are slowly but surely working their way towards becoming a paid service (for both bloggers and readers, ugghh).

Tumblr still exists and can be used as a blog, but whether or not it'll be around for too much longer is questionable. They also have a history of changing rules whenever a new owner takes over, and the culture is... Not my thing.

Wix has a free tier for blogging, but there's really no telling how long that will stick around.

I understand that money is tight, but honestly your best bet would be to get a cheap domain for a couple dollars a year (like .xyz) and use a cheap WordPress webhost. Newer versions of WordPress are easier to use than older versions, and you can import your blogger blog in to it with a plugin (an option that I don't think other blog sites have).

I know that's not really an answer that you're looking for, but I really want to emphasize that options are way more limited these days because social media basically killed the old school blog.

Blogger is an outlier in that it's still around and still functional - I'm honestly surprised it's managed to survive this long, and being a Google product, IMO you're right to be concerned about long term support.

Replying to myself as I can't edit the other post anymore

After a bit of research and googling, it turns out that LiveJournal has an unofficial successor at https://www.dreamwidth.org. They might be worth looking in to, though I don't know if they will allow you to import your old blog.

[SunflowerP]

After a bit of research and googling, it turns out that LiveJournal has an unofficial successor at https://www.dreamwidth.org. They might be worth looking in to, though I don't know if they will allow you to import your old blog.

(Hanging this from Alex's reply, but mainly addressing Perdita)

I was going to recommend Dreamwidth! It's where I've done my blogging (or failed to get around to doing it ) for years. Free is, and will always be, an option, and since 'provide a journalling platform' is what Dreamwidth Studios does, you don't have to worry about them deciding to phase it out.

I don't think DW has tools for easy/automatic importation of content from sites that aren't based on a clone/fork of LJ, but in the other sense of 'allow', there's no reason you can't move your content over by copypasting one entry at a time, and it'd be fairly easy to do (though any comments on your entries would be pretty close to impossible to copy sensically) - more tedious than difficult.

Sunflower

[Jack]

I was going to recommend Dreamwidth! It's where I've done my blogging (or failed to get around to doing it ) for years. Free is, and will always be, an option, and since 'provide a journalling platform' is what Dreamwidth Studios does, you don't have to worry about them deciding to phase it out.

Dreamwidth is where my blog lives as well, and I'd also recommend it. It's pretty simple as far as I can tell, and there are guides for new people if you're interested in any of the social aspects. If you're not, you can just post entries and that works great too.

[Castus]

Hi all,

Google Podcasts is going away, and a while back they took away something which didn't impact me, Google+ I think.  So, in preparation for Blogger potentially going away in the future, too, I'm looking for ideas where I could put my blog if this does happen.

The thing I liked about Blogger is that it was really simple, and although it's a bit weird to use without odd things happening to layout and such, it didn't take me anything to get started and get the hang of it.  I recall looking at WordPress and having absolutely NO idea where to even start.

So suggestions for a technophobe's blog would be most gratefully received.  Finances being what they are, I'll need a free option, as I cannot afford to pay for anything.

Personally, I use Tumblr. It can be a little hard to adapt to, but after awhile it gets intuitive enough. It’s simple enough to use with little trouble and most importantly they have a bustling pagan community. YMMV if that’s worth it tho; depends largely on what you blog about. Anyway, I’d consider it if I were you.

[PerditaPickle]

Personally, I use Tumblr. It can be a little hard to adapt to, but after awhile it gets intuitive enough. It’s simple enough to use with little trouble and most importantly they have a bustling pagan community. YMMV if that’s worth it tho; depends largely on what you blog about. Anyway, I’d consider it if I were you.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'm afraid I absolutely cannot with Tumblr, so -having had another brief look again at WordPress- I've opted for DreamWidth and have even created a profile & copy-pasted my original blog post #1 across.

As you say, Sunf, tedious.  And it's also taking a bit of getting used to.  But at present I haven't got a 'deadline' for this (I don't even know on what date Google Podcasts is going away, yet -- I really should go put a bunch of alternatives for that in my browser favourites, first...)

[PerditaPickle]

I've opted for DreamWidth and have even created a profile & copy-pasted my original blog post #1 across.

Ha!  I've completely coincidentally selected the exact same typeface for my posts that one of the admins is using to post in DW_Maintenance.  This amused me.  I feel as though Sefiru could potentially feel me on this!   

[Kylara]

Hi all,

Google Podcasts is going away, and a while back they took away something which didn't impact me, Google+ I think.  So, in preparation for Blogger potentially going away in the future, too, I'm looking for ideas where I could put my blog if this does happen.

The thing I liked about Blogger is that it was really simple, and although it's a bit weird to use without odd things happening to layout and such, it didn't take me anything to get started and get the hang of it.  I recall looking at WordPress and having absolutely NO idea where to even start.

So suggestions for a technophobe's blog would be most gratefully received.  Finances being what they are, I'll need a free option, as I cannot afford to pay for anything.

Blogger is going away???  ugh, I have like a decade of blogs there...does anyone know if there is an easy way to export/save old blog posts (part of the reason I've never swapped out of blogger, not wanting to loose old posts)

[PerditaPickle]

Blogger is going away???  ugh, I have like a decade of blogs there...does anyone know if there is an easy way to export/save old blog posts (part of the reason I've never swapped out of blogger, not wanting to loose old posts)

I don't know that it's going away -- I'm just anticipating it might do at some stage, because they're taking away Google Podcasts soon.


[Edit to fix typo]

[PerditaPickle]

Blogger is going away???  ugh, I have like a decade of blogs there...does anyone know if there is an easy way to export/save old blog posts (part of the reason I've never swapped out of blogger, not wanting to loose old posts)

Just quoting Alex's suggestion for you, Kylara, as you might want to keep this in your back pocket in case Google do decide to get rid of Blogger:

I understand that money is tight, but honestly your best bet would be to get a cheap domain for a couple dollars a year (like .xyz) and use a cheap WordPress webhost. Newer versions of WordPress are easier to use than older versions, and you can import your blogger blog in to it with a plugin (an option that I don't think other blog sites have).

(They'd have to leave the archive of people's historic posts up, though, wouldn't they?)

[SunflowerP]

(They'd have to leave the archive of people's historic posts up, though, wouldn't they?)

From our perspective, they ought to have to, but in the real world, nope. There's nothing, even, to oblige them to allow enough time between announcing an end,, and causing the whole thing to vanish, to allow people to make copies of their content. (Back in the day, an awful lot of Geocities users expected to have quite a bit more time than they did have - hence the proliferation of 'we're trying to reconstruct as much of it as we can get at' sites/services immediately following Geocities' demise. And ISTR that AOL Hometown evaporated out from under its users with even less notice; possibly none at all - I'm quite certain I remember some provider of personal websites vanishing without notice.)

On the flip side, there's a fairly easy way for people to act on their own to preserve an archive of their site/blog/etc, though not their editorial access: let the Wayback Machine crawl it. That might be more than technologically-challenged you can deal with, but AIUI, it doesn't require a tech whiz either.

Sunflower

[SunflowerP]

I've opted for DreamWidth and have even created a profile & copy-pasted my original blog post #1 across.

Please feel free to add me to your Circle if you wish; you can do so via the link in my signature. (Or not, if you prefer not to.) There are quite a few Cauldronites on DW, though not all under their TC usernames.

Sunflower

[Sefiru]

Ha!  I've completely coincidentally selected the exact same typeface for my posts that one of the admins is using to post in DW_Maintenance.  This amused me.  I feel as though Sefiru could potentially feel me on this!   

I was initially confused because I'm not on Dreamwidth, but discovering a font buddy *is* the sort of thing that would amuse me