What happens if blog services/platforms go bust?

I try to save as many posts in a word document now.

Lol:

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240180886/British-Library-archives-the-web

But seriously, web content is probably less perishable than paper, right?

In the long run, I guess there is more likely to be a carbon print of your posts out there somewhere, but I prefer writing on paper. It's tangible. I can touch it. And if it gets ruined I know it's probably my fault. Also I CAN get rid of it if I want to. With the internet I feel like there's always some kind of record of it, if you look hard enough. But I see what you mean. I never really thought that my blog I have now could potentially just be gone in 30 years. Makes me feel like I'm wasting my time! haha

WordPress lets you export your content in the form of an xml file.

That's really a text file with tags or markup. It's fairly easy to read or to convert. It's closely related to HTML.

If you're using your own install of WordPress, you can us ssh or PHPMyAdmin or MySQL itself to backup/export/download your database.

I started blogging in 2000. I've moved two of the blogs I started then from Blogger, Radio, MovableType to WordPress.

Posterous dies on April 30. I had a Tumblr blog that I moved to Posterous that I moved a couple of weeks ago to WordPress.

It was pretty simple; again, the xml files that pretty much all of the systems use are essentially text with tags.

If you have a way to export, use it.

If there isn't currently a way to convert your backup for other services, there will be when the announcement goes out that the service is ending. As long as the internet is around, there will be someone making conversion apps.

Your paper copy will have to be retyped. Your Word copy will have to be copy/pasted one post at a time. So though there's no harm in either, you want that official backup too. It'll save you time.

Wordpress technology is open source so the only way it will "go bust" is if everyone decides to stop using it. If the website Worpress.com shuts down, you will be able to move your blog to another site where you will be using the exact same technology and it will look exactly the same. The only difference will be that your site's URL will change.

The other popular blogging technologies are not open source. So if they shut down, you will have to set up a completely new blog somewhere else.

juniper said:

Is that the same for blogs that use wordpress templates but have their own domain (myname at .com) and those that use myname .wordpress at .com ?

Or just one of those setups?

Click to expand...

It's the same; it's all xml. It's liquid data. Just export, keep backups of your images/media and make backups of the database.

Medievalist and I are answering slightly different questions. She is answering "What will happen to my content, (the text that I wrote)?" I'm answering "What will happen to the blog itself, (the content and the blogging software together)?"

juniper said:

Is that the same for blogs that use wordpress templates but have their own domain (myname at .com) and those that use myname .wordpress at .com ?

Or just one of those setups?

Click to expand...

Here is how it works. If you sign up for a blog at Wordpress.com, then your content (the text you wrote) is sitting on Wordpress's servers. The blogging software is also sitting on Wordpress's servers. If you have a self-hosted site, then both your content and the Wordpress blogging software is on your own server.

In the event that Wordpress.com goes bust:

• If you have a self-hosted blog, you are not affected in any way. You have the Wordpress software on your own server and your content on your own server.
• If you're on Wordpress.com, your blog won't be hosted anymore, so you will have to move it to another server. Hopefully you backed up your content before they went down. Then you can move your content to another server that runs Wordpress software, which is no big deal.

The advantage of Wordpress is that since it's open source, anyone can run it on any server. This means that you will always be able to have a Wordpress blog. You will never have to try and import your content to another blogging software like Blogger.com unless you want to. The Wordpress software will always be out there free for you to use on any server you like.

In contrast, if your blog is on Blogger.com and they go down, you will have to import your content to some other blogging software, because only Blogger.com has the rights to their own software and no one else can run it.