(NOTE: I also published this on my rarely-used Blogger account, because Typepad is offline for me, as described below. I waited 10 minutes to see if my HinesSight blog on Typepad would open, but it never did.)
I was one of the first people to start blogging with Typepad, way back in 2003 or 2004. Definitely 2004, but I sort of remember using a different blogging service in 2003, and that I copied those first posts into my HinesSight blog on Typepad when I switched to it.
Now I'm super-frustrated with Typepad for the first time in those 19 or 18 years. Until now Typepad has been quite reliable. There have been brief outages when it was offline, none lasting more than half a day or so to my best recollection.
However, at the moment Typepad has been offline for all practical purposes for three freaking days. With no end in sight. By "all practical purposes," I mean that I just timed how long it took this HinesSight blog to load incompletely. (The title and right sidebar aren't showing up at all.)
Answer: 3 minutes and 45 seconds. If this wasn't my blog, I would have given up after just 30 seconds or less, since I would have figured that the blog had been deleted or wasn't available. No wonder that my page views have taken a big tumble.
This debacle started with an innocent sounding October 19 message on Everything Typepad, the blog Typepad uses to communicate with its customers.
On October 22nd, Typepad is going to be migrating data to a new data center. At the time of migration, we will have approximately a four-hour maintenance window starting at 12:30AM United States Eastern Time. During this time, your blogs and photo albums will not be available online, but you will still be able to access your Typepad account.
Typepad support will be available during the maintenance period to answer any questions, and we will be posting updates to Twitter - https://twitter.com/typepad - and on Everything Typepad - https://everything.typepad.com.
Note that Typepad staff don't update their customers via email, just via Twitter and Everything Typepad. Downside of that is most people don't use Twitter (I do), and the Everything Typepad blog is only accessible if Typepad is functioning, which it hasn't been all the time lately.
On October 22 an optimistic Everything Typepad blog post appeared.
Typepad's planned migration has successfully been completed. We appreciate everyone's patience during the maintenance window. If you feel you may be encountering an issue related to the migration, please reach out to us by opening a ticket within your Typepad account at Help > New Ticket.
For problems accessing your Typepad account, you can email support@typepad.com or use the form here.
Again, note that the support email address, support@typepad.com, obviously only works if Typepad.com is operating. Which, soon it wouldn't. Because...
On October 28 this Everything Typepad blog post appeared.
Typepad will be conducting further maintenance this coming weekend to address lingering issues as part of the continued migration to the new data center. During a window from 9:30 pm U.S. Eastern Time on Saturday, October 29 (01:30 UTC on Sunday, October 30) to 9:30 am U.S. Eastern Time on Sunday, October 30 (13:30 UTC on Sunday, October 30), there may be periods where Typepad blogs are down. The Typepad Support team will be monitoring throughout the maintenance period and will post updates on Twitter at https://twitter.com/typepad and here on Everything Typepad.
OK, that didn't sound too horrible: a 12 hour window from 9 pm on Saturday, October 29 to 9 am on Sunday, October 30 when there could be periods that Typepad blogs were down.
Problem is, that 12 hour window has become a 72 hour window, with no end in sight, since it's now 9 pm on Tuesday (PDT) and I'm gambling that I'll be able to publish this blog post, and that other people will be able to read it.
Typepad hasn't updated their Everything Typepad blog since October 28, so I have no idea what, exactly, went wrong with the migration to the new data center. All I know is that based on many Twitter comments, lots of bloggers in addition to me are deeply irritated on how this mess has been handled.
Late on Sunday, Typepad tweeted that the migration had failed and it was being undone.
So that's the sad tale as it stands now. Typepad's Twitter person is doing the best they can, but it seems like they're handicapped by not getting reliable information from the technical engineering staff, or they're not allowed to communicate what is really going on, or nobody on Typepad has a clue about where to go from here.
Either way, it's a tough situation all around.
On my end, this episode has shown me that while at times I toy with the idea of giving up writing a post for one of my three blogs every day, now that I haven't been able to do that, I realize how much I miss it. That's why I'm taking a gamble on writing and publishing this post, even though I'm unsure how many people will be able to read it, given Typepad's problems.
Maybe you're wondering why I don't move to another blogging service. Here's the reason.
In my 19 years of blogging I've written 7,403 blog posts that have gotten 82,093 comments. Yeah, I'm addicted to blogging. When I started, I never thought about using my own domain name/URL. So all of those posts are attached to a Typepad domain name/URL.
Even if I could copy all those posts and comments into a new blogging platform, Google would have the posts under the Typepad URL. So I'd lose 19 years of Google indexing, which I find extremely valuable, since Googling my own blogs usually is the only way I can find what I've written on some subject.
So I'm tied to Typepad, even as it frustrates me big-time with the botched migration to a new data center. I just hope things get back to normal with Typepad soon.
The good news is, I feel better tonight having written this post. Which is why I love to blog: it's therapy for me, getting what's inside of me outside, where I can deal with it better.
