Mike runs theOnlinePhotographer blog. It's probably the longest running, best produced photography centric blog on the web. He recently got a message from Typepad which has hosted his site for well over a decade that they'd be closing their doors and he would have until September 30th 2025 to move to another host. Mike was in the middle of archiving the past content and getting ready for a complete re-design and re-launch of TheOnlinePhotographer elsewhere; under the gun (so to speak) but out of nowhere, yesterday, the existing site disappeared. I noticed it yesterday evening and thought it might be a short term thing so I checked back this morning and .... drat. Nope. Something to do with their servers...
Seems the rug got pulled out early.
I sent a quick note to MJ asking if he would like me to send a message to his readers who also read my blog. He agreed, and I think I'll offer up this site as a communications portal for him till MJ gets his blog back up and running.
Mike sez: He is in the middle of writing to all of his Patreon supporters and they should be hearing from him shortly. He is diligently pursuing options to get TOP up and running again as soon as possible!
Given that he's smart and resourceful and has plenty of dedicated supporters I think it's only a matter of time before we're again reading smart stuff about photography --- and anything else MJ is interested in.
Anytime MJ sends me an update or a message to pass on to you I'll headline that post with "TOP NEWS!!!"
Stuff happens that is sometimes beyond our control. Keep checking back and we'll keep you in the loop.
Send good thoughts and energy to Mike.
That is all for now.
9 comments:
Sorry to hear about Mike's situation. Let us know how we can help! R.A.
Good to hear! A bunch of supportive comments might help with MJ's stress in the moment. A kind comment always helps me... (damn ellipses...)
I saw that TOP was down last night as well. I was hoping that it was just a sign that migration had begun. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Thanks for stepping in, Kirk. Keep us up to date.
Poor Mike. I have learned a lot from his observations and notes over the years. This shows how fragile anything on the internet can be if the company that operates the data servers or storage decides to stop or sell out to someone else.
P.s., I recall that Mike really liked the classic Pentax M42 50mm f/1.4 lenses.
Thanks, Kirk, for allowing MJ to post important information via your site.
Several TOP followers noted in previous comments that they had successfully downloaded the contents of that site. Plus, the Internet Archive (archive.org) has copies. So there are multiple sources of archives which MJ can use to restore his site.
db
I feared the worst when I lost connection to the site. My complements to you for providing this communication capability at what is a super critical time for The Online Photographer and Mike Johnston. Mike has accumulated a lot of credits of all sorts in all sorts of places and am confident that The Online Photographer will survive this challenge.
I feel for Mike. Beyond the usual thoughts and prayers I think what Mike needs most right now to help alleviate his stress is money. Unless he finds an IT guy who will work pro bono this latest MJ adventure is going to cost him.
Eric
I'm a Patreon supporter of TOP so I had an email from Mike (much to my relief) about an hour ago to say that all Typepad blogs are offline, but it might well be because those bloggers are all trying to get their blogs copied and saved, and the Typepad servers are taking a pummelling.
That was at about 6pm BST; I'm in the UK.
Best wishes, Mike. I'm looking forward to seeing the spiffing new version of TOP.
I’m sure that there are a lot of supporters who’ve followed TOP since the start who wish Mike well. Let us know what we can do to help.
PhilipL
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