A major transition has begun. I have published my blog at a personal site since September of 2003. I was able to use www.blogger.com to publish to my own server. That will have to change as they are now going to pull FTP publishing. I guess I should be pleased for the years of free use. I do have a self contained collection of files that make up all those years of typing and picture taking. I am going to keep copies on removable media.
I did decide I want to continue adding to that collection of information. I checked into WordPress, popular software which allows publishing to a specific domain. It looked interesting and many people find it very useful. I could not however, bear the thought of loosing all the tags on my daily entries.
I decided to import the whole mess to the free Google-based servers at www.blogspot.com. It required picking from standard templates. At least going forward, I will be able to continue publishing. I am still a little scared of not being in control of my own data. What happens if they decide the pull the entire plug? I'd be stuck without a stand-alone copy of my blog on my own hard disc. Still, the fears may be unfounded.
It is going to take months to completely switch over to the new format. I have literally thousands of links which point to my own domain. That means even when visiting the new blog, a lot of clicks will end up bringing a visitor back to the old copy of my eJournal and images.