On Tuesday, it will be a year ago that AOL gave us a month's notice to quit our journals before they would be deleted. The following 4 weeks were a mad scramble to move our blogs to another platform, mostly this one (Blogger). Many have since left blogging, either for Facebook / Twitter or altogether. AOL, well, they could at least have left the journals on their servers, even if we would not have been able to update them anymore. What galled me most was the cynical request for me to write a guest editor's post on September 25th, knowing (for 2 months) that five days later, the plug would be pulled. And the lack of cooperation from AOL Journals staff, who had not prepared anything, in spite of the 2 months' notice they had themselves.
On 1 October, I commenced a new blog, called Atlantic Lines. It became my main blog at the end of October, when its predecessor Northern Trip was deleted. Like for so many, NT had been a constant companion for years, three years in my case. I managed to transfer it to Blogger, and is now archived there. I set it up on 28 September 2004, when I was staying in Kirkwall, Orkney. I started using it as an internet diary ten days later, by which time I had transferred to the Isle of Skye, more specifically the village of Kyleakin (pronounce: ky-lakkin).
As a memory, I'll post a few entries from five years ago and add a map to show the places I'm talking about.
ah....how well I remember that 'mad scramble'! Hard to believe it's already been a year!
ReplyDeleteDespite the crappy way the plug was pulled on AOL Journal users, the positive thing I carried away from the AOL journal experience was the tightly knit and supportive community that flourished there.
It was a wonderful way to be introduced to blogging(and to meet great folks like you:)
Yeah, it pretty much sucked the way AOL let us down. I was way ahead of most people, since I had been on Blogger for a couple of years already. Still, I hated what it was doing to our community.
ReplyDeleteIt really was a sad day that AOL pulled the plug. Although I have at last returned to blogging it really is not the same...somehow the AOL bloggers seemed to be more like "family" although glad to say I have found a few more friends that use blogspot...It is always good to see your news pop up each and every day Thank you for remaining so faithful, through your ups and downs as well.
ReplyDeleteLove Sybil
It seems strange that it's been almost a year. In alot of ways it doesn't feel like it. Blogger does offer up more for me here than AOL did. Still there is that missing community experience it's not quite the same. (Hugs)Indigo
ReplyDeleteBlogger is definetally different than our experience in J-Land. But I am feeling hopeful these days that those of us who remain from then will stay in touch. I do like the fact that we have more options over here at Blogger. Each spot is unique.
ReplyDeleteI hate what AOL did to us & our JLAND community. I thought I had made a lot of journal friends. Well, in the past year I have learned who my true friend are LOL. Only a couple of people hung in there with me. That's OK. I don't write a lot. I don't feel at home here on Blogger. I feel like the whole Internet can peek in on my blog-unless I make it private. I just think Private journals are like- a clique. Anyway. I'm glad you'll be sharing some of your entries & glad you did not jump ship also.
ReplyDeleteBarb, where it was almost 100 degrees today & will be 70 degrees tomorrow. LOL