2024-09-18

Thoughts on single proprietor blog services and what if…

A couple years ago I got a new client who wanted a website. One of the last things he asked in our initial meeting was simple and direct: “Not to be morbid but what happens to my site if something happens to you?” I suddenly felt embarrassed because I had never properly considered this and I should have had an immediate answer for him. I thanked him for raising the issue and after our meeting I sent in a support ticket to my host and asked them for a recommended process. I followed up with this new client and my other clients who’s web hosting I manage with an email explaining what they would need to do to claim ownership and control of their domains and websites in the event of my untimely demise.

I really should have thought of it. Granted, I only have 8 or so such clients but 1 or 8, they need to know what to do in that situation. A couple years ago when I moved my site to micro.blog it was on my mind to ask Manton if he had a plan for his users should something happen. Let’s face it, we all die. Sometimes we die unexpectedly in accidents. Or, we might become otherwise incapacitated. That’s reality. And there are, to my knowledge at least 5 blog services that, from the outside, seem to be run as sole proprietor businesses: Micro.blog, Bearblog.dev, Scibbles.page, blot and omg.lol. These are just the ones I’m aware of.

These are services designed, each in their own way, to make blog hosting hassle free, friendly and easy. No doubt, some of their users are technically advanced enough to think about back-ups. Manton’s Micro.blog service offers numerous ways to export or back-up websites.

• Export in WordPress format (.wxr)
• Download in blog archive format (.bar)
• Export new archive (.bar) — a single file with posts and uploads
• Export theme and Markdown (.zip) — to use in Hugo
• Export HTML and uploads (.zip) — your blog as static files

Those are options for exporting from the website and there is also an option in the Mac app to download and save a local archive of posts and media uploads. Each of the different options slightly different. The various options work well but they assume that users are thinking of this and that users would know what to do with the these backups. It’s one thing to know one can export a blog/website, it’s another thing to actually know where one can take that back-up to publish it on the web again. Plenty of nerd-folk would have no problem. But there are many that would not have a clue.

I imagine the easiest is the WordPress export but I have no idea of the results of an import into a WordPress site as I’ve not tried it. The others, I assume, are for importing into Hugo-based blogs as that is what Micro.blog is based on. Perhaps other hosts have different methods for importing these kinds of archive formats.

Then there is the question of users' domains. Mine is leased (we never really purchase a domain) from my original web host and I manage it from there. But some folks pay for and manage directly from micro.blog. What if?

My point in all of this is that I’m guessing that at least these sole proprietor hosts with potentially thousands of users have not made plans for those users in the case of an unforeseen accident. In a casual look through of their websites I didn’t see instructions to users of what to do. Manton has commented recently on micro.blog that this is something he’s thinking about and is planning to address. But at this moment it’s not clear what would happen.

I’m sure many folks that setup blogs never actually put them to much use. But some of us do. A part of my decision to move my site back to my original host is based on my awareness that while Manton is working on a solution he does not have one in place. And while I’m aware that I don’t have a large readership, this site is my own and something I’ve been working on in a variety of iterations for long while. For me, it’s personal. I have 21 years of posts. I’ve been blogging longer than almost anything else I’ve done. So, it is at least important to me.

If you host with a small business it wouldn’t hurt to check to see if they have a plan in place.