It doesn't pay to start a blog on a negative note. But this one has to. Until 10 October, 2004, ribaldmusings was hosted at mblog.com. On Oct 11, mblog.com pulled the plug on their services without any notification. They demanded USD35 to send me the archives. I refused to accept the demand. Yes, they hosted my blog for free. Yes, I accepted their agreement saying they reserve the right to terminate services without any notification. But no, I do not acquiesce to blackmail, which is what they are doing, plain and simple. And yes, that means I lose all my posts created over the past months, most of them original writings or comments on linked articles. I also lose the fruit of many hours laboured over customisation of the blog. But no, it is the principle of it all. If they had given sufficient notification, about their 'troubles' as they claim, I would have archived the contents myself (essentially, a one-click operation). Their means to extort money from users in order to recoup losses is unacceptable. I should have detected something amiss when they did not upgrade to MT 3.0, as they had declared they would. They now claim they were unable to 'reach an agreement with MT', whatever that means. I am not interested. I enjoyed a free service, but there is something called public decency. On hindsight, I should have seen this coming. Owned and operated by a commercial software company (Inficron Technologies), it was perhaps too much of a good thing to expect it be run free in perpetuity. They could always claim 'commercial viability' as a catch-all to justify any action. Enough of ranting.
So ribaldmusings returns to the blogger fold. Those with elephantine memories, mine not withstanding, would know that what is now Film-I began as ribaldmusings at blogspot. mBlog then lured me to MT and ribaldmusings moved over. Now the prodigal son returns. ribaldmusings returns for good, or at least for the foreseeable future. My colleague Anol, of SoulSoup fame, who was also affected by mBlog's perfidy, warned against going with a free blog provider yet again. But I trust Google, and I trust Blogger.
"Mama, I'm home," ribaldmusings says.
