I've been looking around a bit, in case we have to abandon ship, and came across LiveJournal. Here's what one site has to say about it:
LiveJournal, formerly owned by Six Apart and written in PERL, differs from other major blog platforms because of its unique community feel and social networking features. The “friends list” provides a way for people who have LiveJournal accounts to connect with each other and a friends page displays a feed of LiveJournal posts (or “entries”) made by friends. One bad thing about LiveJournal is the fact that you must display advertisements (from LiveJournal) even if you upgrade to a Plus account. Plus users are able to change the display option for the advertisements as well as store and manage photos (not an available option in the free version) and create post polls and surveys. If you would like to go advertisement-free, you need to upgrade to a Paid account ($20 per year) which gives you many more features like creating new syndication accounts and creating a custom journal design with advanced options.
I opened an account just to check it out (http://mommadish.livejournal.com/) and it seems pretty easy to use. Does anyone else want to try? This may be premature, but I remember what happened with 360 and how we scrambled to make sure that we didn't lose anyone in the move... and then we did.
I've heard a lot of positive things about blogger.com,
ReplyDeleteI guess I will look into creating a backup somewhere when I get back from Turkey.
personally I think xply will push the bloggers out, we don't create enough cash revenue, and they are not fixing problems currently.... time to look around is correct!...
ReplyDeleteI will take a look. We need a new home because I think you hit the nail right on the head, Multiply will let the social side of their network slip away just like Yahoo did.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing a little reading to Janeen and it does sound like this portion of multiply will going away or put on the way back burner. I haven't been on here long enough to know the whole back story of how this site came along, but it sounds like its into a different direction that they were against in the first place.
ReplyDeleteLike msowens said, I've heard of other people might going over to blogger.com(or already have). I'll look into the one you suggested tonight when we get back from visiting Lynn's mom. Just when I was starting to really get into doing a lot more on here...:(
I'll be having a look.
ReplyDeleteI already have a Blogger account (sleeping at the moment) but I could always revive that if need be.
But I will have a look at LiveJournal too. I hate the thought of losing all my friends here :(
Im already at Blogger and its good but not very private plus theres no chat option. I like that we can post our comments here and see them right a way to respond. Does live Journal have that? Id be interested to know. I havent had a chance yet but I was going to look for another place too. They have sold this to the very people who annoyed us with spam. Its all about the dollar. Peter says he will be here till the end of the yr. So I figure till then we are safe and it will give us time to search for somewhere else. But why would an Asian company continue blogging when its obvious they bought it for the shopping. And you can bet once they take over we will be spammed forever. So I just dont see this as a safe place anymore. And I dont want to have to move all my stuff last minute.
ReplyDeleteI just set up shop in LiveJournal (just in case). I don't like Blogger too much either so maybe this will be a nice alternative. As far as I can see you can directly post comments.
ReplyDeletehttp://missriete.livejournal.com/
I don't think there is any need to panic as yet, I'd wait until they actually move then see what they do.
ReplyDeleteI can envisage more ad's but if they do that they could potentially loose a lot of European visitors as well as US/Canadian etc...
So they could end up with a marketplace that's only in Asia, remember at the latter days of Yahoo 360º it ended up in Asia!
Is this a re-run of Y!360º and them cutting their own throats or are they going to try and expand and compete with the likes of Amazon, Craigs Lists, Ebay, Gum Tree and so forth??
They have the power at their fingertips, but as to what direction they choose is another matter.
As for our blogs, Multiply has been advertised on Asian TV for a couple of years now so I can't see it making any difference, Clearly the Asians know about it's existence so they will vote with their fingers which place their going to shop and it may not be Multiply at the end of the day!
If I was in Asia and I could get more IDR to say the USD or GBP I'd try selling there rather than locally. Not for the sake of greed but to make ends meet and make myself more comfortable.
I'm seeking clarification on things right here.. stil waiting for an answer.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure Sea... It does look like they appear immediately although there is a setting where you can approve them before they appear. You can set it to approve all, approve none, or approve comments from people who are not friends. I did add Riete as a friend so we'll see how that works.
ReplyDeleteThis just seems easier to navigate socially than Blogger is... but I haven't used it much either.
Just had my day ruined by this news. I will move where we all move. Did you open a $20 account or a free account Jan ?
ReplyDeleteUgh. I just read about this news on another friend's page - I'd had no idea until then. *Sigh...* I've only JUST moved house, too! :D
ReplyDeleteI'll keep fingers firmly crossed that M'Ply doesn't go the same way as Y360. It gets so frustrating! But - I will keep this blog and your suggestion of a new site in mind, should the need arise. I'd hate to lose my "virtual" life and all you guys. And I know how popular it is, but I still ABHOR Facebook. It's like online texting. Ugh.
I've had Blogger recommended to me by Thalia and since it's owned by Google, it's less likely to disappear (althouth Yahoo 360 did) I have opened an account in Live Journal and find it complicated. Maybe we could all look around and have a vote on it and accept a majority decision so we can all stay together. Any ideas ???
ReplyDeleteI've had Blogger recommended to me by Thalia and since it's owned by Google, it's less likely to disappear (although Yahoo 360 did) I have opened an account in Live Journal and find it complicated. Maybe we could all look around and have a vote on it and accept a majority decision so we can all stay together. Any ideas ???
ReplyDeleteSay no more, Google would sell all your details and your soul before you could click save. :(
ReplyDeleteI'll go wherever you go. I don't think I'll open an account just yet...but when you decide, I'll go. I don't care anymore. As long as you guys are there, I'll figure it out.
ReplyDeleteZB did all the research to get us here. And then there were the "transition" tools...moving blogs/photos etc. So I imagine Multiply will offer the same thing or maybe the new place does. Let's just hope it isn't run like a Nepali carpenter would.
ReplyDeleteI haven't decided by any means- thought it would be smart to look around and try a few things before deciding. And maybe we won't have to go anywhere- who knows?
ReplyDeleteI will take a look at Blogger but I'm skeptical, for the reasons Dave said. I also want to look at Gather because I know nothing about that at all.
I discovered with Gather you can earn points which can be used on Amazon, Paypal and a couple of others. I'm not 100% sure how you actually gain points, I'd assume the more you post, sign in, and so on the more points you'd "gather" - Which makes me wonder if they mean gather points or gather as in a gather-ING of people?! hmm....
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo... if you put say Photography as an interest, the system will search everyone who has added that interest and you'll see them in your inbox, you can select to view either posts, photo's or video's (or all).
I guess you just have to be careful what you add as an interest!
That said I did think that IF people were to join what we could do is add a tag of interest say ExMultiply - then if anyone is from this contact list adds that, they'd automatically be shown in your inbox, so you could either add them as a friend, or just be friends with them (friend of a friend) without actually being on their contact list. - if you follow.
One thing you cannot do is create a themed page or any kind of page with a theme, which seems a shame but perhaps in time that would come. who knows.
The system used is Java - which is pretty good, however I did find I had to press "retry" a few times to re-connect, so maybe it isn't the most suitable.
I'll keep an eye on it for now but have a look for others, should the need to move arise.
Vox might be another alternative.
Scratch that about Vox.
ReplyDeleteOpendiary.com "could" be another possibility (although similar to Gather - from what I found fathom ;) you enter an interest and it seeks ;) all others who have that interest.)
That said, it is very similar to Gather, Multiply, Y360 etc...
Though, I think we'd be better waiting and seeing what actually is going to happen with Xply before running around like headless chickens, Why panic when there might not be anything to panic about? :)
That's why I want to do some research now- so we don't have to panic later!
ReplyDeleteLook at how people started to panic when Multiply moved from Boston to Miami. I think it was a tad over the top.
ReplyDeleteLIke I say, I don't see why you worry until there is actually something to worry about. Panic is a bit of a strong word.
Nepali carpenter? hahaha I've just seen that Kat. Funny how sometimes things get notified and some things don't. So talking about Nepali carpenters, our two cowboy painters haven't showed up for a week, our tile mistry hasn't shown up for a couple of weeks and the sliding window people haven't been here to finish installing for several weeks. These things could drive you insane if you let them.
ReplyDeleteI would much prefer to sort out a new home sooner than later but only when we can be reasonably sure that Multiply is going to ditch us. I now feel like I did when Yahoo 360 was about to abandon us. It's not really panic but just wanting to get things clear and sorted.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is Dai, without us really realising it, Multiply has actually done a fine job. Although I hate to admit it.
ReplyDeleteThe chances of getting import tools and all that comes along with Multiply.com are slim. Very Slim.
At most you'll find maybe half of what Multiply is offering on one site and the other on another site but not the same on the one site.
Whereas it just so happened y360 and multiply had more or less the same platform to work off of (at that time). It seems these days everyone is trying to look like Facebook.
someone mentioned Perl, I was using Perl in 1995 - which goes to show how old it really is. A lot of developers ditched Perl around 2009 in favour of PHP. I never did like PHP nor did a lot of other which was why a few year later MySQL took off in the way that it did.
Don't get me wrong Perl still has it's place but in small scripts (for example bouncing unwanted mail) running on Linux or Apple Mac as well as external linked to websites too for say mail, polls etc...
I'm going off the subject..
LiveJournal has about 160million users so can you imagine what the baud rate is going to be like? Moreover if people are trying to "chat" as they do on Multiply. Hence why I prefer to look for one which has less on it, such as OpenDiary.com (still haven't looked into that properly as yet)
Of course there is another alternative, however it may not involve individual pages or blogs but rather posts on "a topic". I mean a forum.
It can be done and could also have a photo album too.
So there is another option that is a 'could be'. PM's would just go through your email (I'll not go into how exactly that works) but it's pretty basic and easy to set up. There are plenty free ones out there However, someone would need to be Admin (the Baddie) and have a jr Admin (perhaps) as well as perhaps 2-3 Mods (Moderators). Still, worth thinking about.
Thanks Dave for taking so much trouble with all this. Yes I have come to realise just how good Multiply is, especially when checking the others. They have done a terrific job. I have never heard of Perl nor PHP nor My SQL. Can we also use Perl with Windows? I love the idea of being able to bounce mail. There is a mail server called INCREDIMAIL and I have been trying to use that here to bounce back all the SPAM but I can't set it up properly here. I think I should add you Dave. I always read your comments to Kat's blogs.
ReplyDeleteNo but you can download a program (small) called BSM
ReplyDeleteAll you do is take the email, ALL of the header of the spam and enter it into the box and press send and it'll bounce it back to whoever sent it but the trouble there is that I could (example) send mail but put in the senders box from bill.gates@windows.com and reply to sales@apple.com.
Spam I've been dealing with since 1996, I'm co-founder (along with about 20+ others) of euro.cauce.org and it was actually us that got the "opt out" claws put through parliament (thanks to the Green party I better add), so now, by law, every commercial email you receive should have a unsubscribe option on it. If not b weary!
There are several places to blog. You can even get a wordpress. Blogspot is a good one....I'll stick to my own domain though.
ReplyDeleteThat's another option, if people wanted to stick to their own domains it wouldn't b hard to write a script that linked all up (just like a web-ring). It'd just man you press a forward or back button before you got to who you were looking for or the ring could contain a list of all in the ring, so it'd be like an internal bookmark . It's only an idea. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad there are all these possibilities- and that you understand them Dave. We might count on you to help figure this out if it becomes necessary!
ReplyDeleteYou can also have a blog roll on your page and just click names as well if you were wanting a to go directly to a certain person's blog.
ReplyDeleteI have mine set up so as soon as I write a blog for those that want to subscribe can get it in their e-mail.
Something to get your teeth into...
ReplyDeletehttp://multiply.multiply.com/journal/item/474/Another_Important_Message_from_Another_CEO
I read that Dave... sounds good, but time will tell.
ReplyDeleteYes, We shall see, Dishy. I hope he can live up to his word!
ReplyDeleteA lot of my friends expressed the wish for a guestbook like here and LiveJournal doesn't have that. The privacy settings are good which I like. A few of us tried a page at Opera and it's privacy settings weren't there. Still going to do more research and look for some other sites.
ReplyDelete