The recent hoo-ha with WordPress, which resulted in the Blogger removing some posts from the blog, has highlighted how vulnerable this blog and its contents are to WordPress’s whims.
The Blogger was particularly disturbed by this in WordPress’s Terms of Service (TOS):
Blogs are suspended if they are found to be in breach of the TOS.
We do not contact you first to ask that content be modified or removed.
You may NOT have that blog name back.
You may NOT have the blog content back
Basically WordPress have a right to take all this blog and its content away forever.
Following a summit meeting, the following decision has therefore been taken.
1. The blog in its current WordPress-hosted form will be removed from public view at 6.00pm Sunday.
2. Work will then commence on building a new blog from scratch using tools available from WordPress.org
3. The current blog’s archive will be transferred to this new blog
4. A suitable domain name will be purchased – it’ll be interesting to see who owns The Bristol Blogger won’t it?
5. A state-of-the-art politically-motivated ISP will be identified and approached to host this new blog in a safe environment.
Adios.
PS. In the meantime the Blogger might be found writing the internet news column for Bristol 24-7 that’s been promised for ages.
Check out our old friends at The Bristolian for gossip.
That’s the UK ruled out then! 😉
thebristolblogger.com and thebristolblogger.co.uk are both free! 🙂
Dear BB,
I’ve never bothered emailing you before but I read your blog often and I just wanted to show a bit of support. Keep up the good work on your new site. You provide really a valuable view.
clook are a good web host. Not quite the cheapest but technically sound and with a good reputation. I’d avoid ‘politically motivated’ hosts, they tend to be flakey in practice.
What @woodsy said; we (as in my werk hat) would already have volunteered to add BB to our small collection of WordPress sites were it not that our servers are in Cambridgeshire and so vulnerable to Carter Fuck, Eady J. &c.
Even setting up off-shore hosting wouldn’t help, as our company is registered in the UK. I can’t see either Labour or the Tories doing anything about UK libel law either; it’s too much in their interests to keep things as they are.
You should have a look at http://www.contrast.org/contrast.html
They are based in the Netherlands. The Hillsborough Justice Campaign run their site from Contrast to avoid injunction from the Police Fed and others. They specialise in offering “asylum” for political web sites.
thebristolclogger.co.uk and thevristolnogger.vo.uk are also still free!
It is so crucial that you keep up your important work.
Good luck with it!
I echo that: good luck! The views through your window on the underworld where lives the Bristol Counts Louse are essential for the maintenance of sanity.
Never mind all that political nonsense, its the typo spotting service that really get’s to the heart of what matters here in Bristol.