Typepad SUCKS!!!
Reason #532 why Typepad/Six Apart SUCKS:
When you move off Typepad to your own domain, they will turn around and give your old blog URL to someone else. ANYONE ELSE.
Case in point: Merri Musings. Merri used to be on Typepad, but not long ago (wisely) moved to mu.nu. Wanna see who’s got her old URL?
NOT SAFE FOR WORK/MINORS - this is http://merrimusings.typepad.com
Hmmm…let’s see who’s got her old URL blogrolled.
How about Pro-Life Blogs? (And by extension, everyone who’s displaying the Pro-Life Blogs blogroll.)
The Weblog Awards
The Wide Awake Cafe
And Rightly So
…need I continue? I’d be here all night if I did. Until very recently, my daughter had Merri’s Typepad URL linked on her blog, anyway! Seven years old.
To hell with Typepad and Six Apart. There’s nothing called “Merri” or anything resembling “musings” at the new site dedicated to strap-ons. They want to have a site like that, fine. But obviously they grabbed a URL that already had links and Google ranking established. If Typepad is that stupid to allow domains to be picked up like that one did, then it’s no wonder they have all the other problems. I’ve emailed them and I’ll let y’all know their response and what actions they’ve taken.
If you’re on Typepad and you move (which really, you should–Wordpress is free and about a thousand times better), you’d better hope your “name” doesn’t get hijacked.
Tags: Typepad, Six Apart, Typepad sucks, Six Apart sucks
Addendum: If you post about this to maybe get their attention, make sure you put a Technorati tag on it–it’ll help. Put this in your post:
<a href=“http://technorati.com/tag/Typepad” rel=“tag”>Typepad</a>
William Teach says:
HOLY CRAP!!! That blows big time. There are some reall assholes in this world who would do something like that.
I’m loving wordpress. Just wondering if someone will do something psycho with the old pirates cove typepad address.
PS: wasn’t trying to make a play on words for what was at that site. Just appears that way.
The Jawa Report says:
TypePad = Bad Gay
Below the fold is a link to my wife’s OLD TYPEPAD BLOG, before she moved to mu.nu. Let me repeat. Her OLD TYPEPAD BLOG If you are a TypePad customer, take note. If you leave TypePad, this could happen to…
Jo says:
Thank god I looked at that HOURS after supper. Can we as a group remind everyone to change their links? I doubt anyone that use to be on her blogrolls would want to be linked to that!
Jay says:
Link changed! Thats awful!
Merri says:
Awful only begins to describe how I feel…it’s like, oh, thanks…you subscribed and *PAID* us for a year, but now that you are leaving, we’re gonna screw you over. Gotta love it. Ugh!
Chez Diva says:
Doesn’t Typepad have a caveat that obscene material isn’t allowed? I maybe wrong but most webhosting companies don’t want to be associated with material like that of the original URL.
Here’s Typepad’s TOS with regards to obscene material.
You agree that you will not:
(a) upload, post, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy (up to, but not excluding any address, email, phone number, or any other contact information without the written consent of the owner of such information), hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
Beth says:
Diva, yep, that’s it. I put that in my email to them. Let’s see how they respond (because they basically blew off Merri for now). I’m hoping if a lot of people bitch about it, they’ll do something.
MacStansbury says:
remember to stick a rel=”nofollow” in that link tag, or that link will count
Gun Toting Liberal says:
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!
Now that I’m done laughing, shouldn’t that be illegal? Not that it’s all that funny in retrospect, it’s actually alarming. You should have warned me first, before clicking… lol.
I hate to say it here, but I actually did bust a gut laughing at first, but I can definitely see where that sort of thing should be OUTLAWED if it isn’t already.
But hey… let’s be careful not to bring our representatives into this thing… seems like it can be solved with a little bit of capitalistic unrest being communicated to the company who is permitting it to occur.
Harvey says:
Too late, Gun Toting Liberal. Vinnie has already said elsewhere that they’re filing a lawsuit.
Agent Bedhead » Fuck You, Typepad says:
[...] » Reason #9285 to illustrate just how far Mena and Ben Trott have their heads jammed up their asses. Typepad just screwed over a very classy lady. [...]
SondraK says:
I’ve had a gripe with Six Apart over their policy and some fucktard that was trying to give me grief. They never did a gawdamned thing about it and I complained like 4 times. I HATE them.
To the point that I’ve even considered de-linking any one that uses their “service”.
GAH!
Jo's Cafe says:
Blogger Service Warning
…
Jay says:
I know how you feel kinda. A while back, I had this guy that set up STACLU state chapter blogs all over blogsnot…he then went a little crazy on us and got pissed and put gay porn on all of the sites. I had no ability to take them down. I was quite pissed.
The Politburo Diktat » Blog Archive » Don’t Click Through #532 says:
[...] MVRWC - Reason #532 why Typepad/Six Apart SUCKS When you move off Typepad to your own domain, they will turn around and give your old blog URL to someone else. ANYONE ELSE. [...]
Greta (Hooah Wife) says:
I just received this e-mail from Mike of a blog that was “hijacked”
So too has my former blog URL “exscientia.blogspot.com”. And I am NOT associated with this site. If you have a link to my old site, you may wish to remove it.
A search under the name “xazux” will reveal that a number of former blogs have also been targeted in some way. Other examples are listed below.
http://friedgreentomatoes.blogspot.com
http://exscientia.blogspot.com
http://chooselife7.blogspot.com
http://usaheartland.blogspot.com
spazzmomma says:
I had to take a break after I read your story so I wouldnt say nasty words.I am soooo mad.I would find a script kiddie to eat up the bandwidth of their site if it had been my baby that was exposed to that trash.
sphincter cleaners
Lucky says:
Looks like when I move away from blogger I’ll be keeping my old blog around just to protect myself…
Ferdinand T. Cat says:
I think what we have here is the latest trick by spammers. Blog hosting companies know that they have to provide an immediate product: if you have to wait a day to set up on Typepad but you can start immediately on Blogger, then you’ll use Blogger. This means there’s no human interaction with the blogging service, and anything that is absent human approval is an opportunity to spammers. I suspect all of Typepad’s rivals will face this exact problem soon if it is not already happening.
Chez Diva says:
Beth, Please check your email. I sent you some information that may be helpful in getting that site shut down.
Anil says:
Hi, I work at Six Apart and work with the TypePad team a lot, and I thought maybe I could provide some more information that might help convince you that maybe we don’t suck as bad as you think.
First, we make it possible for people to use their own URLs for their TypePad sites, and we encourage people to do so. That way you control what shows up at your domain name, regardless of what tool you’re using. The other platforms you’ve mentioned don’t allow that possibility.
Second, we actually have a grace period after an account expires where the name is held from being registered. That’s actually *better* than what domain name registrars do, which lets people snatch your name up if your domain’s been expired for just one day. If Merri stops paying for mu.nu, anybody can grab that domain name, too — does that mean that GoDaddy or Network Solutions or whomever she’s paid for the domain name sucks, too?
Finally, the core thing you’re objecting to here is the content on a new site that shares a certain URL. It’s actually proof that we don’t censor people or limit what they can say if they want to use a blog to spread their message. Even if that message is something a lot of people disagree with. That’s a pretty *good* sign, to me, that we don’t suck.
Finally, Merri’s seen one of the best benefits of TypePad — it’s easy to get your data out and try out a tool like Movable Type if you want the ultimate in customization or control of your site. Again, the tools you’ve mentioned above, in addition to missing dozens of features that are unique to TypePad and Movable Type, don’t have a way to let you easily export your posts and move.
You can absolutely object to the things that some people use our tools to express, but at least with the work we do at Six Apart, you have recourse to move to your own server or export your own data or use your own URL. That’s not true of a lof other services, if you want to be fair about it.
And to Merri, whom I saw has commented above — we’re glad to have had you as a customer on TypePad, and we’re glad to keep you as a user on Movable Type: What is your expectation for the right thing for us to do with a blog once someone has stopped subscribing to the service?
Anil says:
Oh, and I should have mentioned, if anybody wants to have a conversation with us about this (and I’ll be honest “YOU GUYS SUCK” probably isn’t a great conversation, but any other feedback is welcome) feel free to email me at anil@sixapart.com and I’m glad to talk anytime.
Barb says:
I wrote to them, and here’s my answer from Mie:
“If there is illegal activity, we have a policy to review and take action where liable. Currently, pornography is not illegal. If you feel there is illegal activity, I would need to know the exact URL for reference, and a specific claim as to why it is illegal. I can then review it immediately.”
I gave her the exact URL. They aren’t going to remove anything, obscene, porn - nothing! They must love it. :sad:
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Typepad sucks: a response says:
[...] Just got this email in response to mine: Beth, Thank you for your email. Regarding domain names, we do not control this, as domain names, such as http://merrimusings.mu.nu/ are registered through a different company. Regarding http://merrimusings.typepad.com/, as long as it is available, it is open for anyone to use. We do not monitor or limit what people can register for as long as a domain name is open. So unfortunately, in this case, although I realize it is upsetting, we are not able to cancel a blog that is already established because it uses a domain name that was similar to another site. The best course of action would be to contact the site owner and inquire whether they might be willing to change their domain name. Sincerely, Mie Six Apart [...]
Beth says:
Anil, I emailed you.
You said, “If Merri stops paying for mu.nu, anybody can grab that domain name, too — does that mean that GoDaddy or Network Solutions or whomever she’s paid for the domain name sucks, too?”
Funny you should mention that. Merri DID pay for a full year, but left Typepad before the year was up. She didn’t get a prorated refund, but Six Apart released “Merri Musings” to someone else. If she had paid Network Solutions for something like merrimusings.com, she would still have ownership of the domain name as long as it was paid for. Six Apart apparently doesn’t do that–it sounds to me like you say “tough luck” if a customer who HAS PAID decides to leave. BAD BUSINESS.
Furthermore, you know fully well most bloggers on Typepad (and Live Journal) are NOT tech gurus. They use your service because it’s expected you all will handle problems, since you own the servers. To say that she could have gotten her own domain name and hosted at Typepad is, frankly, laughable. Of course she could have, but she DIDN’T. And most people probably either don’t want to pay for a domain name AND Typepad, or don’t want to mess with registering a domain. It may be a very simple process to you and me, but I assure you, it isn’t to everyone. I know; I regularly help other bloggers with technical issues (since Six Apart doesn’t seem to care about answering requests for help).
This:
it’s easy to get your data out and try out a tool like Movable Type if you want the ultimate in customization or control of your site. Again, the tools you’ve mentioned above, in addition to missing dozens of features that are unique to TypePad and Movable Type, don’t have a way to let you easily export your posts and move.
For the benefit of others, I would like to counter the sales pitch.
It’s quite easy to move to and from Wordpress. The only issue I’ve seen is with Expression Engine, which few people use–but even that can be done with more experienced help. Furthermore, Wordpress is FREE. There is no “Pro” or “Premium” version–it’s always free.
There are blog hosting companies (including wordpress.com and blogsome.com) that will host WP blogs for free, too.
Some features that Wordpress lacks that Typepad has:
Trackbacks actually work with Wordpress. Wordpress trackback URLs are intuitive.
Wordpress is open source, so there is a great community for support and sharing ideas and plugins and themes. Even MT, which is just a slightly improved version of Typepad, is light-years behind in this respect.
And best of all, it beats MT and Typepad HANDS DOWN against spam. (I could go on, but I don’t get paid to shill for Wordpress.)
And Anil: I’m hosted at Blogs About. I’m pretty sure that if my domain expired and someone else hosted by Blogs About who has a pr0n website wanted to use “bamapachyderm.com,” they’d say NO. They’d say host it elsewhere, because they actually DO care about their customers and their reputation. And again, those of us who are hosted by Blogs About and use Wordpress don’t have to PAY for the software, either.
Finally, you said:
What is your expectation for the right thing for us to do with a blog once someone has stopped subscribing to the service?
I’m not going to speak for Merri, but I’ll speak for what I would expect (and honestly, I know Merri agrees):
If I paid Six Apart in advance for a year of hosting and a domain name (Typepad users don’t have to go to Go Daddy or Ntwk Solutions to get a domain; YOU assign it to the .typepad domain, just like Blogger, Blogsome, BlogCity, etc. do), I would expect that even if I decided to stop using the blog, the same exact name wouldn’t be picked up and used by a p0rn0grapher AND hosted by Six Apart. It’s bad enough (infuriating, in fact) that spammers do this with old Blogspot names, but AT LEAST Blogspot users haven’t PAID FOR them.
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » How Does One Pronounce “Anil” Anyway says:
[...] Given what TypePad does, it isn’t hard to figure out. [...]
Merri says:
Anil,
If Mie read my follow-up email to her and shared it with you, there would be no doubt what I would ask TypePad to do. Follow your own Terms of Service. When I signed up for TypePad, I accepted your Terms of Service which stated that I would be violating it if I were to post vulgar material. What should you do with http://www.merrimusings.typepad.com? Follow your TOS and either warn them or close it down. It’s as simple as that.
Ambient Irony says:
Erk
I think I’ll crawl into my shell and hibernate until spring….
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Typepad update says:
[...] Good news: http://merrimusings.typepad.com is suspended. Credit where it’s due: It’s good to know Six Apart/Typepad takes their TOS seriously (I’m only assuming that’s the reason why it’s down. Maybe they just figured this one wasn’t worth the bad publicity). Previous posts: Typepad sucks Typepad sucks - a response [...]
Anil says:
i figure i might as well respond to some of these points, since you’ve brought them up.
“it’s quite easy to move to and from wordpress. furthermore, wordpress is free. there is no “pro” or “premium” version– it’s always free.”
there’s no way to export your posts from wordpress into a format that any other tool can import. there’s also no way to export your posts from wordpress.com at all. it’s a bug that’s been filed on the tool for about a year and a half, and the team has acknowledged they want to add it, so i’m not sure where the disconnect is here. and as always, “free” only means “free” if your time isn’t worth anything to you.
“trackbacks actually work with wordpress.”
not sure what that means — movable type is the platform for which trackback was invented, and typepad uses the same implementation. this statement’s broad enough that i don’t really know how to respond.
“wordpress trackback urls are intuitive.”
both mt and typepad support trackback autodiscovery, so you don’t need to know the url at all. if you’re going to make the (correct) argument that average users don’t know how to register a domain, then you certainly must concede that no normal person cares about the attractiveness of a url that they should never need to see anyway.
“wordpress is open source, so there is a great community for support and sharing ideas and plugins and themes. even mt, which is just a slightly improved version of typepad, is light-years behind in this respect.”
movable type predates typepad and is focused on integrating with other technologies, where typepad is a hosted service with built-in features like photo albums. neither one is “slightly improved” over the other; they just do different stuff. the source code of movable type is, and has always been, freely editable, and most of the code in the mt package is distributed under osi-compliant licenses, which meet the definition of “open source” by any standard. so it’s really a matter of degree. movable type has hundreds of freely-available plugins, and in fact inspires a lot of the plugins that come out in other communities.
“and best of all, it beats mt and typepad hands down against spam. (i could go on, but i don’t get paid to shill for wordpress.)”
that’s just false. movable type has far better built-in spam protection, including a junk folder that automatically deletes spam without having false positives just disappear completely. that means “even the word ’social*sm’” doesn’t make a comment disappear into the ether, you can recover it and not piss off your commenters. and fighting spam doesn’t require having every single one of your commenters’ words sent through a third-party service that has no privacy policy.
“i’m pretty sure that if my domain expired and someone else hosted by blogs about who has a pr0n website wanted to use “bamapachyderm.com,” they’d say no.”
who’d you register the domain with? do you think they’d control the content of someone else who registered your domain name after you?
“because they actually do care about their customers and their reputation.” if showing up here to have a civil conversation with someone who’s been fairly aggressive and hostile doesn’t show that we care about our community and reputation, i don’t know what does. i hope the positive intent is clear. I honestly don’t think most companies would engage in a conversation with people that say “your product SUCKS!” as the start of a dialogue.
“and again, those of us who are hosted by blogs about and use wordpress don’t have to pay for the software, either.”
do you pay for hosting? do they include support in the paid cost? isn’t this really just splitting hairs about whether you’re paying for support bundled with hosting or bundled with software?
“i would expect that even if i decided to stop using the blog, the same exact name wouldn’t be picked up and used by a p0rn0grapher and hosted by six apart.”
again, we host millions of blogs. we follow what we think are pretty sane guidelines — after an address is relinquished, someone else can grab it. expired domains get snatched up all the time, and the only reasonable rule that scales up to millions of users is that someone who stops using a url is indicating they don’t want it anymore. there’s even some pretty legitimate reasons to do things this way: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2005/03/how-to-snatch-an-expiring-domain
at the end of the day, the only thing i think can make sense in the long run is that if someone really wants to control what appears at a certain address, they have to keep owning that address. otherwise it’s like being able to judge what is acceptable for someone who moves into an apartment after you vacate it. anyway, i’m sure you didn’t intend this conversation to go on this long. i’m glad to talk to you on email or call me (i included my phone number in my email) and i appreciate having had the chance to respond to the issue. i hope it’s been resolved to your satisfaction, but more importantly to merri’s satisfaction, and that at least we’re all a little more informed about these concerns in the future.
Beth says:
Anil, I have no reason to move off Wordpress anyway.
But you really don’t know much about it, do you? There are so many inaccurate statements in your comment, and I simply don’t have the time or the energy to bother with them. Suffice it to say that nobody pays me to do Wordpress sales, and I don’t remember getting a check from SA to host advertising, either.
Anyway, do your advertising at your own site. This is MINE, and if I think Typepad sucks, fine, you have the right to disagree. And I have the right, obviously, to say 1) you’re beginning to annoy me, 2) nobody said YOU SUCK, so calm down, 3) I gave credit where it was due (see the next post), and 4) YES, you ARE dragging this out too far.
I’ve been told you do PR for SA, so I know this is your job (I harbor no illusions about SA “caring” about their paying customers). Maybe, though, if other Six Apart people did THEIR jobs better, you’d have nothing to worry about. I’m certainly not the first to say TYPEPAD SUCKS, and I’m certain I won’t be the last.
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » The Indian Ban - to clear up some issues says:
[...] OK, I’ve been reading stuff about the ban and there is a lot of confusion about some of the sites under the ban order. So for those who don’t know this already (which is probably most people, but not regular readers of this site or the other blocked US sites). First, Merri Musings: merrimusings.typepad.com USED TO BE [...]
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy » Blog Archive » Blogger/Blogspot Sucks says:
[...] Just like Typepad, if you quit Blogger to move to real hosting, you may–or probably will, eventually–have your Blogspot URL hijacked. And actually, it’s more of a problem with Blogger than Typepad, as far as I can tell. Here’s an example: Fausta recently moved her site (The Bad Hair Blog) from its Blogspot URL to her own domain. Almost immediately, badhairblog.blogspot.com was snatched up by some goatfarking moron–not just that, but the scumbag is posting as “Fausta” and even wrote about waiting for the Pajamas Media ad code! So anyway, after I heard about that, I just happened to click MY old URL - bamapachyderm.com - from which I had moved in November 2004. Until recently, the redirect worked fine. You never even saw the old site–all the archives were transferred here so there was no reason to see it, so the redirect was immediate. So anyway, I clicked the old URL and what did I get? A farking splog! I’ve still got an active Blogger account with several other blogs attached to it (not to mention the profile, which I use when commenting at Blogspot blogs). Because of that, I’m sure people do click the link in my profile, where it shows the blogs I have or of which I am a contributing member. And I don’t know if anyone still has a link in their blogroll to the old URL (I would hope not after all this time!), but there are links to posts floating around from the old days. That pisses me off. I can still access the “old blog” from the Blogger dashboard, because it wasn’t deleted. But WTF?! What the hell is wrong with Blogger, anyway? Do they even pay attention to flagged sites? Do they even bother answering questions? I found this Google group and this blog, and it sure as hell doesn’t look like it. Every time I turn around I find another hijacked blog that’s become a splog. The Blogger Status for Real blog knows about the bastard hijackers, but who’s actually solving the problem at Blogger? Anyone? MY ADVICE: Don’t use Blogger, Typepad, or any of these other freebie hosts if you think you may be blogging for at least a few months, because apparently your URL will be taken by someone else once you move–even if you don’t delete the old site. Besides, the free sites suck anyway compared to paid hosting, if you want any real functionality. Actually, I’m surprised there are any blogs that bitch about Blogger actually using it. I don’t get why they would at all. (Blogsome and Wordpress are free too, but I haven’t heard about hijackings–YET. I’m sure I will, though.) [...]