Well, this is it—the last-ever TOP post on TypePad. TypePad is scheduled to close down tomorrow, although who knows what will happen and when. We'll all see, I guess.

I will be posting for the foreseeable future over on Patreon, where I urge you to become a visitor or, better yet, a supporter. Voluntary donations from readers have become the biggest income generator for The Online Photographer. It has changed many times over the years, first ads, then affiliate income, then print sales, etc., but that's where we are now.

This morning, on Patreon, I published the long-promised version of the Dogs Baker's Dozen with the photographers' comments attached. It was super easy, and a pleasure. I have to say that during its decline, images had become increasingly difficult to publish here on TypePad. It would sometimes take an hour of work (and frustration) to get one to post successfully. Sometimes I'd have to give up and come back to it later. The folks from TypePad couldn't figure out what was wrong, and if they couldn't, I certainly couldn't. Sigh. The handwriting on the wall wasn't that difficult to read. 

At the lower right-hand corner of this site it says, or used to say, "Member Since 06 / 2007." I actually started TOP in 2005 on Blogger—our 20th anniversary is coming right up at the end of November. Considering that my "stretch goal" in 2005 was to keep the blog going for as long as one whole year, that's pretty amazing. A whole year seemed next to impossible in November of 2005. For the most part, it's been the perfect job for me. The work suits my skills and interests, and the circumstances (self-employed, set my own schedule, limp when I'm feeling down and crank when I'm feeling energetic) also suit me. I have no idea how many people have come and gone over those 20 years, but it could easily be well into six figures. And I've been especially lucky in attracting so many great readers. I initially started 'Featuring" comments to foster discussion and a sense of community, but something better happened—I attracted a whole lot of thoughtful, intelligent people with extensive knowledge in this and other fields, and provided an outlet for them to share their own experiences, wisdom, and musings. I have been so influenced by readers I can't even tell you. Virtually every aspect of my life has been touched by something I learned from somebody who reads my blog. 

It's still kind of an open question whether TOP will be able to continue—a forced relaunch on a different site, with a different look and a different setup, is a rough transition even when it's carefully planned for months in advance. Executed pell-mell on short notice and under duress, well, let's just say the conditions are not favorable. But I'll try. It's not like I have much choice. I can't retire. To repeat one of the jokes I like and repeat again and again, "my retirement plan is to keep working." 

Well, I don't want to go on and on, because this could disappear before 24 hours have passed. It's been a good 18 years and three months since June 2007. That's 6,700 days, and I've written something here on most of them—about 9,400 posts total. 

Sic transit gloria mundi (thus passeth the glory of the world). Good luck to us all, and I hope I'll be seeing you! 

Kind regards,
Mike

In the heart of the old Burned-Over District
September 2025

     

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I should probably lead with the good news. it looks like the problem of the old site—this one—is solved. The entire TypePad site, all 17 years of it, will go up on the web as a static resource. You'll be able to search it, illustrations will be present, and some of the links will continue to work.

For the foreseeable, I'm going to be blogging over at Patreon, which you can access at: 

patreon.com/theonlinephotographer

I'm still learning how Patreon works. This morning I wrote an off-topic post as a sort of experiment—tomorrow I'll experiment with a post containing a video. 

At Patreon, you can sign up for free (at the site, look for the three dots underneath the right-hand side of the picture of the lake), or you can just visit, or you can sign up to be a member, a.k.a. supporter, for whatever amount you want, as little as $1 per month. The most common amount is $5 a month. 

Members/supporters see everything, and can comment. Free subscribers and visitors will see all the photographic posts but not the off-topic ones. I figure people who support me like my writing, while people with a free account or who are just visiting come for photography content. They can't comment. That's not my decision—it's just how Patreon is set up.

This morning's OT post is about the many contrasts between the city and the country. In some cases the city wins, like this one: 

"If you live in the city, there are a hundred places to buy whatever you need. In the country, there's one place to buy any particular thing you need, and they will periodically run out of it. In the city, when a store or vendor runs out of something, it will be back in stock within, say, four days. In the country, when a store or vendor runs out of something, you might still be checking whether it's back in stock five weeks later, and at some point it becomes an open question whether you'll ever see it there again."

And in some cases the country wins, like this one:

"In the city, if your car breaks down by the side of the road, large numbers of cars will drive right past you as if you meant to be right there doing just what you're doing, and eventually a cop will help you. In the country, if you get stuck in the mud by the side of the road, a stranger in the very next passing pickup truck will stop, silently rig up a towline by taking it off another piece of equipment he has in his truckbed, pull you out out of the mud, and leave again, having said about eighteen words to you the whole time. He will of course wave off the ten-dollar bill you hold out to him as a thank-you for his time. Even though he could use ten bucks."

If you're NOT a Patreon supporter, would you do me a favor? Go over there and tell me what you can see. You're supposed to see the first paragraph and then come up against a paywall. But I'd like to know how it looks. As the so-called Creator, I can't see what you see.

Not so good
The Patreon compositor is more limited than the one here. For instance, those two quotes above are inset. I can't do that at Patreon. And I'm stuck with the font they provide. But you want to know what bugs me the most? Subheads! I like writing with subheads—they break up the "gray matter" (an old publishing term for unrelieved, unbroken masses of text), and they serve as mileposts for readers skipping forward or back or trying to find something in the post. But the way they're supposed to look is the way the subhead looks at the start of this paragraph—with no line break. Well, I can't do that at Patreon—it has to look like this:

Not so good

With a line break after it. Ugh. Has TOP no standards?! That just looks wrong to me. 

But oh well. Any port in a storm. TypePad is slated to disappear five days from now. 

By the way—fingers crossed—it looks like the problem of the old site—this one—is solved. The entire TypePad site, all 17 years of it, will go up on the web as a static resource. You'll be able to search it, illustrations will be present, and some of the links will continue to work. It doesn't have a URL yet, but it shouldn't be too long now. 

Comments are still open here. 

Mike

Original contents copyright 2025 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

     

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As we enter the mournful final days of the old TypePad blog, I've temporarily taken up posting at the Patreon site, which I formerly used just as a means of collecting voluntary contributions. There's a new post up over there this morning. The URL is: 

patreon.com/theonlinephotographer

Please bookmark it. Also, soon, my three domains, theonlinephotographer.com, .org, and .net, will all point to it. I haven't done that yet but I will soon. 

Really sad to say goodbye to my home of 17 years, but I'm rather liking Patreon. I like writing on the compositor. It feels a little different somehow. Illustrations can be larger. And, to be frank, I had been having a lot of problems here in recent months. It had become extremely difficult to load and publish illustrations, for example. 

Two little housekeeping details: one is that Patreon doesn't support RSS feeds for posts (sorry! The final WordPress site will have that feature), and the other is that you have to be a paid supporter to leave comments over there. That's the only means of moderating comments, except for deletion. 

Please head over there to see new posts and to leave comments (comments will be closed here from now on, although I'll post new reminders here a few more times).

Thanks for reading all these years, or however long you've been coming! 

Off we go into the future,

Mike

     

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