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
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