Comments on: Requiem for Ficlets.com http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:24:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Blossom http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/comment-page-1/#comment-1005942 Blossom Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:22:46 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/#comment-1005942 I was so crushed by the imminent demise of ficlets.com, that I couldn't bring myself to even visit the site: it was like visiting your favorite great granny whose gone senile, missing her limbs, and who's scheduled for an open brain surgery with Doctor Snips-a-lot. I'm glad I found this site, though.. I was so crushed by the imminent demise of ficlets.com, that I couldn’t bring myself to even visit the site: it was like visiting your favorite great granny whose gone senile, missing her limbs, and who’s scheduled for an open brain surgery with Doctor Snips-a-lot. I’m glad I found this site, though..

]]> By: Chris Meadows http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/comment-page-1/#comment-1004147 Chris Meadows Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:22:28 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/#comment-1004147 Right, Kevin. I was/am going to do another blog posting about the archive and ficly, as soon as Ficlets actually goes down for good. At the moment it's still up, even a day after they said it was going down. (Isn't that depressing? They don't even care enough about it to EOL it on the day they say they're going to.) Right, Kevin. I was/am going to do another blog posting about the archive and ficly, as soon as Ficlets actually goes down for good. At the moment it’s still up, even a day after they said it was going down. (Isn’t that depressing? They don’t even care enough about it to EOL it on the day they say they’re going to.)

]]> By: Kevin http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/comment-page-1/#comment-1003992 Kevin Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:52:15 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/#comment-1003992 I know Chris knows about this, but just in case anyone who finds this lovely requiem doesn't - I've archived all the stories on ficlets and set up a "memorial" over at http://ficlets.ficly.com. I know Chris knows about this, but just in case anyone who finds this lovely requiem doesn’t – I’ve archived all the stories on ficlets and set up a “memorial” over at http://ficlets.ficly.com.

]]> By: Robert Nagle http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/comment-page-1/#comment-998799 Robert Nagle Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:06:13 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2009/01/04/requiem-for-ficletscom/#comment-998799 Maintaining user-generated content has costs; can corporations be relied upon to maintain them long after the profitability of doing so has disappeared? This is a problem with all kinds of dynamic content. It's more than a matter of sticking a bunch of static files onto another hosting. (Kevin may have more details). Let's play with a hypothetical for a moment. What if Teleread were to suddenly decide, hey, we're sick of maintaining all this content. There's a LOT of content here (not only in posts but comments). As a wordpress blog, it doesn't seem that complicated to maintain, but what about the security patches? the mysql updates? Maintaining the plugins and css in future browsers? (On a positive note, wordpress has provided methods of exporting data into xml, even exporting xml by each author). 10 years from now, there will be maintenance costs. pretty much all we can expect from a content distributor is transparency, notification about any major action, and equipping users with export tools. I'd be curious about how reliably archive.org has archived a site like ficlets. Maintaining user-generated content has costs; can corporations be relied upon to maintain them long after the profitability of doing so has disappeared?

This is a problem with all kinds of dynamic content. It’s more than a matter of sticking a bunch of static files onto another hosting. (Kevin may have more details).

Let’s play with a hypothetical for a moment. What if Teleread were to suddenly decide, hey, we’re sick of maintaining all this content. There’s a LOT of content here (not only in posts but comments). As a wordpress blog, it doesn’t seem that complicated to maintain, but what about the security patches? the mysql updates? Maintaining the plugins and css in future browsers?

(On a positive note, wordpress has provided methods of exporting data into xml, even exporting xml by each author).

10 years from now, there will be maintenance costs. pretty much all we can expect from a content distributor is transparency, notification about any major action, and equipping users with export tools.

I’d be curious about how reliably archive.org has archived a site like ficlets.

]]>