THE END

BLOG UK

MADE BY YOU



Dear user,
We inform you that our blogging platform has been closed on all markets on December 16th 2015. All blogs have been taken offline at this date, and it's not possible any more to log in.

For any questions regarding the closure or your blog please contact our customer support.

SELF-DESTRUCTING BLOG

Blog.Co.UK (BCUK), whose registered offices are in Germany, is completely removing its blogging platform during the day of the 15th December, 2015. It is a very final act. I have never before seen a blogging platform self-destruct out of all existence.  BCUK will be history.    
 
Blog UK was an intuitive site to use, a vibrant and supportive social site in its heyday, it was easy to make blog friends who actively shared comments. Its demise, though slow, was really inevitable after it was sold on. The new proprietors gave access to avalanches of spammers.   Inappropriate mails stopped being dealt with.  Lots of genuine bloggers voted with their feet. Many, like me, occasionally posted and kept in contact with favourite BCUK bloggers. Groups of friends kept going.
 
Users of BCUK were given lots of warning of the proposed end, as were sister platforms in other parts of the world. At the same time we were given detailed instructions in English on how to export our posts to WordPress (WP) and how to save them.  The instructions would not work for the likes of Blogspot, where I was regularly posting.
 
The French bloggers also received their instructions in English!   I spent some time translating the instructions into French with the assistance of Google Translate. My translation was posted on the French site, with lots of grateful thanks.

Exporting blogs to WP was not difficult, though perfect, it was not. I will have to edit through ten years worth of posts. I have given it a rest while I’ve been learning to use WP.  By default WP has become my primary site.  It is a bit complicated and there is a lot of clunky programming.   Bloggers from other countries have found sites elsewhere and find it easier to stay in touch with me on Blogspot.

A few blog UK friends decided it was time to say goodbye to blogging.  Some have have connected up on WP. It’s nice because linking up on WP with other people who want to genuinely inter-communicate in words about this and that, and not sell you something, is not easily facilitated with the WP set up.

THE UNEXPECTED

Being shut out of my blog site recently threw up  some unexpected feelings.  See here: http://myword1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/getting-locked-out-of-my-blogsite-me.html   

Someone suggested that it must be interesting being a visitor to your own blog site, it giving another perspective on what [I] do and see. 

Well, no, being locked out of my site did not give me another perspective on what I produce and publish on my blog.  I believe it did not do that because I was, and I am, already very familiar  and closely linked with all of it.  It was not like visiting someone else's site, where I would be seeing different perspectives,  reading something new, meeting up with a different writing style, or, mulling over other and possibly new and refreshing ideas.  


Not being able to fully access my blog site was frustrating.  I  was on the outside looking in. The nearest analogy would be, being shut out of my own house.  Something or someone had a power to do that and I was almost powerless to do anything other than look in through the glass window.  It was  very uncomfortable.  My discomfort, doubtlessly prompted my inner drives to resolve it.

I was also prompted to think about the very many displaced and dispossessed people we hear about, as well as those we are not told much about. The majority have fled to find relative safety; recent history  is full of brutal examples of sequestrating people's homes, taking their livelihoods and their lives.  By comparison, my little cyber experience rates as nothing, and yet,  the event itself, raised my emotional awareness of a particular kind of loss.  It was not a comfortable place to be in.  It will be unimaginably uncomfortable for those who are living the full blast of it right now.

GETTING LOCKED OUT OF MY BLOGSITE-ME VISITING ME

I have had a worrying prospect in sight today, it seemed I had lost access to all the delights of my blog.  I couldn't write a post, I couldn't find tools with which to modify anything, in other words, I was visiting my site as a visitor.  Weird, worrying, puzzling and frustrating!  

Just in case I have been too optimistic about today's muddle, I am posting while the opportunity presents itself.  I have yet to find my associated email,  another concern, so, I cannot be too jubilant.  

If I meet up ever again with another 'give a profile'  to a comment, with no options on offer, I shall back step out of it.  I ended up with a blank sheet of questions requiring to be filled in. Current ones, (by then probably 'ex' ) not being acceptable.  There was no mailing feature to be seen. A tremendous amount of time has been used to  try and sort out the consequences of doing something I was unfamiliar with.  Has anyone else been faced with this?  

The questions that are asked to restore an account are amazing.  Just in case you are faced with this experience; you should have a record of;
When you opened  the gmail account/s, dates etc.
Other facilities you use with the account/s and the dates they were  installed,
5 contact emails.
4 labels,
Security data.

I might have forgotten something, but you get the gist.

BLOG FRIENDS

There is always a blogger or two, who make a tangible and special impact.  Two blog friends I had with that extra 'something' have both died within a year or so of each other.  Like in life, it leaves a space, in this instance in my blogosphere. I genuinely do miss them and their very different ways of posting and commenting.  They added substance and diversion to the experience.  Interaction with them was always a joy, not always in agreement, but then that made for useful discussion and enlightenment.  In differing ways, we learned about one another and learned from each other.  There was a  wonderful dynamic.

SILENT BLOG SPHERE

After all this time, I still feel that this a a 'silent' blog sphere. There is quality about here; I know three U.S.bloggers who use this site, who migrated away from another when I did and two of the three link into my other blog, as that one became my blogsite of choice. Why did it become my site of choice? Because it was easier to interact with other bloggers than it is with this site.

Seeking other blogs here is not made simple. There is quite a maze of layers to negotiate, after seeking assistance via the help section. Then what you find is scrappy. It is equally as awful as seeking help with Microsoft software when you need to, (something I avoid like the plague). A certain coded language seems to be needed for the search criteria, ordinary English is not enough. I may be wrong, however, it seems to me that bloggers here, also need to have computer programming ability as well as knowledge to set up links to outer space and what have you!

I don't always agree with the blogs of choice that are offered; I want to choose my own, those that suit my interests, tastes and at times my cultural background. As said, the blog search is not facilitated. This site has potential, but is cumbersome and not truly interactive. It is a great pity.