It seems blogging and commercialism don't always mix.The existence of the Today Exiles site proves to me that a lot of people are very cheesed off with Blogdog, formerly Today.com. I can see their point of view, but never really understood the sheer hatred some had/have for the service, which I quite liked and don't have too many bad words to say about.
You can chart Today's fall from grace from way back, and some even say it's been on the slippery slope since it launched a couple of years ago. Some brand it a 'scam', others 'a mess'. I will concede that these days it's far better to join Blogger or Wordpress and Adsense, but when I registered Retro Yakking in December 2008 it was a pretty good deal. Those that got in early managed to profit somewhat, even if it was the odd dollar here or there.
Then there was its excellent pagerank. I haven't done too many tests, but I'd expect it outranked its competitors right up until its final throes just one month ago. A pity, then, that Blogdog doesn't have nearly as much clout. With Today, I managed to gain some notoriety in a certain part of the blogosphere without even wanting or even trying to.
It remains to be seen whether its successor will be even half as successful, but I somehow doubt it. It was indeed a fun ride, and I'm glad I was along for it. But recent months saw staff cutbacks, the disappearance of the forum and eventually the blog, which was a real shame.
Its core group of bloggers, led by the wonderful VioletteB, must be credited with keeping the site open as long as it did, but it was always fighting a losing battle. The recession did nothing to help matters, and I suppose it was inevitable that fairly soon Today would be no more.
Is Retro Yakking dead? All but. MSNBC are now in possession of the domain, and all the stuff I blogged for Today is now at Blogdog, archived for posterity. I have since moved on, as you can see, and am free to implement my own designs, be as outspoken as I like without fear of reprimand. Oh yeah!
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