Defunct blogging platforms

February 18, 2022 11:33 PM

I'm trying to compile a list of defunct hosted blogging platforms. Which ones am I missing?

To count, a site must:

• Have at one point allowed anyone to join with no invitation and publish content online
• Have focused on "blogging," not "social media" or general web hosting (this is somewhat flexible, since these lines are blurry. I have a few more web-hosty ones on the list right now, but don't want to add more.)
• Have been based on their own software, not just a generic wordpress/etc host
• No longer allow anyone to join
• No longer host the user-generated content that it used to

Sites that were sold to other blogging or social media companies do count, as long as they meet all those points.

So far, I have:

• tinypress.co
• anchorcms.com
• blog.co.uk
• posterous.com
• jux.com
• pressmatica.com
• postagon.com
• pen.io
• soup.io
• updog.co
• synkee.com
• smallvictori.es
• skrivr.com
• pancake.io
• scriptogr.am
• markbox.io
• harp.io
• fargo.io
• dropplets.com
• calepin.co
• brace.io
• boxfolio.com
• amb-1.com
• 900dpi.com

I'm sure there are lots more, though — which ones am I missing?

here is where the list lives, if you're interested in seeing what these sites look like now.

posted by wesleyac to Technology (24 answers total)

Best answer: My first blog was on pitas.com, now long defunct.
posted by j.edwards at 11:44 PM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

Does Xanga count? I mean... there's still a teensy remnant of it there, but it's more like an abandoned cemetery that not even the ghosts still visit.
posted by stormyteal at 11:46 PM on February 18, 2022

Response by poster: Xanga doesn't count, since they seem to have content still on username.xanga.com (and I even found a post from 2021 when I was looking at it!)

Same with Livejournal, etc.
posted by wesleyac at 11:50 PM on February 18, 2022

Best answer: IIRC - vox dot com
posted by davidmsc at 12:03 AM on February 19, 2022 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Of course, there's EditThisPage.com (link goes to archive.org), probably the first blog-hosting platform.
posted by applesurf at 12:18 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

http://www.posterous.com/ was a simple blogging site that let you post via email, if I recall correctly.
posted by griseus at 1:25 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: blogs.salon.com which is where Real Live Preacher and The Julie/Julia Project got their starts. I believe it was a Manila/Radio Userland install hosted by Salon.
posted by brainwane at 1:58 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: My first blog was on a webinar called Scribble. Scribble.nu, maybe?
posted by janepanic at 4:59 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

MySpace was more like Tumblr than Facebook, I'd add it if it were my list.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:39 AM on February 19, 2022

Response by poster: janepanic: Yep, scribble.nu appears to have been a thing :)

DarlingBri: MySpace doesn't meet my criteria, since they're still kicking around. It looks like they deleted everyone's blogs in 2013, but that isn't sufficient for my list — I'm looking for services that are totally gone now.
posted by wesleyac at 8:01 AM on February 19, 2022

Are you interested in self-hosted software, or only many-user platforms?
posted by adamrice at 8:12 AM on February 19, 2022

Response by poster: I'm only interested in self-hosted software if there was a official hosted version that has since gone offline.
posted by wesleyac at 10:13 AM on February 19, 2022

Diaryland.com
posted by epj at 11:35 AM on February 19, 2022

Best answer: My first blog was on teenopendiary.com.
posted by ActionPopulated at 11:35 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Diaryland appears to still be working, and seems to have a remarkable amount of quite charming activity :)
posted by wesleyac at 11:53 AM on February 19, 2022

> My first blog was on a webinar called Scribble. Scribble.nu, maybe?

Another vote for this one - I was trying and utterly failing to remember its name, beyond "didn't end in .com/org/net but not one of the common two-letter ones". But I definitely remember the chartreuse background + red details on the front page in that archive.org link!
posted by ASF Tod und Schwerkraft at 12:38 PM on February 19, 2022

Kuro5hin had a diaries section, and was self-hosted using their own open source CMS (Scoop), but the complications around entry submission/editing may make this not quite fit the criteria you want.
posted by brainwane at 1:51 AM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Advogato? Ah, I now see it is on your list.
posted by brainwane at 1:53 AM on February 20, 2022 [2 favorites]

I used a site called person.com in the mid-aughts. Don't go there now. Definitely NSFW.
posted by kathrynm at 6:22 AM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Infogami. I had my personal wiki/blog there.
posted by gakiko at 12:25 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

davidmsc is correct: Vox was started by Six Apart in 2006 and shuttered in 2010
posted by O9scar at 5:02 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: kathrynm: From looking at archive.org, I can only find evidence of email hosting on person.com, and then the "dating site" that slowly shifted into the porn it is today. Do you know where I'd find the blogging stuff? Was that a perk that was accessible to people who got email via them but not heavily advertised?
posted by wesleyac at 11:07 PM on February 20, 2022

Best answer: OK. I used it in 2005. I turned 30 that year and that was the first year I taught overseas. Here is a list of the top blogs from that crawl. Unfortunately it looks like the individual blogs were not crawled.
posted by kathrynm at 4:33 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

hi.co used to be a sort of place-based photo+text blogging service that is now defunct.
posted by oulipian at 2:22 PM on February 23, 2022