Public (Free) MySmartChannels Service End-of-Life (EOL) FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions About the Termination of the Public (Free) MySmartChannels Service

Many thanks to the thousands of individuals, organizations, and company's that have used the Public (Free) MySmartChannels Services over the past five years.  We initially published the free service in 2002 to stress test the underlying MyST Platform technology and to help explore different ways to apply this technology to real-world information management problems.

With the help of wonderful feedback from many MySmartChannels users, the MyST Platform has evolved into an industrial-strength platform that now powers our MyST Blogsite® and MyST Enterprise RSS Services™ offerings, as well as a number of custom commercial information management applications.

At this point, we have decided to discontinue the Public MySmartChannels Service and instead focus on our commercial service offerings.  This FAQ is intended to answer any questions you may have about why, when, and how the free service is being terminated.  If you have other questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us.

– Bill French & F. Andy Seidl
     June 19, 2007

  1. Why are you discontinuing the public MySmartChannels service?
  2. Are you offering a replacement service?
  3. Can I transfer my content to a replacement service?
  4. When will public access be terminated?
  5. Where will public page requests be redirected?
  6. Can you redirect my pages somewhere specific?
  7. How can I get my existing content?
  8. Will my content be discarded after service termination?

Why are you discontinuing the public MySmartChannels service?

MyST Blogsite™ services (which are based on the underlying MyST Platform technology) have evolved far beyond what is available in the free MySmartChannels service.  It is no longer practical for us to maintain and support the free MySmartChannels service.

Are you offering a replacement service?

Yes, we offer commercial blogsite services for both secure and public applications. Please contact us for more details.

We also offer enterprise RSS services (e.g., see http://rss.intel.com), please contact us for more details.

Can I transfer my content to a replacement service?

Yes.  If you elect to move to a commercial MyST Blogsite service, your content can migrate seamlessly to your new blogsite.

You may also retrieve your existing content in XML format and use it in any application capable of importing XML data.  For more details, please see this knowledge base article:

How do I backup my blogsite content to my personal computer?
Backup your content locally as XML by saving a MyST-ML, RSS, and/or Atom feed to disk.

When will public access be terminated?

  • June 18, 2007: New user sign-up discontinued
  • July 15, 2007: Public request serving discontinued
  • July 31, 2007: Secure login access discontinued

Where will public page requests be redirected?

For a period of 30 days:

  • HTML page requests will be redirected to a landing page that explains that the page is no longer available.
  • RSS and Atom requests will be redirected to a feed that contains a single item that explains that the feed is no longer available.
  • All other requests will produce a 410 GONE response.

After 30 days:

  • All requests will produce a 410 GONE response.

After 60 days:

  • The public servers will be completely shutdown (after which there will be no response at all).

Can you redirect my pages somewhere specific?

In general, we are not offering this as a standard service.  However, depending on your specific requirements, we may be able to accommodate this on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us to discuss you specific needs.

How can I get my existing content?

You may retrieve and save your content as RSS, MyST-ML, HTML, or any other feed format presently available.  If you wish to do so, please be sure to retrieve your content prior to July 31, 2007.

For more details, please see this knowledge base article:

How do I backup my blogsite content to my personal computer?
Backup your content locally as XML by saving a MyST-ML, RSS, and/or Atom feed to disk.

Will my content be discarded after service termination?

No, we will preserve your content in off-line storage until at least July 31, 2008.  As long as your content exists in off-line storage, you may request a copy of your content in RSS and MyST-ML format (delivered via e-mail as a password-protected .zip file) for a $250 service fee.

Note: if you prefer your content to not be preserved in off-line storage, you should delete it yourself prior to July 31, 2007.

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