Farewell TypePad, thanks for the memories

TypePad has gone:

My first post Tuesday, 30 March 2004, my last Tuesday 29 September 2025.

Gone, but not forgotten

I'm sad, but not, as it has been lingering on life-support for several years. Although not my choice it seems kinder to let it go. The only real issue I had was the short notice (about a month) of closedown, but I have exported all my content, and it has found a new home here.

It started with a CAD Blog, TypePad chosen thanks to Shaan Hurley, a pioneer 'corporate blogger', at Autodesk showing me how easy it was. I will never forget him blogging from NZ, below at Huka Falls using a Blackberry, truly mobile, before many were.

I liked that TypePad was hosted and must compliment the various owners that in twenty-one years there were only a few noticeable outages, two I can recall. It was far from perfect—development stopped years ago, the editor was getting tired, image upload patchy—but it was reliable at serving content.

I got to know some of the team at six apart*—the developers of Moveable Type & TypePad—after participating in their Customer Advisory Board about a decade ago. I even visited their offices in San Francisco, on the way to an Autodesk event.

And got the t-shirt!

Blogging connections

What I won't lose are the connections blogging has enabled around the world. It linked me to a huge community of people, across industries and interests, many of whom have become friends.

It is amazing to arrive in a distant country—everywhere from New Zealand—and already know people. It was even better meeting 'virtual friends' in person.

Coincidentally today, September 30, in 2006 I took the photo below. A damp piece of paper, a presentation about design software and the Barnaby Flyer paper aircraft, led to an Autodesk MyFeedback competition win which took me to Las Vegas.

The Robin who tapped out that first tentative blog post would not have believed that could happen.

Blogs CAD & Personal

My focus drifted between my CAD and Personal Blogs, both were a hobby, as my interests changed. I mostly just wrote for myself (especially the travel stuff), considered it a bonus if anyone else cared enough to read it. The back catalogue of both has been combined here.

Funding two thousand micro-loans

Another aspect is some good TypePad has, unknown to them, done. Since 2009 they covered my hosting costs (as detailed in Disclosure) which I paid forward as donations to Kiva, funding micro finance loans around the world.

This resulted (@ September 2025) in ~2000 loans across 82 countries, ~us$50,000 in total funded from a base that has grown, over the years, to ~us$2,500 being fully reinvested on repayment. There are some losses, <2% which is impressive given many borrowers circumstances, but the top-ups cover those and slowly grow the base fund.

I will continue this commitment after TypePad closes, even though this platform is not free, and the Kiva RobiNZ Blog Team Impact Page will report current statistics.

Thanks TypePad, Hello Ghost!

I've settled on Ghost as the new home for my blog. It's a modern platform— focused on writing/publishing—with the familiar mix of being a hosted, supported, secure platform. The migration was ok, with a bit of help from the excellent Ghost Concierge, but I have some tidying up to do due to the merge of two blogs.

Unlike TypePad, Ghost also offers the option to self-host (should that be necessary) but I'm happy to outsource that hassle.

Vale TypePad, long live (Ghost) blogging!

P.S. The final stats of my time on TypePad: