TypePad, the blogging service used to host this blog, is experiencing what (if they ever notice) is sure to be called "degraded service." Degraded service is TypePad-speak for glitchy behavior, which often includes the inability to post comments, the inability to post stories, the inability to edit, or any combination of the above. In this case, only some of TypePad's functions are acessible. Others bring up Proxy Server errors. When will this be resolved? Who knows. TypePad has had two major failures in the past four months, along with dozens of minor problems stretching back almost one year. Their so-called Status Blog shows all services up and running, so they have not yet realized that they have a problem. (I called their corporate office and left a brief message. Perhaps they'll pick it up after their morning coffee.) All this would be acceptable from a free service, but TypePad is not free. One must wonder how long it will be before Blogger or Yahoo or some other entity opens a premium service on dedicated servers with realtime tech support that works. When that day comes, my guess is TypePad will simply fade away.
UPDATE: It's 2:15 am CST, January 31. TypePad has "disabled" the stats (the internal counters that measure web traffic to individual blogs) in order to take the load off its (supposedly new and state of the art) servers. This is a common TypePad ocurrance. In this case, stats have been down for more than 16 hours. TypePad only recently began admitting that it frequently disables stats to relieve server load. Those of us relying on TypePad's stats have been damaged by this apparently long-standing but until recently hushed up practice.
A friend is launching a large group blog with dozens of contributors. No tech person he spoke with recommended TypePad. No wonder.
UPDATE #2: It's 9:45 am CST on the 31st. Entering the TypePad application to do anything other than post takes more than three minutes. It should take no more than 10 to 15 seconds. What does TypePad have to say about all this? Their "status blog" notes no problems. As is almost always the case,TypePad is asleep at the switch.