While I was updating my webpage yesterday, a brief hiccup in the upload caused me to look into some online help files, at which point I came across some bad news. By next summer, Apple will no longer host web pages- the move to the iCloud online storage will result in the end of their MobileMe service (which this page uses for online hosting). So best case, this page will be frozen, and worst case it will disappear completely. Also worrying was a suggestion/rumor I saw that iWeb, the program I use to create this site, will also be discontinued.
I am pretty sad about all this. The combination of iWeb and MobileMe has been really easy to use. Also, this is now the third time that I’ve been burned by assuming an online hosting service will be persistent. Apple already disabled their Groups function (I was helping run a site for my extended family), so we moved to GoogleGroups, which then within about a year crippled their service. This effected both that family site as well as our Patricelli Lab site, which we ended up moving to a UC Davis course site (SmartSite).
I have a few months to figure out what to do, so this website will be here for the near term. If anyone has any advice, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the options for making and hosting a site similar to mine, with a blog, different pages, some pretty pictures, and the option to host documents and such. I guess specifically, did you register mycuteresearchanimal.org or myname.org, or go with a blogspot or something like that. Did you use a particular piece of software (WordPress? DreamWeaver?) Any other advice?

Feel free to send me an email if you have any thoughts or advice.