I registered my domain in 1998 and soon thereafter set up web hosting with Earthlink. Hey, it was 1998! My first website was created to keep friends and family informed about my son’s hospitalization; we didn’t call it a blog, but that’s actually what it was, complete with a guest book that I would read to him every night. His surgeons posed for pictures, the whole thing kept us laughing during some dark days. It became the subject of my first New York Times article, Stuffed Toys and Web Pages Sooth Sick Boy.
I even plugged Earthlink in the article!
Since 1998, I have paid Earthlink $19.95 every month. Plus tax. Some $2,000. Yes, I’ve known for at least five years that I was overpaying, but the hassles of switching providers for the website and my email was too painful to contemplate.
I’m best at viewing the digital universe from 20,000 feet. The closer it gets, the less clear my understanding, and at the entirely tactical level, I’m yelling for technical support. The monthly charge to my credit card was irritating but there was always something more important to do.
Then I met a wonderful fellow who would assist me with the upgrade of my blog, which would serve as the front door to my various professional and personal lives as Dean of Macaulay Honors College, author, parent, New Yorker. We were getting along very well and made plans to cut over to a new hosting service on June 30.
I called Earthlink on June 22 to cancel automatic billing. I had time on my hands during a day of flight delays and figured I’d get it over with. Foolish! Why didn’t I procrastinate like I usually do! Perhaps there was too much triumph in my voice? Too much pent-up delight at making it into the 21st century? Instead of following my extremely clear instructions to cut off hosting on the last day of my last paid month, Earthlink Sam cheerfully took my information and gave me a file number, 154030546, which I dutifully wrote down. I reinforced the instructions about waiting until June 30.
But when our phone connection was severed, so was my email, and so was twelve years worth of writing and reflecting, including that first 1998 blog for my son.
I spent nearly an hour with another phone representative, Earthlink Gary, who really did try to help, but the damage was done and apparently irrevocable. Despite the fact that Earthlink had already been paid until the end of the month? Sorry, Sam must have been confused. No, there was no back-up on the server, Earthlink Gary said with genuine regret in his voice. We’ll try our best to retrieve the files, he promised, but of course, they never appeared. I waited another day, and then transferred the domain.
So /ak is born, but with no memory.