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The Parlor Home Page Early 2023 |
This has been happening for a few weeks, now. Unfortunately, my web host seems to have a history of instability like this. Hey, don't shoot the messenger; I'm conveying what I have found online in recent days and weeks. That is because the Parlor is by far not the only site affected by this current apparent outage.
To be clear, there is Lycos, which is like an umbrella, and it is Lycos that owns both Tripod and Angelfire. There is a site I like that is hosted by Angelfre, a collection of short stories across several pages called The Old Wife's Tales. Today, it threw me a 502 error on my tablet, but a refresh brought the site back. It just threw me another one when I went to get the site's URL for y'all.
Oh, no. This is not good.
There are a few obscure old Tripod sites I found that still came up, but most sites hosted by Tripod, the Parlor included, are throwing 404 errors. The sites for the hosts themselves, Tripod Lycos and Angelfire Lycos, come up just fine. Lycos by itself comes up just fine.
But The Mayfair Witches Parlor? NOT fine. I can't even log in. I also cannot seem to relieve the migraine that has ensued. Yes, I suffer from chronic migraines. And distress is a major trigger. So I'd like to appeal to Tripod Lycos to please resolve this or tell us what exactly is going on here because I only have one bottle of ibuprofen.
Now, then, let me get to discussing the website itself.
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| The Parlor in Pink ca 2008 |
As stated, I launched my site as Come Into My Parlor...The Mayfair Witches in June 2008. Like any web host, Tripod Lycos had a lot of different templates for pages, some of which could be customized. That is how the Parlor went from initially looking like the Parlor in Pink to the way it looked at the time I archived my site on Wayback Machine and how it looked when this crash happened.
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| Parlor Home Page June 2025 |
Whether or not the original Parlor comes back, make no mistake--I very thoroughly backed up each and every page of the Parlor right before Tripod go SPLAT. What you see above is a screenshot, and I have similar screenshots of each and every page. My backup did not stop at screenshots, however. Nor did it stop at the backup file I was able to save from Tripod Lycos directly. I have all of my text, images and media, links, codes--ALL of it.
I also backed up the Parlor on Wayback Machine and have that data, as well.
The Parlor had just begun the process of moving to a new home when this happened. Even if I choose not to add new content after the move, I will still maintain the existing content. Because while I discuss the Mayfair Witches--and NO, that is not my only interest, gdmmit--I do so with my own text. I. Write. My. Own. Text. And that belongs to ME.
I also have created decorative graphics and images and even 3D models for my site and more. That content also belongs to ME. And I will manage and monitor it as long as I allow it to remain online.
My site is built for fans of the Mayfair Witches by a fan of the Mayfair Witches. What I did NOT build it for is to be targeted by bots, disgruntled YouTubers, unscrupulous data brokers or any other bottom feeders who want only to exploit it in any way they can.
Even if Tripod Lycos is purging free websites as has been vaguely suggested, okay, fine, but they need to make sure to let the search engines know what they are and are not hosting. If they don't want to do that, then I will require access so I can unpublish it. Because if I am not allowed to access my own property, and am not provided with the required explanation as to why, we're gonna have problems.
It isn't clear whether or not the platform no longer allows NEW free hosting, or they're making it retroactive and wiping out sites left and right with absolutely no warning of any kind. The history of this is such a long one with so much obscenely outdated data and information on their own website and help pages that it is just about impossible to tell what is going on.
It's true that customer service is like that of other platforms--there isn't any. I tried to go to their Knowledge Base on Tripod and...
Now, understand--I generally don't have problems as long as I just let my site sit with nothing going on. Well, something IS going on now, and unless my access to and control of what is my property is restored, I will take further action. I will do so regardless of whether or not I continue to migrate my content, my property, to a different platform.
