A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
This is what we've long warned about and keep warning about very frequently:
If you do not control the technical platform (code), the domain (Internet "asset") and various other things, then you are at the mercy of somebody else. Typepad, like many others before it (e.g. Google+, Digg.com the original, JoinDisapora etc.), is shutting down like a lot of social control media platforms.
There are several lessons in there. In a nutshell: start with the domain (and jurisdiction thereof), make sure you use a platform you can control (even if its original developer gives up), choose a webhost that is reliable. Make backups, too.
This is not limited to webhosts; the same can be said about E-mail. If you pay nothing for E-mail, then you are likely at risk (someone else controls you). █