Edit: There is not a day that goes by that I do not click on an article that takes me to a landing page that tells me that information is lost forever. Still heartbreaking to lose so much knowledge.
Originally posted October 29, 2019 on AIXchange
Big news: IBM is sunsetting its entire developerWorks Connections platform.
I’m a long-time reader of IBM developerWorks, a vast collection of blogs, groups, forums and much more that’s maintained by some accomplished IBM technologists. Chris Gibson’s blog on AIX and PowerVM, The AIX Virtual User Group and the AIXpert blog are just a few of my most-clicked bookmarks.
So I was surprised by the recent announcement that IBM is sunsetting its entire developerWorks Connections platform on Jan. 1, 2020. Below is an excerpt of that announcement:
“As part of the overall IBM effort to reduce the number of duplicate client interaction portals and simplify the user experience with the digital side of IBM, we are sunsetting the developerWorks Connections platform which includes all URLs starting with https://ibm.com/developerworks/community/.
Affected pages will have a banner at the top identifying it as a target for removal on December 31, 2019. This removal includes all community blogs, wikis, forums, activities and files. Please send any questions or comments on our Support form.
On January 1, 2020, the developerWorks Connections platform and its apps will no longer be available.
Q. Why are these Connections pages going away?
A. IBM is consolidating major content portals to improve the customer experience.
Q. What specific content of mine will be impacted and removed?
A. Your community and its apps will no longer be available including: Activities, blogs, files, forums and wikis…
Q. Can I receive a copy of all of my content I’ve published?
A. Unfortunately due to technical constraints of this product, we are unable to provide that service.”
If you want to leave feedback, you can do so here.
https://developer.ibm.com/code/dw-connections-sunset-support/
As someone who has blogged for 12 years, I understand that a great deal of technical information, even if goes back several years, remains relevant and useful for today’s IT pros. If you’re a regular reader or even if you only occasionally peruse the developerWorks community pages, I encourage you to register your opinion with IBM. My hope is that if they hear from enough of us, they’ll at least put off the sunsetting, giving us more time to figure out how to archive this valuable content.