Apple to discontinue .Mac homepage and .Mac groups

[DJY]

HI all
did a quick search - but couldn't see this one...
Two emails sent out this morning indicating as of 7 July Apple will discontinue .Mac groups and .Mac homepages...

On July 7, 2009, .Mac Groups will be discontinued. As of this date, all Groups features - including your group email address, group HomePage, message board, and iDisk "Groups" folder - will no longer be available.

If you have an active group, please alert your members of this change.

Any files contained in the "Groups" folder on your iDisk will be moved on July 7 into a new folder titled "Groups Archive" where you may access your Groups files as long as you remain a MobileMe member.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause. For more information, please read this FAQ. And thank you for being a MobileMe member.

and

On July 7, 2009, the .Mac HomePage web application will be discontinued. As of this date, you will no longer be able to create new pages or edit existing pages using HomePage. Any pages you've already published will remain live at their current web address for as long as you like. If you need to make changes to your existing pages, please do so before July 7.

Instead of HomePage, we recommend the other sharing features of your MobileMe membership. With MobileMe Gallery, you can share photos online directly from iPhoto or the web application at MobileMe. And using iWeb on your Mac, you can create custom websites and blogs and publish them to MobileMe.

[Phase]

Stay at home mum's and hippie-retirees the world over gasp in horror, and then are silenced.

[scar68]

Originally Posted by Phase

Stay at home mum's and hippie-retirees the world over gasp in horror, and then are silenced.

As they should be !

[Shaun R]

Is the .Mac HomePage Web App thing that under-featured crappy old thing I once saw a screenshot of??

And iDisk Groups - would anyone actually use that anyways?

[glitch]

The change they didnt announce is much more negative in its impact and oddly mean spirited for Apple - you can longer sign up for a trial mobileme account, cancel it and continue to use iChat with your username.

So Apple now has an application that can't be used unless you part with a significant amount of money for a username - AUD$120 per year for username!

There is a workaround whereby you can use an AOL username to get access, but its damn annoying that you cant get a username from Apple for their chat application.

[entropy]

It is interesting that July 7 is exactly a month after the WWDC. Could it be there is a replacement (you know, that people might actually use)?

[Tassiecelt]

I got the email tooI don't understand... I use iWeb to create and maintain my website using a .mac (or .me) account - surely they don't mean this will be discontinued??

Please tell me someone!

[gikku]

i used an expired trial .mac login for aim and iChat for about 4years.

since .me that login no longer works and i'm off iChat, bummer.

what's the best workaround for this?

[half goon half god]

Originally Posted by gikku

i used an expired trial .mac login for aim and iChat for about 4years.

since .me that login no longer works and i'm off iChat, bummer.

what's the best workaround for this?

Sign up for AIM? It's the same functionality if you're just using it for iChat.