The Windows Live Team sent out an email reminder today that Windows Live Spaces will be closing for good on March 16th. The timing has been announced before, but it’s getting down to crunch time if you’re still using Spaces and don’t want to lose your content.
In the email, the Windows Live Team lists what you need to do before Spaces closes:
- Upgrade your blog by migrating to WordPress.com – We will provide a simple way to move your blog posts and comments to WordPress.com.
- Download your blog – You can download your old posts to keep a copy with you. You can also do this and then migrate to WordPress.com.
- Delete your space – If you decide that you do not want to have a space anymore, you have the option to delete it permanently. If you want to save your content, please make sure to do that before deleting your space.
- Review your blog – Soon your space will close but you still have some time to review your blog and make a decision that’s right for you. We’re very excited about what you can do on WordPress.com and hope you’ll decide to take advantage of this improved blogging experience.
As we reported earlier, since the initial announcement on the impending closure of Spaces, some half a million (at last count) Spaces users had already migrated to WordPress.com, with another half million creating new WordPress.com blogs using their Windows Live IDs. In addition to the WordPress.com partnership, Windows Live also announced that Chinese users (who are unable to access WordPress.com from within China), would be able to migrate to Sina.com.
We have fond memories of Spaces, some of our favorite people worked on the product over the years, and we’re a little sorry to see it go. Thanks for all the memories!