Bloggers are outraged that Dave Winer pulled the plug on their blogs without warning.

He’d been hosting 3,000 blogs on his server for free, beginning in 2000. Now, because of time, financial and health demands, he decided that he couldn’t do it any more. So he stopped.

People woke up Monday morning to discover that they didn’t have a blog.

Bummer. I’d be shocked, too, if it happened to me. I confess that for all the bells and whistles on this site–template, server storage, site meter, blog indexes, comments, I’ve paid not one penny (it’s probably obvious). It’s a choice I’ve made, and an option I’m grateful for. When one of these free benefits stops working, either it gets fixed or I drop it. But calling the giver an “egomaniacal blowhard” is just plain weird.

Blogger belongs to Google now, another free service, but it has long-term stability. But we haven’t signed any contract. I keep copies of my own archives on my own hard drive. If Blogger sometime decides to collect fees for the service, I’ll analyze the benefit against the cost and make a decision. But I won’t accuse anyone of betraying “blogtopia.”

Sheesh. Get a grip. (And back up.)