The Blogs.helsinki.fi service will introduce two changes related to blog provisioning starting on 24 August 2026 at 10:00 AM.
Personal Blogs
After the date and time above, personal blogs will no longer be created automatically for new users. As university account identifiers have changed over time, automatically generated blog addresses are no longer considered practical or user-friendly. In addition, automatic blog creation has resulted in a number of unused personal blog sites.
As a result, from 24 August 10:00 AM onwards, all users who wish to create a blog site, whether for personal, study-related, teaching, group, or project use, are asked to submit their requests through the blog request form: /blogrequest/. Moving to a request-based process will help ensure that blog sites are created only when needed and will support more efficient use of service resources.
Please note, that the existing requirement to log in to the service and register a user account before creating or joining blogs will remain unchanged. Users can still be added as members of existing blogs even if they do not have a personal blog site of their own; the only difference being, that personal blog sites will no longer be provisioned automatically upon first login. (Existing personal blogs created before the date and time above will remain unaffected).
Updates to the Blog Request Form
In addition, the blog request form will be updated at 24th. When requesting a new blog site, users will be asked to provide information about:
- The type of blog site being requested
- The expected lifecycle of the site
- Whether the site is likely to have archival value in the future
This information is intended primarily to support long-term service management and planning. It may also be used when evaluating the future status of inactive sites that no longer have users.
Both of the changes listed above will be carried out live starting at 10:00 AM on 24 August and are not expected to cause any service interruption. During the update, some content on the front page may temporarily appear inconsistent or partially updated until all changes have been completed. For any questions please contact blogs@helsinki.fi