Rick Moen writes:
I called the store [ ... ] "[ ... ] Maybe you should consider fixing your goddamned Web site, unless you really prefer losing business.' The guy said 'Er, sorry about that, but we can't fix it. We hired a firm to create the site years ago, but don't have access to edit it. I was stunned,
That's sadly common. I saw it with my old Toastmasters club in Santa Clara: some past member had set up a website, but had moved on without sharing the passwords with anyone else, so the website was full of incorrect information no one could fix and no one could point the domain elsewhere. We ended up registering a new domain (Rick's solution), though every now and then we had to explain to guests why the website they had found for us was so wrong.
And the "HOA" where I'm living now had a website hosted on some hosting service that apparently was defunct. There was a machine that was up and running and serving a few pages, but when I tried to contact them so I could update the website, nobody answered either phone or email queries. (I gather they had been cashing the checks the HOA sent them, though.) Again, registering a new domain (which was Rick's suggestion too) was the easiest answer, though the HOA has since dissolved (it wasn't a real HOA, just a group that collected $25/year to fund an annual BBQ).
I've heard similar tales from local artists, who hire someone thinking they need a website to advertise their work, then can't update the website later because whoever built it has moved on. Probably something similar happened with Henry's Hunan.
To avoid problems like that, when I set up a website for a club or nonprofit (I seem to do a lot of that), I make a big deal of sharing the passwords with the board or other leaders. "I know you think you don't know what to do with this, but if I disappear, you'll need it, and you'll find someone technical who can use it. Keep it in a safe place." They never do. If I ask them a year later, they have no memory of that conversation and no idea where they might have put the passwords.
I don't know how you get people to save website access information in a way that they'll find it when they need it. Websites are magical things that appear if there's a technical person around, and no nontechnical person can possibly have any responsibility for it except for possibly signing a check. And organizations never seem to have an "IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS, DON'T LOSE" folder, either paper or electronic.
...Akkana