Sunday 19 June 2016

Lost and abandoned blogs

are strewn across the internet. Some of them are barely there. Their owners were perhaps never terribly interested in them. Others started out well but their owners feel they no longer have anything to say. They have stopped abruptly. Some  have just faded away gradually. The posts have become less and less frequent.
I was reminded of all this yesterday when someone asked me about a blog post I had written some time ago. What, he wanted to know, had I done about the issue I had talked about?
I went back and re-read what I had written at the time and sent him a brief answer. I had an answer back "Thanks. I am still catching up on your blog posts."
Oh. Right.
I went to the list at the side of my blog's "dashboard" and looked at the list there. Had I been reading the blogs? Yes I had - or, at very least, glancing at them. 
It hasn't been difficult because so many of the people I was once interested in have not written anything for a long time. I know some won't. They have moved on to other things. They have changed the way they blog or gone from one blogging site to another. I have left some of them where they are because there are things I might want to refer to again some time. 
But there are others who will probably never revive their blogs. They seemed so enthusiastic once. They even threw "blog parties" - and I am grateful for that because I found some very interesting people - which I "attended"with some difficulty because of the difference in time zones.  It was fun at the time but nobody throws blog parties any more. 
Perhaps it is just as well. All this writing of blogs and reading them takes time. 
I suspect those who have ceased to write their own blogs have also ceased to read this one and many others besides.
I wonder what those abandoned blogs do. Do they sit there gathering dust? Do they sneeze occasionally?
 

4 comments:

apulrang said...

Hi there! I'm Andrew Pulrang and I run the Disability Blogger Linkup. Could you please email me because I have a question about your posts to the Linkup and I'm not sure how else to contact you. Thanks! My email is: apulrang@charter.net

Jodiebodie said...

Hi Cat,

Like fashions that come and go, so do social media platforms. Personally, I prefer blogs because of the freedom to use as many words as I like but mainly because blogs can include much more information than an Instagram photo for example. It seems that many of the very active bloggers have moved on to Instagram because it is easy to take a quick snap and post while being able to write substantially more than in a 'tweet'.

I love language; I love words; I like getting to know people and learn about the big wide world from outside my own little corner and blogs are perfect for that because of the detail they can contain.

My blog is not going anywhere, it is still active with no plans to stop. I'm still reading your blog, even though my blog-reading comes in fits and starts between the usual ebb and flow of a busy household. Your frequent blogging means that I will always be "catching up on your blog" Cat! I like the variety of topics and your educated viewpoint whether that is an academic education or life experience. Rest assured, you have a regular visitor in me.

Keep on blogging! :-)

catdownunder said...

thanks Jodie - I get reminded by other people too...although I really do wonder sometimes!

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