Dead Seriously.

Since I started blogging way back in the glory days of 2006 (or was it 2007? I can’t really remember when my wife and I started the old blogger site…), one thing that I’ve always enjoyed doing is following links. This usually starts with someone leaving a comment with a hyperlinked name, so I can visit their site. After a few minutes of exploring, I’ll find an interesting link in the sidebar or an interesting comment on that site, with a link to yet another blog. Rinse, repeat. I could do this for hours–it’s kind of like Wikipedia: Open an article on crocheting, and two hours and 45 linked pages later, you’re reading about the endangered yak in some country you’ve never visited. It’s a wonderful way to kill time that you should spend with your family.

In particular, though, one of the most fascinating parts of link hopping is coming across defunct blogs–blogs that still exist, but haven’t had new entries added for months or even years. Whenever I find these blogs (and there are bazillions of them, since I believe it is part of a blogger’s rite-of-passage to go down the “That’s a brilliant idea for a blog!” path only to discover that we ran out of steam after 4-5 posts at least half a dozen times), I immediately start reading the last few entries, trying to discern exactly what caused the blogger to stop writing there. Now and then, you’ll find some short explanation about being burned out, or concerns for privacy, or changes in platform or URL–actual reasons for the “end”–but most of the time there is nothing–the blog just comes to abrupt end.

Whatever the reason (or lack thereof), when these blogs come to an end, I always feel a little bit sad (especially when my review of the old posts leads me to the conclusion that the blogger was a great writer with plenty to say), and feel some odd urge to contact the blogger and ask them why they stopped writing, or even if they realize that they stopped writing, and that someone noticed, and that someone wishes they would come back.

Then I remind myself that I have no idea who these people are, can’t even remember how I landed on their website, and it would be really creepy to contact them and ask them to write more.

Anyway, I don’t want my blog to be an Internet ghost town anymore, so I’m going to try and post here again.** I have no idea why I stopped in the first place.

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**There is actually another type of defunct blog. In addition to the “explanation” and the “no explanation” types, there are sites like this where the blogger starts and stops over and over until any readers have been thoroughly alienated.