I follow some friends' blogs that just aren't updated enough. Every day I look - every day - and for nearly all of them the "Last Updated" gets further and further into the past: 4 months, 11 months, 6 months, 1 year, 4 years...
Some of the blogs in my reading list I know have concluded, begun with a purpose and the purpose fulfilled, the last post a farewell and thanks. Another blog will never be updated again, the guy keeping it died. I won't let go of these for I don't want to forget.
And there are 2 or 3 hugely popular ones I follow that are updated all the time, ones even you might have heard of if you were gay or Australian or a birdwatcher - or all three. They don't disappoint me/fill me with ineffable nostalgia.
But friends* - dear friends - get your act together. Try harder. Think. Write, post pictures. I want to read your quirky musings, see your great paintings, be amused by those slower hidden sides of you I never get to see.
Or you could write me letters, I don't mind.
In the blog-o-sphere, life is cheap. A blog - a million blogs - appear with a burst of life, then stutter, and fail, the never-next post a fading hope. I did some research on blog half-lives and dead blogs. Millions are begun, 80% - or more - fail. A blog about dead blogs - last updated in 2006. Pressed Blogspot's "Next blog" button and see for yourself: "It's our anniversary tomorrow!" (8 April 2010). "God bless the two of you who still get alerts when I update this blog..." (4 May 2012). "Relaunch soon. Watch this space." (2 February 2011). Blog after unhappy blog.
But then: "After a nearly 2 year hiatus...I AM BACK!!!! Can't wait to update and share..." (28 October 2014). And who am I to cast the first stone? My first post was my only one for nearly 2 years.
So "M", "J", "C" and "H", my cleverly disguised friends*, post again, for me. For this post is for you.
* and that hot single guy with the sailing boat who finished his last post mid-sentence 11 months ago.
Some of the blogs in my reading list I know have concluded, begun with a purpose and the purpose fulfilled, the last post a farewell and thanks. Another blog will never be updated again, the guy keeping it died. I won't let go of these for I don't want to forget.
And there are 2 or 3 hugely popular ones I follow that are updated all the time, ones even you might have heard of if you were gay or Australian or a birdwatcher - or all three. They don't disappoint me/fill me with ineffable nostalgia.
But friends* - dear friends - get your act together. Try harder. Think. Write, post pictures. I want to read your quirky musings, see your great paintings, be amused by those slower hidden sides of you I never get to see.
Or you could write me letters, I don't mind.
In the blog-o-sphere, life is cheap. A blog - a million blogs - appear with a burst of life, then stutter, and fail, the never-next post a fading hope. I did some research on blog half-lives and dead blogs. Millions are begun, 80% - or more - fail. A blog about dead blogs - last updated in 2006. Pressed Blogspot's "Next blog" button and see for yourself: "It's our anniversary tomorrow!" (8 April 2010). "God bless the two of you who still get alerts when I update this blog..." (4 May 2012). "Relaunch soon. Watch this space." (2 February 2011). Blog after unhappy blog.
But then: "After a nearly 2 year hiatus...I AM BACK!!!! Can't wait to update and share..." (28 October 2014). And who am I to cast the first stone? My first post was my only one for nearly 2 years.
So "M", "J", "C" and "H", my cleverly disguised friends*, post again, for me. For this post is for you.
* and that hot single guy with the sailing boat who finished his last post mid-sentence 11 months ago.
