Nothing stays the same except impermanence.
Here at "Yorkshire Pudding" I have seen bloggers come and go. Once favoured blog buddies suddenly dry up and you wonder where they have gone when their once regular outputs shrink to nothing - often without explanation. Maybe they just get bored with the whole blogging show. It can happen.
Over at Geograph, I have been contributing images of the fabulous British Isles for over sixteen years. On that marvellous site, I have witnessed several unexplained departures. Members who contributed pictures just about every week suddenly ceased and we heard no more from them. I know that death has been the reason in several instances but often the disappearances have been unexplained.
It's just the same.
I know that it might sound ridiculous to non-bloggers but in the blogosphere you build up affection for and loyalty to other bloggers. They become like real friends but without the face-to-face familiarity or physical presence.
Here I regularly corresponded with bloggers that you might never have heard of... Daphne Franks in Leeds, Alkelda the Gleeful and Brad the Gorilla in Seattle and the troubled authoress of "Friday's Web" in North Carolina. They were special people but then they went away. I am sure that other long term bloggers have witnessed similar departures.
Now on to the present day and I look at my blog sidebar where thirty two other blogs are listed. But not all of them are active and it gets tiresome clicking on the links to discover that nothing has changed. These blogs are effectively frozen in time. And I often worry about the authors. Are they okay?
Sometimes the silent blogs will spark up again - but usually not for long. In the meantime, previously unseen blogs may have caught my interest without yet gaining a coveted place in the Yorkshire Pudding sidebar.
Anyway, today is the day for some blog housekeeping to happen. Though it saddens me to say this, I shall later remove:-
"A Yorkshire Memoir" - Tasker Dunham has not blogged since January 1st and this may be down to his challenging health battles. If you are reading this Tasker, I wish you all the best my friend.
"Arctic Fox" - Jason has not blogged since December 20th. Previously he had a ten year absence.
"Crafty Cats Corner" - Sweet Briony has not blogged since November 3rd.
"The Last Visible Dog" - Lovely Kate Steeds in New Zealand has not published since March of last year.
And the only blogs I intend to add to the sidebar today are:-
"To Baldly Go" - created by Kirt in another part of Sheffield - though we have never met.
"House Dust and Wander Lust" - from Diaday in Dayton, Ohio. This is a blog that I have only recently started to get into.
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To Tasker, Jason, Briony and Kate - can I just say that if you decide to return to the blogging fold, please give me a nod so that I can reinstate you.
Before I began blogging in 2004, I was already reading some, and occasionally commenting. So many have have gone, and at times something will trigger my memory of someone and their long gone blog. There were quite a few younger bloggers in the earlier days, and now it seems barely anyone under fifty, or sixty even, which is quite sad, although who I read now have become treasured people in my life. Yes, all very thought provoking. I think blogging is as good a method to avoid dementia than any mind puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThe blogosphere has a revolving door in constant motion.
ReplyDelete