Now, Cut That Out!

When you publish a blog, you have to accept the possibility that you may acquire a following, whether you want one or not (although with Blogger Beta, you can set it up to where only people you list can see/read your blog, but we'll ignore that little fact for sake of this discussion). Keeping that in mind, isn't it fair to be considerate of said following, especially when you've interacted with them in some way?

If you decide you no longer wish to continue to maintain a blog, there are two ways you can end it. The first way is with a proper goodbye, as I noted the other day. (Although she has now taken down even her goodbye post, it was up for 4 or 5 days, long enough for regular readers to see it.) The second way is just to vanish without a trace. A little while ago, I went to read Tiffanie's blog, and got the old "Blogger: 404 - Page not found" message. I just read her blog yesterday; today, it's non-existent. Someone else I used to read did that a couple of weeks ago.

Just my opinion, of course, but once you know other people are reading your stuff, isn't it rude not to say goodbye? Now if there was something catastrophic going on, like someone was stalking you, and your blog might give the stalker clues to find you, then it could be understood that you might just blow the whole thing up, without warning. But, what are the odds of that happening? Chances are, the person either got bored with it, realized they were spending too much time doing it, or no longer had a need for it. And I can understand all of those reasons.

But, for Pete's sake, give us a couple seconds, will ya? Say goodbye, so we know what's up. It doesn't have to be long, drawn-out or emotional. Maybe just a brief paragraph, saying that you're "moving on to the next phase of your life" (or something else equally as vague). That way, our imaginations don't start to run wild, thinking that maybe you got smushed by a bread truck whilst walking to the local pub, and your anal-retentive sister discovered your blog and deleted it to preserve your family's good name (especially with YOUR family... SHEESH!).