PhotoDude.com

Thu. Jul 06, 2006

I'm A Bad Blogfather

I’ve recently noticed a few folks reassessing where they are at with regards to their web site (I’m such a trend setter). People who’ve been doing this roughly as long as I have, and whether they realize it or not, people who created a site so affecting that it motivated others to try and create one for themselves.

On the web, there really is no greater or more sincere compliment than that.

And it moved me to take a look at an old site I haven’t seen in ages. A site that once listed blogs that claimed my site inspired them to start blogging, i.e., they claimed me as their blogfather. My blogchildren.

There were once nine of them. Only one has posted in the past month, and most are completely dead. I guess that makes me a Bad Blogfather. Consider this my memorial to them.

I guess this all started when I read the following from Mike at “Sacred Cow Tipping”:

As of June 18th, I’ve been blogging for 6 years, last week. It was very fitting that I forgot my blog anniversary, since I haven’t been too sure about continuing. I’m burned out and no longer enjoy doing a lot of things I’ve enjoyed doing in the past [...] Eventually, I’m going to start blogging like I use to. I’ve been reading through some old posts, reading from 2000-2005 my June & July posts. And I see how much I’m missing. Maybe it’s really just looking back at the fire of youth, not that 6 years is an eternity, but a lot happens. Worlds change.

...and continued when I read this from Pablo at Danger West:

I occurred to me that come November, I’ll have been doing this blogging crap for five years. That’s funny considering it was a lark that probably wouldn’t have lasted more than a month or two had I not suddenly become popular [...] I don’t know what the future holds or how much longer I’ll do this, so I just take it day by day and see what happens. I know I’ll get tired of it eventually, but so far I still feel the need to let the world know what I think, as if it really matters. No, correct that: I still feel the need to let a close circle of people that I respect (note: over in the blogroll) know what I think and that matters to me.

I hope that Mike and Pablo are both able to find a way to “be themselves” and enjoy their sites for a long time. I’ve certainly enjoyed them, and in both cases they’ve inspired others to grab a piece of the web for themselves.

Which brings me to Blogtree, “The Blog Genealogy Site” ... which apparently lasts about five days into each month before it exceeds its bandwidth. Oh, well. If that were not the case, you’d be able to look at the blogtree for my site for yourself, but I can give you the relevant facts.

The way it worked was that you would register your blog, and first of all, tell the site who your “blogfather” and/or “blogmother” were. It would then determine who your “siblings” were (other sites that had declared the same inspirational parent), and others could declare you as their “blogparent,” and be listed on the page as a “blogchild.”

I listed my blogparents as Pat at 42 and Heather at Harumph. And we’ll have to call Heather my “step-blogmom,” as I was unable to link my blogmother. You see, she’s now on her fifth or sixth domain, with the new one never associated with the old one, so I didn’t want to blow her cover. Nor will I now. But she knows who she is.

On that page there nine sites that declared they were my “blogchild” (and I never contested paternity on any of them). But today, only one of them, Lawver.net, is still kickin’ hard (and lookin’ good, too, Kevin!).

Erin Malone should probably be given the benefit of the doubt. Even though she last posted a photo on May 20, her flickr stream reveals more recent life. So we’ll say, “she’s alive but never calls her blogdaddy anymore.”

Bluezfire.org had listed two URL’s as my “blogchildren,” but both have been 404 for some time (1, 2). Still, there was a front page blog … until June 11: “There comes a point in time when you have to face the fact that you really don’t have anything else to say.”

Jay Zilber, at Mind Over What Matters last posted in December 2005, and made two other posts during that year. At best, he’s comatose, on life support. The Limey Brit, the kind blogchild who gave me the invitation for my beloved Gmail account over two years ago, last posted in September, 2005.

“AnnElizabeth.net is for sale,” Tim Peck apparently has bought Earthlink, Lavonne moved on, and phatt/fire/sizzle has not emitted smoke since last September.

Not listed on Blogtree are a couple of other sites which I gave birth to with my own coding hands. EduDude last posted last September (that was apparently a bad month for my blogchildren). However, I know what his problem is, and she just turned 16 months old.

But Some Dark Hollow has to be a new record for me. I inspired him to make his first post on the site in February. And he never came back.

Sigh.

I’ve done a fair amount of whining about The State of The Blogosphere over the past year or so. And that, combined with the Graveyard of My Blogchildren above, makes me think I ought to try a different tack for a while. Call it a form of penance for the whining.

Not that I was wrong to whine, or that the whining won’t happen again. Just that I’m going to try to balance the negative with some positive. More soon on that.

For now, I’m pondering the pile of electrons and 404 pages my blogchildren have become. In lieu of sending flowers, I suggest you go buy a domain for someone you love. Or someone you hate. Either way, you’ll get a payoff, or something new to whine about on your blog.