Since I returned to blogging, I’m trying to solve the mystery of the vanished bloggers. Where have they gone? Why did they stop blogging? Are they OK? Will they come back? I’m not the only one who’s been asking this question. Not too long ago I saw a thread on Twitter in which people were asking this exact question – Why did so many bloggers who were once extremely enthusiastic about blogging suddenly stop?
During my prolonged absence from blogging, which included not reading blogs, I wasn’t aware that I was not the only one who stopped. I was one of many to stop but, as it seems, the only one of those who stopped for a longer period, who has come back.
To find out, how many of those I used to visit were still around, I had to go through my blogroll. I went through the links one by one and what I found was rather sad. I expected to find a few inactive blogs and maybe the one or the other that had stopped for good, but I certainly didn’t expect to find that the majority of the blogs on my blogroll consisted of blogs that had been inactive for at least four years, that many had been deleted and several stopped recently. Many stopped in 2020. I think we can all guess why.
I’m not entirely sure what to do with my blogroll. Since I’m one of those bloggers who stopped for quite a long time but always had the intention of coming back, I’m a little reluctant to remove inactive blogs unless their link is broken. And even then, I’m not deleting them, I will just make them invisible to the public. I like to still be reminded of my former blogging friends. I also have always revisited favorite blogs, even if they haven’t written anything new in a long time.
The question remains – why did they stop? I do know in some cases. Occasionally for health or mental health reasons. Some stopped because they didn’t have the time anymore and a few because they didn’t enjoy it any longer. Some, like me, just wanted to take a break and found out that it’s remarkably difficult to come back to something you used to do regularly. I’m not entirely sure why this is the case, but that’s how it was for me. Being active on social media made it easier to come back. I was still in contact with many bloggers. Quite a few of those who have stopped blogging, have also disappeared from social media.
Should any of those who have vanished see this – know that we are still thinking of you and miss you.
I’d like to know how those who are still active handle their blogroll. Do you remove blogs? How long do you wait until you decide to remove them? I remember someone in the past mentioning they went through their links every year and any blog that wasn’t active in that year was removed. That’s too harsh for me but maybe three years should be a limit.
