These days, if you have something to say and it won't fit in a single tweet (or a tweetstorm), you have so many more compelling options than blogging. You can post on Facebook if it's just for friends, or Tumblr if it's image-based, or on Medium if you want a think piece shared more widely, or LinkedIn, or any one of a hundred other sites and services that are thirsty for content.
About the last thing you'd do is willingly maintain your own site, especially not in an age where your readers are as likely to be on phones or tablets as desktop browsers. Who still does that kind of one-man operation?
— Chris Taylor
Readers, should any still wander by, will not have failed to notice that this blog has been silent a good long while. Save for quotes and salutations, the last time I put up any actual content was (quickly checks)... July. Six months ago.
I'm not saying that I, like my polar opposite in the blogging world (as far as, say, "having readers" or "actually putting up content" goes) am quitting, or have already quit. I am saying that these days when I have something brief to say, I tend to post it on Facebook, where I know at least some people will read it; and when I have something to link to, I tend to link to it on Twitter, where there is a better chance that someone might see it. And that when I sit down to write long pieces these days (not as often as I'd like, but for reasons of time & energy rather than anything else) I tend to imagine them going places other than here.
Where does this leave me? I don't know. Maybe I (like so many quitting bloggers — including Andrew Sullivan! — in the past) will recant quickly. Maybe this is the last post this blog will receive. Who knows. All I'm saying is: when I write these days, it tends to be elsewhere; and when I imagine writing more, as I hope and plan to do, it tends to be imagined towards elsewhere.
I'm not quitting; but I'm not not quitting either. I am staying silent for now, without any specific promises, one way or the other, about the future.
The most I can promise is that, if this blog resumes regular posting, I will announce that fact on those other mediums. And that I have every intention of writing attempts in times to come, wherever those end up.
Til later, then, whether or not "later" is also "elsewhere".
2 comments:
I'm sorry to hear that, since I'm probably more likely to see what you post if you post it here, than if you post it on twitter or FB.
Maybe if you write something substantive, you could also put up a "link to something new I've written" post here?
Also, if you think of anything appropriate for "Alas," feel free to submit it!
Barry
Barry: that's a good idea. I'll do that (or just cross post it).
And thanks for the invitation so submit for Alas! I loved having that other post cross-posted that one time.
Hope all's well. Cheers!
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