Updated Blogs O’Plenty
I updated my list on the Blogs O’Plenty page. Which is to say, I got through the letter A.
And that was before I almost accidentally deleted the whole thing by somehow typing this blog post on that page’s “Edit” window. How I almost managed that, I have no idea. I would have had to Select All the text and type over it, which I don’t recall doing. And changed the title? What the heck? How did that almost happen? I have no idea. But, whew. I caught it just before I made it permanent…
Anyway, so I got through the letter A.
But progress is progress.
The question is, at what point should a blog be considered dead?
For some, it’s easy. They aren’t there anymore.
But, what about those that are still up but not updated? In the case of those that have their own domain or hosting, someone’s still paying the bill, no? Granted, on a domain name, they could have registered the name for several years, but what of the hosting? Even if they have an annual plan, you’d think the site would go down after a year. Are they auto-renewing it on their credit card? Why haven’t they cancelled? Is it because they plan to get back into blogging? Or have they just not noticed the charge on their cards?
So, when would you consider a blog dead?
Maybe you just chalk it up as inactive and not completely dead until it’s gone all together.
That makes sense. And that was probably my line of thinking the last time I updated that list… two years ago.
I should really differentiate between dead and inactive. I should probably just delete the dead ones instead of leaving them around.
And how to handle those that have gone to password-protection? How do I know if they are active or not? Maybe I should just delete those too. After all, there’s no sense sharing a link to a blog I can’t even read.
And what of those former regulars? You know, the ones that don’t even acknowledge my comments anymore or comment here? Interaction is a big part of blogging, no? So maybe I should delete those too.
Or, maybe I can get tough and delete ‘em all and say, leave a comment if you want a link!
Yeah, that probably would work better if I were still a PR3 instead of being demoted to a PR2.
Or, maybe you all can check them and see if you spot anyone that’s long gone.
Or, maybe you’ll just tell me that’s my job.
Or, maybe we can all wait until January 2012, when I’ll tackle the letter B.
I come across seemingly dormant blogs when I’m dropping Entrecards. It’s weird. I always wonder if something violent happened. Why wouldn’t you just slap up a “good-bye” post or “gone fishing” message? Why the abrupt . . . gone-ness?
With at least some of them, I bet they didn’t plan on being gone. I have sites and blogs of my own that probably look abandoned. It’s just that, for whatever reason, you don’t get back to it. Things get put off until tomorrow. Then the next day, and so on. Sooner or later, you might even forget about it. Worse, it always stays in the back of your mind, nagging you. You don’t want to pull the plug. You may not even want to admit you’re gone. You’ll be back.
Tomorrow.
Or the next day.
And it’s easy to lose track of time.
With others though, you do wonder. Especially with those who seemingly drop off the face of the Earth. I know one blogger who hasn’t updated his blog since last fall, but last posted on Twitter on Sunday. And there are others like that. You know they are still out there. But, then there are the ones you don’t see anywhere. What happened to them? Were they eaten by killer radishes?
That’s easy. If a blog hasn’t been posted to in 12 months, it’s dead.
It may be able to be revived, but until it’s resuscitated — and that may prove difficult, given that there hasn’t been any life for 12 months –, it’s doa.
Over 2 months since a post = inactive.
Over 6 months, life-support needed — it’s dead or dying.
So, when would you consider a blog dead?
when its not being updated!
Me thinks Mike is being a little generous with his time frame of a dead blog. I am certain that I would probably dump a blog out of my reader as dead after just two months. Unless I really really really liked the person or the blog. A year before the blog is dead… hmm that’s a long time, I have house plants that don’t last that long.
having a couple of thousand dead blogs is just a tricky way of capture