Every once in awhile, a blog disappears. I miss it and the blogger, but I’m also curious.
What makes a blogger shut it all down?
I’ve seen it a few times with “new” blogs– three or four posts in. I can only assume that in those cases, they weren’t able to sustain content.
I’ve seen it a few times with “secondary” blogs– and in those situations, it’s probably just a time management issue.
A friend of mine recently suggested that she shut her blog down because her internet access is irregular at best. In a situation such as that, I’d probably just leave it up and not post– but each person has their own comfort level with words left behind.
It seems to happen a lot, though. I wonder what the lifespan of an average blog is?
I’ve also seen some blogs shut down by spam, glitches, and general internet mayhem. In those cases, I can’t help but feel more like a techie than a blogger. My only thought is:
I hope you backed it up!
[ Backing up on WordPress is really easy. Go to your DASHBOARD, go to TOOLS, click EXPORT, and then save the file it produces somewhere safe. Back it up on your computer, or maybe even email it to yourself. This way, if everything goes kaput, you can re-import it into another WordPress blog and rebuild.]
[Additional note: OceanPhoenix, in the comments below, provided a fabulous resource where you can import your back up XML file into a program that makes it into a neat PDF book: http://www.blogbooker.com/wordpress.php ]
Am I missing a reason? What would make you delete your blog?
okay, ok! i think since this is like the third time i am reading something about back up…i better high tail myself over to my blog and do it.
big thanks for the final push, Rara! <3
Thanks for dropping by “Honey” again. This is great advice, because when I get rich and famous, I want to be able to choose from the very top blogs….Oh! Ha! Seriously, thanks.
But WP says that they handle all necessary backups, even in the case of a very large meteor hitting all the WP servers.
Thanks for reminding me to backup my blog. I will do it right away.
The only way I’d delete my blog would be if someone hacked it & took it over claiming to be me. Believe it or not, this has happened to me before, with a company website that I sadly had no choice but to shut down.
It caused a great deal of chaos in my personal life & is part of the reason I remain somewhat anonymous on here today.
It sucks when a small group of people ruin a good thing for everyone.
Thanks so much for the tip on backing up, will do that tonight! I deleted an old blog as I felt like it was not what I wanted in my blog anymore – in my effort to find something for it to be ‘about’ it stopped being fun, and we all know what that means… not blogging enough. So I decided to go for a fresh start and lift all restrictions, just make it a haven to keep writing. I loved reading your musings on this, I’ve often wondered the same especially when it’s a blog I enjoyed.
I think the reason that blogs disappear, is because of social media such as Facebook and Twitter getting more popular and more and more people using them.
Probably that the reason. I could be wrong.
My sister used to blog about her family, now her blog shut down since she signed up with Facebook, because she able to connect with our family, update what’s going on with our family and extended family, too.
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I find thinking up new content difficult, I am also extremely self-doubting on my own ability to sustain peoples interest on my blog. i.e I think it is boring (potentially) but I have my moments where I walk away from it but have come back.
I had a livejournal account for about 9 years, for about 4 or 5 years I was addicted to it, maybe up to 5 posts a day on occasion but the interest waned, what I wanted to read changed and it was a read my blog for me to read your mentality and most (not all) bored me so I used it less and less, I then backed it all up and left and killed the account off. After a year I had not even looked at the backup once, so I deleted that too.
You don’t miss your old blog? Or… miss it’s presence on the internet? Sometimes I delete a post, but I can’t imagine all of my blog being gone and I’ve only been at it a few months. Thank you for reading, and for your thoughts!
Great advice. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
The system told me you read the post I wrote less than half an hour before you responded to it. ‘Real time’…much more like ‘real interaction’. I decided to check out your blog. It isn’t how I thought. I have mixed feelings about blogging because it can vary from professional development to a free great service to help people relate …but I also feel like it can just be another method to exploit people into being used as ‘free content mills’. I think it depends on the purpose for the blog and what is going on. I wouldn’t know about blogs just vanishing but I’m glad you noticed it. It might be good that you brought it up.
It was perfectly timed! I was just looking up German holidays and your post popped up in my email.
I’m not sure if I think of being a “free content mill” as exploitation, or … contribution. It’s an interesting idea to play around in my mind, though– thank you! 
And thank you for popping by to say hey!
I’ve been on the internet since the early 80s, so I was present for the birth of the web. (First time I saw the web demoed on a Mosaic browser (that we had to download as code and compile), I said, “No one is gonna want THIS! It’s so slow and clunky. Why would anyone do this when they have gopher, ftp and telnet?” This is why you should never take stock tips from me.)
Since the early days, free content was a huge part of the net, and for many of us, it was both fun (socially) and a vital work resource. I’ve come to realize the web consists of three groups of people: teachers, merchants and users. The merchants are actually the most recent arrivals (and they can thank porn for figuring out how to successfully monetize the web). But the free content that has always been a part of the technosphere (techies share) is, to me, the real net.
Just my 1/50th of a buck.
“But the free content that has always been a part of the technosphere (techies share) is, to me, the real net.” – Agreed.
I posted only a few days ago about my cycles of burnout versus inspiration… I have often thought… “Oh what the blah, blah, blah… let me give today a miss…” but that’s when I usually rationalise by convincing myself the next post may inspire someone else… may put a smile on a face or two… may even help raise awareness for a cause… may just lift my spirits a tad… potentially save a life?
As for backing up… if OMBH was to disappear because of a cyber melt down then I suppose it would have reached it’s natural end of life… I’ll be sad if it goes but I’ll keep faith in WordPress’s clever folk!!
I love the way you think about your blog, it’s inspirational.
But do back up, it only takes a second and you might want those records for yourself at least. 
Other reason is the blogs company that provide hostings goes bankrupt or being sold or being closed (no longer providing any services anymore). When that happens, backup is a must. It happened to me, four years blogging in multiply and they shutdowned after being sold.
Thank you for remind us how important a backup in blogging world.
That’s true! It’s happened to me before with a regular website! That’s exactly why back up is a must!
Glad you agree. 
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I haven’t gotten to deleting but I’ve found it all much more time consuming that I anticipated. Right now I’m trying to finish a book and I’m finding that the time I spend on writing posts and reading fellow bloggers leaves me with little energy for spending more time at the computer working on the book. So I’ve cut back the posts and keeping up with reading posts from others and somewhere in the back of my mind I’m wondering if I should just give it up. That’s my why…
That makes sense! I think if there was a note explaining that, it’s always nicer than it just disappearing. Then it’s collection of good wishes and a stepping stone towards better things– not just a disappearing act. Thanks for your thoughts on this!
Delete my blog? Never! It’s called Lorna’s Voice. I would be shutting down my voice. Okay, maybe when I die…
By the way, thanks for the follow!
I’ve always find it very sad when a blog disappears. There’s something very morbid about it as if the actual person is gone, and not just their blog. I imagine they must feel the way I would feel if I had to shut down my blog, which is to say quite dejected and down.
I don’t think I’d ever close my blog, if I got so busy with other things that I couldn’t tend to it I would probably just disable comments and leave it there for people to find, and learn from if they’re interested
Thanks for the thought provoking post! Oh and the timely reminder to back hehe
Take care, all the best.
Rohan.
I agree, I always find it morbid and sad. That’s a good idea– disable comments, and maybe make a note saying you’re no longer posting on the sidebar or something, and then… la, let it free!
Terrific post.thank you for liking my post (the Armenian Genocide) best regards.jalal
greetings by
http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/blog-to-book/
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Sorry to comment on a venerable post but I thought I’d insert my two penn’orth. I once deleted all my on-line presences – several blogs, my Flickr account.
It can be hard, exhibiting oneself and putting the old head above the parapet. I have suffered attacks on-line many times, usually from people using anonymity to protect their self while exhibiting a very personal knowledge of me and mine, I have normally coped gracefully with it. That is not easy, when dealing with the fear and anxiety that these anonymous commenters bring with them. I even had the local policeman call once, due to allegations of camera-spying (we had a weather web cam in the garden.) I tried always to walk away when upset, then return and thank people for their input and explain gently that my opinion differed.
However, shortly after I arrived here on my small island (500 persons, 150 dwellings) I came under attack for strange reasons such as saying how much I love this place and for getting a (ridiculously small) part-time job and the like. I was ill at the time, with Graves Disease, and was all out of kilter. I felt that I could not cope with my visibility, and in a fit of adrenalin-induced madness, I deleted everything and anything that was not fully anonymised.
I regret it now. I don’t keep a paper journal very well and all my memories were stored in blogs, and a pre-blog-days web site journal, hand crafted in HTML in Notepad… *sigh*
I lost a stack of photos, not realising I had deleted some original files because my Flickr copies cost me nothing in storage. Oh, my. How stupid.
Basically, I lost a huge portion of my life, As I age and the old memory goes, I won’t have my records to bring back my life for me.
Ooh! Ooh! I have an answer!
1. First and foremost, I’m bad at time management. School + blog is not something that I can do without planning. And I haven’t been planning. I miss it though, so I’ll get back to it right quick.
2. I’m obsessive compulsive about theme. I want to redo the look of my blog, and I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
3. Why is procrastination a thing? It’s quite unfortunate.