Until a few years ago, this blog was named How is Bradley. The other day I stumbled on that old site and was surprise to find it still there. All the original posts had been transferred here to Insights from a Bipolar Bear, but I believed all along that I shut down the original site itself, but nope, there it was. I did delete it that day, so it’s no longer there, but before I deleted it, I took a look at who had subscribed to it. There were a lot. Certainly more than I currently have.
Out of curiosity I went through nearly one-hundred of my former followers who had blogs of their own, and I couldn’t believe what I saw – almost all of their websites were still there. but were abandoned. Some abandoned for months – many for years.
Knowing that the average blog has a life span of two years, I was not surprised that so many had stopped blogging, but I was surprised at the ones that abruptly stopped. Their final posts were not unlike their other posts. No goodbye’s for now, or anything like I’m no longer going to blog. It was a bit eerie.
I took extended breaks from my blog a couple of times, but left messages that I would return. The first break that I took, back in 2008, I said I’d be back in a few weeks, but was gone much longer – but at least I said I was taking a break.
My hope for all the bloggers, who just seemed to vanish, is that they got busy and are leading healthy, balanced and productive lives. They were too busy to log in to say goodbye. Hell, maybe they forgot their blogs all together. The massive anxiety of me, however feels the worst. What horrible thing happened to them that they didn’t even say goodbye before leaving? Are they locked in a psychiatric hospital somewhere? Are they even alive? Knowing the high suicide rate of those of us with bipolar disorder makes me think the ultimate worse. I found only one blog in which a family member logged in to inform readers that the blogger had died. It was sad, but at least there was closure of some kind.
One of my favorite blogs was by a guy named Joe. He had the funniest blog in the blogosphere. He made me laugh every day. Not chuckle, but a good ‘ol hardy laugh. Joe was diabetic and had a lot of medical problems. Eventually he lost one leg. I found his blog abandoned. He posted until 2011 and one day “POOF” he was gone. No final post that mentioned he was going to stop blogging. I miss his humor and I hope everything is good in his life.
I don’t know where I’m going with this. I guess I’m just sad. I don’t have any kind of closure to give you, other than a request to the other bloggers out there…please let us know if you’re leaving. Don’t just fade away. Every blogger I know considers blogging to be a labor of love – your readers, whether you have three or three-thousand, deserve better than to be left hanging and wondering what happened.
Great point, Bradley. Just because most of our followers don’t leave comments doesn’t mean they aren’t reading our posts. All our readers deserve better than to be left hanging. I have taken breaks in the past and have been guilty of this. Thanks for the nudge. I love your caption over your comment box. It made me laugh.
Yeah, my reader to comment ratio is way off. You know how much we love comments so I changed it to try and get more people to respond. I hope it works.
I had to rename the domain of my blog, and therefore lost most of my meager 500 followers. For some reason, I have taken to writing longhand in my journals as there is little to report on the Bipolar home front. I still have the same struggles, the same insecurities, and anxieties. I am still here just at a different domain: morninglemon.net is the new domain. And, I had to re-title my blog to “Bipolar Moments”. So, that’s how you can find me.
I hope you have been well, and am curious about how the novel is coming 🙂
Jennifer
I lost a lot of followers when I changed domains too. I hated losing them, but it was necessary for me to do so. Thank you for giving me the link, I’m following you now.
Stay tuned for the novel updates. I’m going to be doing updates of many aspects of my life on Mondays. That will start next week.
Heh, yeah… as long as I’ve been blogging (I started on Xanga in 2001, and then managed to get an invite to LJ in October 2001), I’ve seen a lot come and go. So it’s of constant bemusement to me people who don’t actually read the ‘rules’ of the network and think their week old blog is a good bet. Add in that I have six and a half years daily blogging on that Livejournal, and over a thousand days on my other daily (750words.com, all for meeee)… well. Anyways. I’m always going to try to keep the bipolar posts up with some frequency because yanno, don’t want anyone to worry overmuch. 🙂
((also, apologies if that comes off braggy, as it’s not intended. I am totally proud of what I’ve done, but I always worry that people will read it as ‘if I can, so can you’ when heh, noooo that’s a lot of work))
When I read your last paragraph, I was puzzled. Doesn’t sound like bragging to me. Sounds like someone who is proud of their work…as you should be.
I was raised by a pair of co-dependent narcissists. Even though I’ve been free of them for a couple of years now, I still tend to cover my bases a bit more than I should, just in case. 🙂
Great to see you back! I am one of those who have abandon my blog because I fear my anonymity may have been broken and I am hesitant to post anything now. But, you are nudging my heart to get back to it regardless.
It may be a pain, but you can always start fresh and new. It’s a great loss to not have you in the blogosphere.
You’re very kind. I posted this morning. Thanks for the inspiration!
Heading over now to have a look see