I have heard that the life of a blog is judged a lot like dog years. When you say that a dog is 3, you are really saying that dog is 21. Why? A dog doesn’t live to be 70. He will probably only live to be 10-13. So you only expect your dog to live to be there with you for those 10-13 years. You enjoy him and her for that time and then at the appropriate time, let him pass on. You may get attached to that dog but you also have a certain expectation of the length of his life and prepare yourself for his death.
Bloggers have the same issue. They are here for a moment and time and then one day they are gone. There is generally no funeral. There is just that moment when you realize you don’t have an IM or an email. The person you once talked with daily has removed themselves from the blogosphere.
Blogging life is short and we have come to expect it.
Comments (108)
I always imagine myself xanga-ing in 5 years, but I probably won’t.
Wow I’m on the first page..
yeah i wonder what comes after xanga and myspace
wait….your not leaving us are you dan?
5
heck yes!! wahoo for kailey, top five!!
i bet my posts will drop to monthly ones once i start collge and “move on with life”.
well, that’s terribly depressing.
hold on dan…you so cant leave us!! were your great big bloggin family!! i love your xanga, and i iwsh i had found it earlier–plus it took me all this time to make top five, or even top ten,lol.
dont leave us dan! we <3 you!! lol
kailey
maybe it depends on the blogger…
yup. I don’t really worry about it though, since I don’t really get attached to just random people from the internet
Who’s gone? We’re still here. That counts. (For the moment). I’ve had it happen that someone was there one day and gone the next. *POOF*
So in blog years, how old are you?
dan, promise me that when my blogging is over u will have a funeral for me. i will do the same for u
I think I’m not even existant in blog years lol…
Yes but, you can’t leave us, Dan!
enjoy it while it lasts? enjoy your friends on it while it lasts.
Or they get kicked off for having offensive material.
yea ill probly leave like some weird post saying that im done and ill get lotz of commetns saying.. “What!!??” then ill post up ,like a few months later saying haha suckers you fell for it!!
nicole
ryc – did you click the play thingy? it played pretty quick for me. click that little side triangle if you didn’t already.
defintily
I still post on theforce.net…and I’ve been there since 01…I have no plans of stopping. I don’t think that there is enough data to support the theory that people stop after 5 years…the Blog community is only about 7 years old.
indeed. I have had 10 xanga sites including my current one (no joke). I know, I’m a bit obsessed with starting new sites. lol
But I’m always blogging- whether people know which blog I am or not. Sometimes it’s good to have different blogs with different attitudes. But I end up shutting one down just about every other time I make a new one. As of right now this is my only one that’s still running.
While some people leave xanga permanantly, I think a lot of people still read their friends’ posts or have a mystery site that no one knows about. hehe… well, at least I know I do.
P.S. I never understood dog years. What difference does it make? Can’t people just say, my dog is 3 years old instead of saying my dog is 21 in dog years? lol- figures… I’m a cat person…hehe
People come and go on the blogosphere, but I got used to it and kept blogging, because ultimately it was for me, not for them. I’ve been blogging since the seventh grade, I started on a site called Diaryland. That means I’ve been a blogger for 6 years now, 42 dog years. I’m a middle-aged blogger and I’m about to have a mid-life crisis
The entry in the subscription just below this one was someone saying he’s no longer posting.
You’re not leaving us! I just got started!
And fortunately, some people just can’t stay away and keep coming back.
larry
I plan to stick around for a while yet.
Is this a warning of what might come of the Cafe? May it never be!
You can’t leave because you’ve only been a member for a year (7 in dog years). That’s a premature death! You’re supposed to be posting for another 9-12 years. I’ll be at the ripe old age of 25 by then and I’ll be tired then and read my subscriptions and think “Thelogians Cafe? Who do I know with that Xanga?” But that’s not the time yet. Now, I’m racing to be the first post still and thinking about your questions and trying to answer them accurately and elequently.
please don’t go! where else will we talk about sometimes irrelevant matters? we need you dan!
This is where you declare another ‘retirement’ and have Xanga Land in another uproar.
So, what’s the shelf life of your xanga? I have had this Xanga for over a year, but have been blogging on Xanga for longer since I had another site beforehand. I think it goes in cycles for me. And while some people may “disappear,” I sometimes wonder if they just got a new site and didn’t tell everyone. That’s what I did when I switched to this one… :shrug: who knows.
Nice post…yeah, I agree.
Last summer I had a different xanga and I got close to 700 comments a week. I would update about as often as you do, and I got a lot of comments. But now I hardly get 50 a week….it’s weird for me.
there is no question to conclude this entry… i am worried. and i will be prepared.
i don’t know about that. i think specific blogs may come and go, but i think that the blogging personality will always find an outlet. like i know a few years ago when xanga was new and all the rage, everyone i knew had one. but now, about three or four years later, my subs list has halved, at least. but i still write in mine almost daily, because i love the feeling it gives me. it’s the same feeling i get when i journal, because that’s the type of person i am.
Quite profound. My Xanga is three years old now, so in blogging years, I’m…
it comes and goes
‘Tis sad but inevitable… ^_^
You’re not leaving are you?
i’ve left xanga many times before only to find myself back on the blogosphere a little while (about a month or two) later.
Blogs = <3, I’ve had one since.. oh, gosh, ’98. Not xanga, but different ones. And for some reason, I never get sick of ‘em. ^^
i think many things in life are short.
some to short,
but in my blog when it “is my time” to end my on little site, i do not think it will be earthshattering.
you seem to survive. but when you go, i’m sure there will be an outcry.
Hmm…I don’t know how long I’ll be blogging, but I always imagined myself doing it in the future.
After 5.5 years on Xanga, I guess I’m bucking the trend. True, the frequency of my posts has fluctuated, as has the content, But I have no plans of giving it up. The lifetime Premium probably helps too
I would say that, if blogs last 5 years, that makes 1 blog-year equal to 16, give or take. So my little corner is 88. Not bad.
Take care
-J-
It is quite true. People come and go, however sometimes if I haven’t known the person, it never tends to make me think about it, they came and went. I think if I went back to talk to a few friends, they wouldn’t mind the welcome back, but it’s great to have those type of people around. Xanga has many elite blogrings with thoasands of people in them, some the same where I have encountered after jumping through so many blogs. I sometimes think most of us in this community are in a bubble. You’re one of the most interesting people that shape this great community. The face of mainstream music America and blogging sites will change over time. We will most likely fade from this bubble and lose touch because that is what distance causes, disconnection. However, I still see myself blogging ten years from now. Some people have dissapeared because of life situations. I am constantly watching stories and reading what is happening. Knowing full well that all is real.
And actually, when I update within the next day or two, I will incorporate this topic into my entry. There is much to go over.
You know, most dogs live to be older than just 10- 13. More like 13- 16, but okay.
I think you just want to see how many people freak out over you leaving when you never mentioned that *you* were doing so.
I’ve been blogging for 2 years, I started on LiveJournal, and moved over to Xanga, cause that was the “cool” thing… And I got hooked. I also have 2 other xangas that I keep up that are for seperate things that just keep me going. Makes life interesting.
*A*
is there an underlying meaning to this post?? Are you thinking of hanging up the towel? Hope not, I enjoy coming here and reading your questions and others opinions.
or is it throwing in the towel?? Its 4 in the morning cut me a little slack, hehe
I don’t know, I’ve blogging for two years now and will probably doing so for a long time yet.
i’ve been here for a mere 1 1/2 years so i guess i’m still just a teen give or take. however i still enjoy what i’m doing. it sounds to me like you are going through some sort of blogosphere midlife crisis.
True. Sometimes they leave a fairwell page, sometimes they shutdown their page with no fairwell, and sometimes thay just commit xangacide by leaving the page up without any fairwell and disappear from on day to the next never to be heard from again.
What do you think the life expectancy of a xanga blog is?
I plan to blog till I die….honestly…yes…quite honestly actually….
um, sounding kind of morbid… not thinking of throwing in the towel are you? What I find to be strange is the pages that are up and unattended… no entry in a year or so and they frequently say things like “more soon” or “details later”. I always wonder what happened.
Alas, I cannot be bothered. Too many things are sprouting in me head! But if so, then I am nothing but an embryo.
I’m more of a hibernating type of blogger. Sometimes I leave it for while, then I’d go regular. Lets hope this dog grows old.
Yep, we live in a disposable world……….
Some people rush from one trend to another… some start blogging for one reason or another, and stop when that reason is no longer there… times and people both change. I would think, though I might be wrong, that older bloggers would be more apt to stay because their lives are typically more stable (not changing schools, collages, pre-career jobs, etc…)
There is a season for everything.
Might not blog on Xanga but been active here and there in the digital domain for over 10 years… well I don’t spect NE1 2 read my crap but if a relationship is worth keeping only death duz you part!
I figure there are many factors: loss of excitement, readers, time, and ideas. It becomes more of a boring routine than an interesting way to see how the other halves live. Some people just get bored and decide to hang it all up.
Trying to tell us something about you?
are you trying to tell us something Dan?
So what are you saying, Dude?
I’ve been on xanga for almost 2yrs.
I’ll probably leave when college takes over my world… it’s kinda fun, but when you have a lot of personal friends on xanga, things tend to get misinterpreted.
I hate it, but I love it at the same time.
Why do you ask, are you leaving?
Yes, even a year is a milestone birthday!
I think this is a new way of communication between friends and family – a step beyond e-mail. If you want, this is a great way to keep people “in the know” about what’s going on in your world.
No question?
Signs of the end of the age?
Dan…leaving us?
Nah. I disagree. If a person wants to blog for his/her entire life, then they shall. This is a relatively new medium, when you consider that the Internet available to the public has only been around since 1995.
Take yourself for example. You announced your retirement last year and then within days, POW! there you were, back here at Xanga with a new blog that you update once every few hours. Quite frankly, I don’t know how you find the time but you can not dismiss the fact that ‘blogging” has become your life’s purpose.
unless you’re like me who’s been a member for almost 2 years.
I know, my favorite blogger disappeared. It’s kinda sad.
ok…
very true…
One small blog in a sea of blogs… the circle of life.. all that jazz.
interesting
that is difficult for me
Yes-I am missing Drowzydragon and I am worried about her.
I hope my blog lives a full, long life. And yours too.
even friends in real life is like this
Actually, I subscribe more to the Andy Worhol theory of 15 minutes of fame. A lot of people have their 15 minutes of fame. Although I’ve been wondering when Madonna’s 15 minutes is finished.
Yeah, I’ve been feeling that. A blog can be like a journal… you write when you go through something that you want to share. For people who are like that (myself included), writing in a blog seems a little pointless other times.
Eh, true.
I think those on myspace have an even shorter blogging life.
Blogs haven’t been around long enough to really have a good idea of what the life expectancy is. I think student blogs come and go pretty often. Professional blogs like authors, businesses, etc. have a longer life.
hmm weird. i think i will at least make 9 years.
im on three….and i’ll go through college sooo.
So true, so true. It’s in those moments that you realize maybe you should have gotten their phone number…
bahhhh.
i think blogging will stay around for a while.
most people end up making new blogs when they delete their old ones.
you can’t just give it up.
it’s like… smoking. or something.
Ahh yes Dan…true, but you fail to see the beauty in that. Along with the old you also get the new and the fresh, the ones that are interesting and fun to get to know. I found your site one day and have come back regularly…but who knows? Maybe I’ll die in a horrible car accident or end up shot in the head behind a dumspster for some random act of indiscretion in my past…but that’s precisely why we live for the now. Besides, new people mean new ideas and new minds to explore. Besides that, who the hell am I? I can be replaced by a witty bastard from the OC, or some huge boobs from wherever.. Enjoy me now man! Tomorrow will take care of itself!!!! Keep up the blogs man!
Hmmmm, Dan, are you leaving again?
please don’t leave!
This cannot be a glimmer of your thinking of leaving, please say it isn’t so! There would be a huge hole in Xanga if you left–you know it. Here today, gone tomorrow with some folks-so sad.
Um, right.
Was there a question in that?
True, I think I will blog for many, many years to come…but it’s kind of a hit and miss thing for me.
Oh yea…very true true
interesting entry…
I blog because I have to do it. I used to journal. This is something I have to do to keep my thoughts straight. If I get comments I love it, if I don’t I just keep on blogging. I have been at it for only a few months, I am glad I found this site.
Yeah, but you never go away, do you? Just kidding!
You make Xanga sound like a cult…actually, my mom does too…I wouldn’t delete my Xanga if I stopped posting, because it’s a part of my life now. I go back and read old posts, and learn from them. I see myself in a different time, I realize how much I’ve forgotten, and how far I’ve come and have yet to go.
I don’t consider this a blog. I consider it my online diary hehehe. So this will most likely never end for me unless the site shuts down.
If this is some kind of cryptic leaving-xanga thing, don’t do it.
i blog at the most once a week because i am busy with other things. intresting perspective though. i would only be like3 or 4 years old then… i can still take naps during the day and eat snacks and play out in the yard without being called lazy, a pid, or weird! yes, life is good.
I’m just a puppy then, not even weaned from it’s Mama yet.
Dan, would you chat with me xometime, around 9:15 AM, PST, at my IM and email address, Sande3Mr@aol.com. I am Sandy. You gave me a pic of you waist up. Also, Xanga.com@xanga/Singersaint, at my site. Check out my profile, plz.
Well. Dan I just tried that Singersaint by xanga site, and it doesn’t work just to click on it, or to actually type it all out like it is (http:www.xanga…). I guess, just click on Singersaint. You can’t get into the past entries I made before that, but there is the current entry.
Dan, here it is! Try this: http:www.xanga.com/Singersaint
There is a retirement day for bloggers. People blog for different reasons and purpose, and once the purpose is served, most of them would stop blogging.
Goodbye, Dan. Have a happy Fourth!
Hmm.
Could this be some foreshadowing?
[ariana]
> I accepted the fact that some people expect commentary, and others don’t. And was a little taken aback when I found some older blog entries on some sites vanish. Then the light came on inside my skull that everything fades, especially blogs as well as the people who write them! Oh, how vain the egos and ids of man! Shame on us all for wanting to exist and remain in permanence! Hahahahaha, yeah, right. I forgot what we were talking about….. lol
Peace