Blogloom

I'm a little teapot concerned that so many of the blogs I read have gone south lately. Or down. Or off. Or off down south.


There are three general varieties:


1. The suicide. Some suicides just stop abruptly following an ordinary post, never to be seen again. Some wind down gradually, posting less and less, and eventually petering out with a post about an indefinite hiatus. Still others officially declare that they are over blogging and wish everyone well in their future reading, wherever that may be. The effect is the same in each case - no more reading for me, and a vague sense of being snubbed.


2. The protectionist. For whatever reason, the protectionists have decided that having their blog up on the general Web for everyone to see is too risky. They fear that a slip of "my boss is such a dickhead" or "those illegal drugs sure made sex with that underage hooker last night more memorable" might land them in hot water, once the googlebots find it and index it for acrimonious authority types to find. So they decide to restrict their readership. Often they give you the opportunity to follow them to their new gated blog, but it's rarely worth the effort of delurking to do so, and frankly, I don't like having to jump through hoops just to find out what someone thinks of the new season of 'My Name Is Earl'.


3. The professional. I read a few big professional blogs (Tim Blair, James Lileks and some others), and while they're reliable, they're also impersonal. Assuming you're even allowed to submit a comment, it'll just get lost in the hundred or so others, probably without the blogger realising that it was there. I like the fact that in my blog each of the comments feels as if it is directed at me, not just pasted onto some vast, crowded messageboard.


My old blog supply is drying up, and I need a fresh deluge.