2281 Movin' on out?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

I started out on AOL Journals. When AOL decided to put advertising on people's "private" journals three years ago, a lot of people fled to different hosts for their blogs. The advertising didn't bother me much, but AOL Journals was very difficult to use, and many people who moved raved about other platforms, so I decided to check Blogger out. And I liked it. And I moved here, where I have been satisfied.

Back during the AOL advertising revolt mass migrations, some bloggers set up cross references for everyone who had moved, change of address files, so you could look up where your favorite AOL journals (now blogs) went.

This past December (I think - sometime toward the end of last year, anyway) AOL shut down AOL Journals entirely. People had like two months to move. AOL did provide a tool to transfer old journal posts to a new host, late, of course, being AOL, but it did work, and I used it to transfer my earliest entries, still on AOL Journals, to Blogger. They now exist as "Moraine", at http://thunderplaypen.blogspot.com/, and include entries from late June, 2004, to mid-November, 2005.

Unlike the earlier exodus, it doesn't seem like anyone set up a directory. I don't know where a lot of people went.

In most cases, something happened that showed a definite lack of forethought and planning. And downright stupidity.

Let's say the last gasp of AOL journals was midnight, December 20. Almost everyone who provided a forwarding address put it in their December 19 or 20 entry! Poof. Gone. If you didn't catch it, too bad.

Consequently, journalers who were used to having a few hundred readers a day, and 50 comments an entry, found themselves alone on a deserted island. Only a few of the faithful were able to find them.

And what's really jerking my chain now is that one by one they are giving up and shutting down their blogs. Because they feel abandoned? Because they miss the adulation? (It was a general rule on AOL that you left only happy, smiley, complimentary comments, because your AOL email id was on your comment, and if you got snarky at all, people could find your mailbox, and stuff it with vindictive. Apparently you had to say nothing argumentative in comments, but it was ok to send death threats in email. I never quite understood that.)

Anyway, I'm getting tired of people complaining that nobody reads them any more.
"Wah wah. I'm so unloved, so discouraged."
"I'm gonna quit. Right now. This is my last entry."
"Well, now! Ok, now."
"Pretty soon now...."
It's like they're begging for evidence they are loved. I wonder if it has ever occurred to them that it's their own fault, having not left a forwarding address.

Whatever. I guess it's all in one's purpose for blogging. I have maybe 20 folks who drop in from time to time, the cast of characters rotates, they come and go. Only a few leave comments, but that's ok. I think fewer than one in 5 readers of personal blogs, and one in 50 on professional blogs, ever comment. I don't need or want adulation. This blog is for me, not readers. I don't have many people-contacts during an average week, and being able to complain here means that when I do see live people, I can be all sweetness and light.

I don't know what other people's purposes are, but apparently getting recognition is one. Hey, if you wanted to keep your readership, you should have told everyone where you moved to. If you want to build a readership, advertise - leave intriguing comments on a lot of other blogs. Don't just sit there and whine.

My attitude is "Well, if you're quitting, ok. Bye. I'll miss you for a while." But I don't say it. Some of them have some interesting and thought-provoking posts, and that's why I read them. But I rarely comment, usually because I have nothing to add, and I find it difficult (and time-consuming, considering I follow close to 90 blogs and feeds at this point) to leave empty say-nothing comments.

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The plumber just left. The pressure tank is fine. The pump is working, but it's just dribbling. I need a new pump. The history seems to be that the pump has to be replaced every 12 years. The house is about 25 years old, and this will be the third pump. The second one went in in 1996-ish. He's going to come back and pull the pump on Friday. It's going to cost $2,400, half parts and half labor. I gave him a check for $1,200.

Just doing my part to boost the economy. You're welcome.
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