Blog terminated for being too popular!

I recently came across a defunct blog (the Internet must already be littered with the corpses of blogs cast adrift for a variety of reasons, including death of the blogger!) which had been terminated, it would seem, for having been... wait for it... too popular (!) and taken up too much of the blogger’s time. It appeared that the blog in question had a large following (how large this was, I cannot say, as the list of followers was concealed and no indication of its size was given). The blogger gave no personal name, not even their sex, and of course no country of residence (although from the posts, Scotland would be a good candidate!). All that there was in the ‘About Me’ section was a cartoon picture of a female and this gender was reinforced by the tenor of the posts. The Blog had apparently began in June 2009 and by September 2010 it has already been shut down. Not a very long time by any Blogger’s estimation, I would think.    
 

Damn! This blog of mine is much too popular!

What aroused my curiosity most of all were the various reasons given for closing the blog: ‘...fast disappearing waistline.’; ‘...the whole time my waistline bulged.’; ‘The hours put into this anonymous diary (why anonymous, I wonder?) have to be put to something more ‘real’,’; ‘It’s time for me to wash off that face mask, get rid of the hair band and let my hair down for a while.’  The issue of being overweight was a constant theme of this blog, one post going so far as to say: “Please God, if you can’t make me thin, make my friends fat!!” More tellingly, the writer added: ‘In the beginning I begged for followers and comments, now there’s too many to respond to.’ and ‘I have outgrown this space – in more ways than one.’



It seems that the author of this particular blog was closing it down essentially on two grounds: that it was increasingly stealing her time which she could ill afford and could better spend on other activities and that the time it demanded of her (and therefore obliged her to sit at the computer) was adding to her waistline! The growing popularity of her blog had made it all the worse and things had now got out of hand for her, as she was having to devote more and more time to it, responding to the many comments it elicited. (The complaint of most of us is that no-one is reading our blog!)



And so, after about one year and four months of blogging, the author brings the curtain down on her blog for being too popular, and therefore time-consuming, and for ruining her waistline (!), although she does add as an after-thought at the end of her farewell post: “It was so much fun while it lasted and maybe one day you’ll see me disguised as another.” Remember that there’s no photo of the author, just a cartoon figure, and no details about her in her profile. She does however make one concession in this last farewell post, signing herself off as Kerry. This could of course be a made-up name, although I rather doubt it, as there was no real reason to break with her constant practice of anonymity and give a name as she made her exit.



Despite giving reasons for her having brought her blog to an end, I cannot help feeling that there might be more to this than meets the eye, that there are other factors at play here, other motives. It could even be that the blogger had already decided to start up a new blog, under a new identity, make a fresh start, gain a new and different following, change the whole ethos of her blogging. It could be. We have no way of knowing. It just seems strange to me that someone who has been blogging for just over a year, won a large following, is attracting lots of comments on her writing, has made a success of it (where many others falter and fail), is now bringing it all to a close because, supposedly, it’s preventing her from having a ‘real’ life and from losing weight!



It's time to kill off this blog!

But maybe I’m too suspicious, too distrusting, and that the author of the blog in question is sincere and honest and is genuinely giving up blogging. Maybe. Or maybe she's just giving up that particular blog and wants to start up a new one, as I've said above, and prefers to make a clean slate of it? Blogs are being started and closed all the time and for all sorts of reasons and causes. I suppose the most common reasons for abandoning a blog are death, illness, failure to attract a following, a wish to start afresh with a new ‘skin’, a new outlook, a new take on the world, and not because the blog has become too popular or that it is causing the blogger to put on weight! And yet who is to say these are not this blogger’s true reasons?

Thus closes another blog as a hundred others start up. The Blogosphere is a curious place and its very anonymity gives rise to a whole host of peculiarities, eccentricities and excesses. There is often sadness when a much-loved blog is closed down and the author melts back into the infinity and anonymity of the ether which makes up the Internet. Sometimes there may even be a feeling of betrayal on the part of the follower who has given his support to someone who now shuts shop and vanishes leaving them in a defunct blog. This is of course acute when the posts dry up, with no reason given, and followers are left guessing as to the cause. Has the author been taken seriously ill or even died? There’s no way of knowing. At least the author of the blog concerned has made a final farewell posting, given her reasons for terminating, and taken her leave in a proper and decorous manner.

I suppose the moral of this little tale (if there be one), is that even success can have its down side. Somehow I don’t think I will ever have to worry about my blog becoming too popular or my disappointing my followers, or being missed by anyone in Blogland if and when my posts dry up one day. But maybe this is a blessing in disguise? There’s no pressure to please or play to the gallery, no stress to write often and well, no strain from having to respond to lots of comments, and no urgency to, well, do anything really. Yes, maybe I’m fortunate after all...