Monday, September 07, 2015

Feed Me, Seymour

Today I was going through my feedly looking to see what was up with some of my closer bloggy friends*. I'm that person who thinks I haven't seen you in a week or two, and it's been more like a month or two...or a year or two. I'm the one who, when I read a post that starts "Remember me?" or "Sorry I've been away for so long," thinks "has it been a while since you posted?

As it turns out, there are people in my feed who haven't posted in 341 days, or 427, or 481, or 800, or 921. I should probably give up on them, right? But I can't. What if they come back and no one notices? There are a couple of women who stopped blogging probably three or so years into my blogging journey (twelve years now and counting) and I still want to know what's happened to them!

But then Teri of Chocolates for Breakfast posted after 500 days! She has taught me to hope! How am I supposed to turn my back on those others now?

So I was wondering when do you let people go?
*I'm an introvert. You probably don't even know I think of you as a bloggy friend.

19 comments:

Daffycat said...

I often wonder about those that leave with no notice.

I do think the saddest thing though are "updates" appearing on a long abandoned blog that are obvious spam, with all the previous content removed. I do delete those blogs.

Karen said...

My initial thought was that I usually get rid of them after a year with no updates, but then I looked at my blog feed and noticed that there are a few on there that haven't posted in 3 years. Okay, so much for that!

Needle Nicely said...

I am a worrier, so I always wonder what is going on in their lives that they aren't blogging. I try to be optimistic that their lives are so busy with good things happening that they just don't have time. But I wonder...

Chocolates4Breakfast (Terri Malinovich) said...

Oh my gosh! How flattering to be a part of your post. Thanks for not deleting me and never, ever give up hope on anything or anyone! 😘

The Eskimo's Wife said...

I guess I would say after about a year. But I might hang on for two before truly giving up.

Justine said...

I don't tend to remove blogs from my list, there's always hope! Glad to see that 80% (so far) of your readers agree with me.

Julie said...

My reader just keeps getting longer!

cathymk said...

I've stopped blogging but not stopped reading blogs (witness the sudden increase in commenting!) I've left my blog(s) live because I sort of hope that sooner or later I'll feel the urge to write in them again. When I stopped participating in exchanges, there seemed to be no need to share especially as I am a slow stitcher working on enormous projects.

I'm not such a voracious purchaser of kits and charts/materials any more - I used to love a haul post, but now I'm quite content with my enormous stash.

I'm off to a craft retreat in Melbourne this weekend... so in theory I'll have some content to share next week. Maybe it's time once again - you never know.

Charlene ♥ NC said...

With my dabbling into FB came my drifting from blogging and even blog reading. Typically, the blog owners who post on FB they have blog updates are the ones I read. My Feedly stands as it was, and once in a long while I'll scan through to see who is posting. Evidently I'd rather stitch than read these days.

Susan said...

If it's a blog that I was feeling so-so about, I delete after a year of no posts. But I hang on to the ones I consider closer blog friends.

Unknown said...

My answer is rarely / never, because I don't have the energy to clean up my feed.

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

I don't delete, but I get sad because many are going to FB and Instagram and I don't find those venues nearly as personal. I like personal. I sure hope that you consider me a bloggy friend :)

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

I thought about deleting some of the older unused blogs in my feeder but then I realised it wouldn't save me anything because they don't post so they don't take up my time!
People do reappear from time to time which is always nice.

Hazel said...

Could never give up on Terri! She's an exception though :)

Bea said...

I think I've deleted one person, but that was more because her blogs were constantly whiney. I always wonder what's happened that people stop.

xeyedmary said...

I stopped blogging; there were several back-to-back-to-back personal crises I went/ am going thru that left me unable to "put on a happy face" and write posts. I didn't want to be a whiny Debbie-Downer, so I just crawled under my rock. I still read the blogs I managed to merge into Feedly, but it's a fraction of all the blogs I have bookmarked.
I suppose I could deactivate my blog; every few months I remember to check my hit counter and people still seem to find it. A couple of viewers seem to be constant repeats- go figure. If I did deactivate, I'd probably put a goodby post- so people aren't left hanging. I just don't have the ambition to do anything about it these days though. I still do Facebook, sporadic posts but a daily troller. I do the same with Instagram; I like Instagram- the photo mostly speaks for itself, so not a lot of writing (and creativity) is required.
I guess I've houdini'd out of the blog-o-sphere.

Erin said...

I want an "other" option - because (like Daffy!) I do delete the abandoned blogs that have been hacked with spam. :( Although sometimes I'll hang on to even those for a while, just to make sure...

Maggie said...

I don't delete blogs, occasionally i go through them and that person may have deleted their own blog, then i delete it.
I do wonder where the missing bloggers have gone, and it's good that some of them eventually come back, like one comment has already said, FB and Instagram are to blame for a lot of people giving up blogging, which is a shame.

Beth W said...

I have seen people take year+ breaks from blogging, only to come back and post an "I'm back" post....and then fall off the face of the earth again. I give up after 3 months of not posting anything new. I don't unfollow them, I just assume they're gone for good. I do hate the open-ended mystery of disappearing bloggers, though. I always want to know what happened.