2015, The Year of the Quitting Bloggers

58 Replies

I livew in my own little world

Long-time readers know that I am pretty methodical in living my life. It’s a regularity that irritates some people because they want me to pay more attention to them than I do everyone else.

I have a huge Excel file that controls my life. Within that Excel file are a few billion Excel spreadsheets—Finances, Books Read, Movies Watched, Music Listened To, People Who Won’t Get Christmas Cards, Blogs Visited….

I usually visit 100 blogs per day, and currently in my Blogs Visited spreadsheet are links to 2,369 blogs, all of them on the WordPress platform because that’s the platform on which I blog. For those like me whose math skills are less than optimal at this point in life (I rely on Excel for even basic math now), that means that it takes me 24 days to visit all the blogs I follow. That might seem like a lot, but….

On January 1, 2015, I was following 3,741 blogs!

What happened?

big fat zeroWell, if someone hasn’t published a new blog post since last time I visited, that someone gets a big, fat zero in the spreadsheet. At the end of the month, everyone with a big fat zero (►) gets summarily deleted. So I have deleted almost 1,400 people in just a little over four months! That’s more than 300 people per month who have quit blogging regularly!

In some cases, it’s justified, like the one guy who died. I left my condolences for his family who had left a message on his blog.

One person, though, said that she was taking the month off and would see us in the new year. Well, the month she was taking off was December 2013…. Nothing from her in 2014 or 2015.

Some people don’t seem to be blogging anymore but are still coming by here and leaving LIKEs and comments. I have LIKEd and commented on all their blog posts, so I don’t know what to do other than to have Zoey the Cool Cat say….

Thank you!

I realize that blogging isn’t for everyone, and sometimes when one tries something, one decides that one doesn’t like it. There are many things I have tried that I didn’t like—managing a restaurant, working retail, changing the oil in the car, wearing blue jeans….

To all those who have left the blogging world, best wishes for health, happiness, peace, and prosperity. To the rest of us, sing along with the following song but replace “flowers” with “bloggers.”

Pictures copyright 2012 Russel Ray Photos

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58 thoughts on “2015, The Year of the Quitting Bloggers”

    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      I just wish they would come back and leave at least one post telling us what they have moved on to.

      “Hello followers! I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be blogging anymore. My time is completely taken up with these illegal drug imports…………..”

      Liked by 4 people

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  4. insearchofitall

    This is an interesting subject for me. I haven’t written a post in a couple of weeks and they are getting farther and farther apart. I’m seriously overwhelmed. I have 250 people following and I follow maybe 50 or more. Some post everyday and right now I’m behind by 586. I spend several hours a day reading those I follow and try to keep up but I’m outnumbered and have so many other things that need to be done that I don’t have the brain space to write. Thought many times about throwing in the towel. Out of the 250 that follow my blog, only at most 25 actually read it. Is it worth it? I’ve made some friends here and it’s like writing a letter to them. I’m not making money here as that was not my intent. I’d be delighted if those not really interested in what I had to say actually unfollowed me. I’m still trying to figure this thing out. But I may end up posting an “I’m done” post. Did you know this was on my mind today? 🙂 Give Zoey a chin scratch for me.

    Liked by 2 people

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  5. Dish With Clarissa

    I know i was out the blogging gate at full speed in the beginning but i wasn’t expecting to get sick in early 2013 followed by 2014 being the year of hell for my family. Ive tried to come back this year with that same high energy i had in the beginning but this year i have to clean up the mess from last year, plus deal with other personal issues…

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Did you post that at your blog? When people post things like that, then I can send positive thoughts, best wishes, and good vibrations, which I am doing for you right now!

      Liked by 1 person

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  6. Maryanne

    Before blogging, for me, there was Live Journal, which is very similar to blogging. I made so many friends (and enemies, let’s keep it real), some I even met in real life and am STILL friends with — since 2001!

    Then all of a sudden we had Face Book and after 10 years of Live Journal, all these fellow writers disappeared. Now we all know Face Book isn’t an ultimate tool for the writer (or the reader because most of it is garbage, sorry to say).

    But, yeah, I totally agree. There are some excellent writers I found on WordPress that I miss very much. I guess everyone got lazy and just went to Instagram.

    What’s fascinating is that you can find long lost friends on the internet — but how do you find long lost internet friends?!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      I have reconnected with lots of people from my past, usually at their request. Almost immediately, though, I find out why I didn’t maintain a friendship with them for all these years and wind up unfriending them, sometimes even blocking them so that I’ll never be bothered by them again.

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Maryanne

        Good for you! I’m all about honesty. So many people got pissed at me for unfriending them on Face Book, so I deleted my Face Book page. What’s the sense having “dead weight” when you never hear from anyone, right?

        Liked by 1 person

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        1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

          In my case, I come from an extremely conservative area of South Texas, as well as having graduated from Texas A&M University, one of the most ultraconservative colleges in the nation. Fully 85% of the voters in Bryan/College Station and at A&M consistently vote Republican. So reconnecting with all that just doesn’t mesh well into my life now. I even had to unfriend and block two ex-girlfriends from high school!

          Liked by 1 person

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  7. KDKH

    I’ve noticed that very few of my friends/followers that I had 3 years ago are still blogging. I’m on round two, as a new crop of people signed on about a year ago. My conclusion isn’t too scientific, just an impression. There’s one that ebbs and flows with months on fire and months silent. Everyone has a different rhythm….

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      I grew up in a poor family so I learned how to do everything myself, and while I perfectly capable of rotating tires, changing the oil, and such, I just don’t enjoy it. So, realizing that there are people who do enjoy it, I go ahead and let them have that enjoyment.

      I just came from Pep Boys where I had the gal replace a burned out headlight. The headlight was $10.99 and the installation labor was $14.99. She asked me if I wanted to save the labor and install it myself. “Nope. That’s why I come here because you people enjoy doing that stuff. I don’t.” It took her all of 30 seconds to install it. That’s a pretty good rate of pay, $14.99 for 30 seconds of work!

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        1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

          When I bought my 1989 Mustang GT, I wanted it customized and I figured I could do it myself. Nope. That was the year that the Mustang started with the computer-control stuff. I really messed everything up thinking I could do it myself. After fouling everything, I just shipped it to Saleen in California (I was in College Station, Texas) and let them fix everything and customize it at the same time. Best $14,000 I ever spent on after-market modifications to a car!

          Liked by 1 person

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  10. Alexandria Sage

    I’ve always admired you with all your spreadsheets. I’ve found consistency is the key. My goal is once a week, same day, roughly the same time. Sometimes it’s every two weeks. I’m always working on photos for the blog but time is minimal since the birth of grandson #2. But stop blogging? NEVER! But yeah, everybody’s different as to why they stopped and I do miss them!

    Liked by 1 person

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  11. alundeberg

    I’m one of the inconsistent bloggers. I finally got back into it after a year’s hiatus. I stopped writing because I didn’t have much to say, but I always felt like I would come back. Last month I started blogging again because i had stories I wanted to write. There are some bloggers who have stopped writing, and I wish I knew how they were.

    Liked by 1 person

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  12. Su Leslie

    In life, I find people kind of disappear without trace or explanation too. Sometimes they pop up again; sometimes not. If they’re friends, I’d be worried if I didn’t hear from them, but I wouldn’t expect the people down the road that I say hello to when I’m out walking to knock on my door to tell me they’re moving to another town. I think blogging is kind of like that too. The people who don’t explain their absence probably think of fellow bloggers as “the people down the street they say hello to sometimes.” Most people seem to follow a blog in the hope that blogger will follow them, and very few actually interact in any meaningful way. I try to keep up with the posting of those I follow — and people who follow me and engage but who I don’t actually follow –but sometimes I really struggle to find time. I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, so your post is very timely. Not sure what I’m going to do about it, but I don’t think “give up blogging” is an option at the moment. Cheers, Su.

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      I bet you’re right about the people down the road perspective. Still, even when the people down the road move, I always wonder where they moved to and why our neighborhood wasn’t good enough for them anymore………

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Su Leslie

        …. oh you make me laugh! You are obviously much more observant than I am. I am actually (truthfully) guilty of saying to someone once “oh, haven’t seen you in ages” only to be told they’d left town 18 months before and were just back on a visit (to some other neighbours who were obviously much more neighbourly). In fact, I may be the reason people move away.

        Liked by 1 person

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  14. M.Winter

    Great to know I’m still in your rotation! You just left me 10likes! Thank you. It is hard trying to blog which have started out as a pasttime. Now even hubby’s complaining I’m on the blogging front too much!

    Liked by 1 person

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  15. Photos With Finesse

    I too have been less than diligent blogging. I vowed to get back to weekly – doesn’t appear to be happening – at least not through tax season. It fell off in the fall thanks to my own success and being extraordinarily busy. I’m trying to build it into workflow. We’ll see. But as I’m procrastinating about everything else this morning, I think perhaps I’ll go blog – it’s not on my must do list at all! 🙂 – Suzan –

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      I feel your pain. Those who take their blogs private are, to me, no different than those who don’t blog anymore. If there is nothing for me to read, they get deleted from my spreadsheet!

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  17. TamrahJo

    I really the struggled for months after my stroke – my archives clearly show that little hiatus – faithfully wrote about it out of the gate, then reality of how much energy it took to write/edit with a brain/right hand that was rather muddled really just mucked up the whole process –
    I was recently glad to see a blogger who was fighting cancer in 2012/13, went dark in 2014, is now back – breathed a sigh of relief when she started showing up again! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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        1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

          I know what it’s like. I was always an outdoors physical guy, but my knees told me when I was 38 that they didn’t want to play tennis any more, they didn’t want to play volleyball anymore, they didn’t want to play basketball anymore, they didn’t want to go on 10-mile walks anymore, they didn’t want to run AT ALL anymore. So here I am trying to satisfy my physical needs via blogging………….not the same.

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. TamrahJo

            If you write while at the treadmill it works pretty good! Lol. But I have heard being able to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time is helpful in blogging while walking. Lol

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  18. ellenrobertsyoung

    Interesting numbers. This makes me feel good about lasting over three years and not giving up. It’s not as exciting as at first, but I also don’t waste time on filler just to post, so it’s more irregular.
    I do agree that people should say goodbye if they’re leaving! Not nice to just walk out the door and not come back. Here’s a bit of a poem I’m working on:
    Where do old blogs go to die?
    They lie, dead cars
    in the yard. No codes
    officer comes by.
    It’s great that you, Russel, are a regular in so many people’s lives – I mean blogging experience.

    Liked by 1 person

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  19. stregajewellry

    Russell, I have no idea how you post once a day. I have trouble posting once a week. I do think that if I were going to disappear, I would want to let people know I was doing it on purpose. When I get to “know” someone, by reading them, I would wonder where they want, was something wrong, should I light a candle or ore they out there having fun in the warm California sun.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Russel Ray Photos Post author

      Posting is one of the first things I do each day. I like blogging so much that I get it out of the way early in the day so I don’t have to worry about life getting in the way of things and me not posting.

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  20. Bupe Rose

    Haha, this was a thoughtful blog. Quite scientific and logical. Blogging is about consistency and unfortunately not everyone does consistent well. That’s what I’ve noticed with folks who disappeared on me on WordPress. It’s curious how one day they’re here and next, poof!

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  21. babso2you

    I have a short list of those who still blog when I started back almost 4 years ago…I have stuck with those folks, you being one of them. I admire your gumption to stick with your spreadsheets! Hugs again to you…

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  22. Muzzy

    G’day Russel,
    Your topic here is spot on, I myself did a post on it not long ago, now I find myself, unexpectedly over seas with limited PC time, do I post, read or comment? … It is what it is 🙂 Thank you for your many visits and likes, all are very much appreciated

    Like

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