Another meh moment

I was doing my usual ambling aimlessly around the Intertubes yesterday and stumbled across a post by a fellow who was musing about giving up his blog. On one level, I found myself thinking, Well, that's considerate of him. If his blog goes silent, anyone who read it on a regular basis won't be wondering if he keeled over with no warning and is now taking a dirt nap. At the same time, I have to admit the dominant reaction was more along the lines of "Who cares?"

Seriously, unless a person is getting paid to post something on a regular basis or if you have real (not virtual) friends and relatives following your blog as a way to keep up with your health and well-being, what difference does it make if you do a post daily, weekly, or maybe once every couple of months?  Blogging isn't supposed to be a chore. It's not a job. There is no formal production quota that if you fail to meet you're going to find yourself out in the cold, cut off forever from cyberspace and your 3 regular readers. When you're doing something as a hobby, it's never supposed to feel like work.

I'll concede it's nice to throw out an occasional warning if you're planning to deviate from your normal routine, but what's the worst that happens if you don't? A few of your "followers" may notice that nothing new from you has shown up for awhile, they may wonder briefly what happened, but in the overall scheme of things it's going to be a nonevent.

If someone were to ask me why I'm even bothering to think about a blogger's musings about possibly shutting down his blog, I guess it's because I tend to see that type of thing as a plea for attention. You know, it's an attempt to generate comments that will say, in essence, "Oh, please, please don't stop posting. You're so wonderful that I'll be lost without your words of wisdom." If there are events in the real world that are going to take you away from the computer, just say so, e.g., "I'm going camping for a week" or "Other obligations mean I don't have as much time as I used to." Then walk away. Don't turn cutting back or giving up blogging into some sort of never-ending farewell tour where you keep promising to leave but never actually do. In short, how can we miss you if you won't go away?