Comments on: When death comes for bloggers

By: neo

neo — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:13:48 +0000

shadow:

If I don’t post for more than a few days, and I haven’t given notice and explained why, you’d probably be correct to assume I’ve died. But I also have given one or two people the password of the blog, so hopefully they will let people know. At some point in the not-too-distant future I figure I should give them more formal instructions. Horrible thought, hard to contemplate.

By: Shadow

Shadow — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 20:26:24 +0000

How unique is this phenomenon to blogging? Many of us have people that we only know from a social media site who “disappear” and we worry about them. I suppose there is a difference with blogging communities in that some of them go back more than 20 years.

The closeness of blogging communities does support the legitimacy of “internet friends.” We do genuinely care about people we meet online.

FWIW, Neo, I’ve enjoyed your blog for many years and I sometimes worry that you will die and we won’t know what happened! I sincerely hope it’s a long time from now and that there will be advance warning.

By: Jeff Brokaw

Jeff Brokaw — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 18:12:37 +0000

Gerard’s death has hit me hard for the reasons you mention. It’s hard to comprehend no more content from him in the future … but also an opportunity to reflect on how much I’ve gotten over the years from reading his site. And I’m just one of thousands. That’s a lot of “good vibes” he pushed out there, to a lot of people, for a long time.

Another blogger gone now that I interacted with frequently was Chaz (C.G.) Hill of Dustbury who passed in 2019. His site is gone to “digital dust”, I just checked. 2-3 updates a day for 20+ years … poof … :-/

Big kudos to you Neo for choosing “For a Dancer” as the music … such a great song, my favorite Jackson Browne song from my favorite album of his. Never gets old. He caught lightning in a bottle with that one.

By: neo

neo — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 05:32:49 +0000

cthulhu:

🙂

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 03:57:41 +0000

The difference between blogs (at least the ones I read regularly, including this one) and Substack is that the blog format puts more emphasis on the commenters. The blog post is relatively short and stimulates lively and mostly intelligent comments, which are an important part of the appeal, and create something of a community. I’ve had correspondence and even meetups fellow commenters on other blogs. Substack columns are lengthy, and the comments add little (if I even bother with them), so there’s no community. I prefer the blog format for that reason, but maybe I’m a dinosaur.

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 01:13:31 +0000

Faith2014,

Mike Royko was a great journalist. Fearless.

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:46:07 +0000

cthulhu @ 2:26 am,

I had just put a forkfull of dinner in my mouth when I read your comment. Very lucky I didn’t end up with a laptop screen full of potato!

By: Faith2014

Faith2014 — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:38:40 +0000

I was very upset when Mike Royko passed. I religiously read his columns – I even still have some words he created/recognized – downtodaendada and jeet. The column was about Chicago language.

In usage: You can go downtodaendada to the end of the block, but no further (told to a kid).

Jeet yet? Nah, d’jew?

~
I read Sarah Hoyt’s blog, Don Surber’s blog (he has gone to substack and I signed up for a paying membership immediately, and Bayou Ren. Man (Peter), plus a couple of Catholic priests. They are part of my daily reads and I feel very attached to them.

~~
I miss Parker’s wisdom. You could almost consider me a fan-girl since I would smile when I saw his name on the screen.
~~
I’m 56 so yes, I’m part of the older crowd. I follow my blogs using feedly, else I couldn’t keep up.

By: Kay B

Kay B — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 21:51:04 +0000

RNR, thanks for mentioning Jerry Pournelle. I often find it hard to shed tears, but I certainly did at the news of his passing. Chaos Manor was a must read, and Jerry held something of a father-like image for me. He was of my parents’ generation and had such wisdom. I remember his Iron Law of Bureaucracy and how he often said “Despair is a sin”.

By: Aggie

Aggie — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 18:07:34 +0000

RIP Gerard, it’s good to see the respect on offer here, richly deserved.

I’ve never been a blogger and am very surprised to see how many bloggers and ex-bloggers are represented here in the comments; I don’t think I would have guessed it. But it makes sense, and it’s probably one of the reasons that Neo’s blog is so gratifying and entertaining. It’s not just because of shared or similar beliefs, it’s because people commenting here are very good at expressing themselves, which is preceded by actually thinking things through in classical fashion.

As someone else said, engagement from younger people to the written word is often disappointing. I remember my mom keeping dozens of old letters from her mom, her father, and other old letters from other family members. Some of them were university professors, which back then, meant they were people of letters. I remember keeping letters that were important, for years. Some, I still have – but it’s a lost habit in our culture.