So, now that my blog has been around for four years, I’ve noticed something—a lot of blogs (and bloggers) have disappeared over these four years. I know it’s the natural progression of things—people move on to new hobbies, new stages of life, new life goals, and blogging gets pushed the side—but it still somehow surprises me when I go through my Bloglovin’ or my Twitter and see so many blogs that have been inactive for months. Sometimes the blogger has posted a goodbye message and sometimes the blog has just sort of faded away … forgotten.
Every once in awhile I’ll run across a blogger name that brings back memories and I’ll think, “Hey, I haven’t seen so-and-so around in awhile. I should go check out what’s happening with them.” It makes me a little bit sad when I find that their blog is dusty and abandoned (which, I guess explained why I hadn’t seen them around or noticed any new posts from them in a while).
I was actually in the midst of writing a different post about the early years of my blog when I started seeing some old familiar commenters. For the heck of it, I checked some of them out, and the results were a bit disheartening (LOTS of the bloggers I checked into were gone).
But, I did find that some of these bloggers are still out there, even if I’ve lost touch. I decided to take a look at their blogs and see if they still appeal to me (they read similar books or post discussions). I made a list of some that I want to try to reconnect with a bit. Who knows if this will build any lasting relationships, but I think it will be fun to at least check these blogs out!
So, here are some of the bloggers who commented on my blog in my first three months of blogging:
(I chose that amount of time randomly—it was just a convenient cut-off point)
Some of my earliest commenters who are still blogging, but I’ve lost touch with them:
I’ve made a pact with myself to check out these blogs again. They supported me when I was just a baby blogger!!
- Mary @ Book Hounds
- Angela @ Angela’s Anxious Life
- Amber @ Paradise of Pages
- Emily @ Reader Rising
- Jennifer @ Donnie Darko Girl
- Kate and Kristen @ The Book Monsters
- Natalie @ Natflix & Books
- Becky @ No More Grumpy Bookseller
Some of my earliest commenters who I’m still at least marginally in touch with (via at least occasional comments—some of these bloggers I still interact with more than others):
I’m going to try to reconnect with some of these bloggers a bit more again!
- Mandy @ The Reading Diaries
- Michelle @ Because Reading Is Better than Real Life
- Alyssa @ The Eater of Books
- Sabrina @ The Forest of Words and Pages
- Rachel @ The Nerd Herd Reads
- Nikki @ There Were Books Involved
- JC @ JC’s Book Haven
- Annette @ Annette’s Book Spot
- Kritika @ Snowflakes & Spider Silk
- Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl
- Trish @ Between My Lines
- Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace – I absolutely love Naomi and she is a super supportive blogger. Our reading tastes both ended up evolving a bit—she reads mostly adult and new adult and I’m reading mostly YA—so I don’t chat with her nearly as much anymore, but lots of my fondest early blogging memories involve her!
And then there’s ONE blogger who was one of my very earliest commenters and who I still interact with often. Plus, I’ve met her in real life! She deserves some special recognition, right?
Jessica @ a GREAT read
Wait! One more – Kim @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer also commented on my blog in it’s first three months as well, and I can be found on her blog often—at the very least, every Sunday for the Sunday Post (and she still always comments back!).
Have you ever looked back at some of your first commenters to see which bloggers are still around? Are you still in contact with some of your earliest supporters? I want to know!
I’ve only been around 2 years but yeah I have seen some go or lost touch which is sad. You make me want to go back though and see who commented in those first three months though!!
It was fun to look back and see the bloggers who supported me back in those first days.
Even in my year and a half of blogging, I’ve seen blogs come and go, and some of them I really liked (both the blog and the blogger) :-/ But it does happen. I’m not even sure who my earliest commenters were except for one. The beginning of my blogging is kind of a haze to me for some reason. I don’t remember how I started meeting other bloggers even. But you do have me kind of curious to check who my earliest commenters were now!
A lot of my very earliest followers were found via the Feature & Follow Friday, which I did when I was a new blogger. I think that’s how I actually met Jessica @ aGREATread
You’re right, so many bloggers that I started out with have disappeared. It’s kind of sad, but understandable. I’ve taken a few breaks over the years, but always seem to find my way back. Now I’m curious to go back to my first few months and see who is still around! Great post!
It’s fun to look back and get nostalgic. I would say that well over half of the blogs I checked out were gone, though—lots of bloggers mystappear over the years. 🙁
I’ve looked at really old posts before, but I think most of those comments are from people that no longer blog, sadly. I’ve been blogging for almost 10 years now though so it makes sense. It’s still sad!
From your second list, I talk to JC, Naomi, and Trish (and Kim of course) 🙂 All great bloggers.
-Lauren
Wow! Ten years!! I didn’t realize you’d been around that long—that’s impressive!!
I should do this! I know that one of my very earliest commenters and supporters who really encouraged me to keep going in the beginning suddenly stopped blogging and I was always sad not to know why. I miss her!
That was true for me too. I found three names of bloggers that I interacted with A LOT in the beginning who aren’t blogging anymore at all and it made me sad.
I’m glad to see Nikki from There Were Books Involved is back at it!! I wasn’t sure if she would continue blogging or not. I always get sad when people I follow quit blogging. Change in general is hard for me though. I get that people’s lives change and their hobbies and free-time availability change– but 🙁
Yes, Nikki was gone for quite awhile and I would see her on Twitter now and again, but that was it. Looks like she’s blogging about manga for right now, which suits me just fine! 🙂
It’s coming up for nearly 3 years since I started blogging, and now I think back, there are a fair few people who I connected with in the beginning hat I haven’t heard from in ages! I’ll have to go back to some of my earlier posts too, to see if any of them are still blogging!
I know what you mean though – there’s something kind of sad about an abandoned blog, especially one that you used to really enjoy reading.
Yes, I hate to go to a blog and find that it’s sitting abandoned … it makes me sad! I thought it was fun to look back at those first commenters and see who I still recognize now.
Yes, I am approaching my 6 year anniversary and so many who first helped me have moved on. It does happen just like you said, I will suddenly think, boy I haven’t heard from so-in-so in a while, and will search out their blog. You see signs before with some. For example, they begin taking blogger breaks, they talk about quitting but others -poof they are just gone.
I was excited to see your name as one of my first commenters! I wasn’t all that surprised, though—you have always been one of the most supportive bloggers out there, and I’m not surprised that you came out and visited me when I was just a baby blog. 🙂 Thanks for all you do for the blogging community!
I’ve been blogging for 3 years, and I’ve seen a lot of bloggers come and go. It’s strange when someone just vanishes with no warning. That seems to happen a lot. I met most of my blog’s early followers on Goodreads or through Feature & Follow Friday. I still talk to several of them.
I agree that it seems strangest when a blog suddenly goes dark with no warning. Sometimes you can see that a blogger is posting less and less, but still …. For some reason, I always like to read people’s goodbye posts when they have them. Sometimes they’re a bit sad or regretful, and sometimes the blogger is happy and excited about a new chapter in their life. It’s really interesting to me to see why people stop blogging.
This is a very nice post, I wouldn’t have thought of the idea 🙂 but that’s probably because my blog is somewhere around half a year old only! Although now that I think about it, it feels like a lot, cause I feel like I JUST started blogging… so for now, I guess my commenters come and go anyway. But I’ve noticed one funny thing. Non-bloggers almost never comment! How is that? Why do readers-lurkers never interact? It’s so strange. I know they visit, cause stats, but even my Goodreads friends would rather come back to the GR review and comment there. Such a weird psychological thing, isn’t it? Have you noticed this as well?
I have two or three non-blogging readers who comment relatively often, but that’s it. I always love to see them—somehow it seems extra exciting to get comments from someone who is a reader, not a blogger. I can’t exactly say why.
It does depend on the post as well—my most popular post of ever is a Spoiler-Filled Discussion of Three Dark Crowns, and it has quite a few comments from non-bloggers!
I think maybe it’s exciting because they’re not actually from the blogger circle where we have a… certain culture, I guess?
I have also had a few non-blogger commenters, but they were one-time ones, and ironically, all from China 😀 probably because my most visited post by SEO results happens to be for a Chinese author (not sure why that one, but it was one of my first posts so maybe that’s that. All the spam still comes through that one)
I think you’re right—it’s just fun to see new people on my blog in general, and non-bloggers have something different to add to the conversation.
What a great way to reconnect with bloggers. I have noticed people who comment on my blog has changed but so has the blogs I follow most regularly as I find new ones and also ones that tend to focus on the genres I like,
You make a good point—when I first started blogging, I didn’t really have a clear style and I participated in things like Feature & Follow Friday where book bloggers of all different genres participated. Nowadays, I mostly follow (closely) blogs that are similar to mine since they have books I’m interested in. Bloggers who post lots of great discussions are an exception (especially if they are part of the Discussion Challenge—I read ALL of those posts) because even if we don’t read the same types of books, I still love to see what they have to say about books in general.
I love and frequent some of the blogs you listed! And I totally understand where you’re coming from. My blog has been around for a little less than yours (around 3.5 years) and I can definitely think of some of my earlier blogging friends, many of whom don’t blog anymore. I sometimes still check their abandoned blogs, and it’s kind of sad. Love this post <3
Brittany @ Brittany’s Book Rambles
Sometimes you just have to peek to see if they’ve come back! I unfollow people on Twitter when they haven’t been active in months, but there are a few old friends that I just can’t bring myself to delete. I need to be able to check in on them from time to time. 🙂
Awww!! Thank you! <3
I sometimes go through my blogger roll on the side on my dashboard page and notice all the blogs I follow. I've tried cleaning it up but have found that some blogs are just gone as well and I can't even clear them out. I feel like I've been in this game for so long, 8 years this past January, and in those early days I basically followed anyone who followed my little blog! Lol!
I've noticed when people quit it's because of life things, like you said. Losing interest, being too overwhelmed with blogging that it's feeling like a second job for them. Perhaps my small stack of review books that always sadden me, yet never kept me from stopping is what caused them to stop. Maybe it all became too much and it was tiresome. I feel like things are crazy if I ever have 3 or more review books in a stack! LOL! But I enjoy reading too much to ever quite blogging, because in a way, blogging is my reading journal…minus spoilers of course! Lol!
I follow most of the same blogs as I did in the early days. I've been noticing that not all of them are still blogging as frequently, or they've added more reviewers to their blog, which is great, but I don't see that initial person too much anymore. Reading tastes have changed for some, yet I still find i visit most of the same blogs!
For the most part, I haven't really been cleaning up my blog list anymore. I guess because it's hard to say goodbye, even if they've already said it.
It’s hard to let go! I’m glad that there are still some friendly bloggers like you who’ve been around since the very beginning, though. 🙂
This is wonderful post. What a nice way to thank and reach out to some of your earliest supporters. Although I am new to my blog, WLABB started almost 4 years ago, and it’s due to life changes that I was asked to contribute. I love talking about books, and am thankful that I am given this outlet, as I have no reader friends IRL *sad face*.
Lots of us need an online outlet for our love of books because otherwise we’d have no one to talk to!
I *just* cleaned out my RSS reader AND my bookmarks list this past week and I was also sad to see so many blogs gone. I think it’s just the nature of things, but some people do fall into illnesses and then I really worry about them. 🙁
There is one blogger in particular who I loved and I recently learned she passed away. It made me so incredibly sad!
I LOVE that you created a positive spin on this, because tbh, it just makes me sad most of the time hahah. Some of the first people who commented on my blog are not around anymore, which is sad. One or two are but I lost touch with. BUT one of the first people I connected with is Holly, and we are obviously still very close, so that is nice! I know I need to remove a few inactive blogs from my blog roll but.. it is HARD. The worst though is finding out that a blogger passed away, like with Elizabeth. That absolutely broke my heart. It’s bad enough when people just move on but… that was a gut punch for sure.
Oh my gosh, I was thinking about Elizabeth a lot when I wrote this post. I actually didn’t know that she’d passed away for sure—I assumed, but I could never find confirmation anywhere. She was so fantastic and I miss her! I have never had the heart to take her out of my Bloglovin’ or Twitter lists. 🙁
I was just thinking about this the other day. I followed blogs for a long time before I decided to blog and it is sad to see the blogs you followed and thought were so amazing fade out. Sometimes I wish I would have started blogging sooner instead of waiting, but it is a time investment (thank goodness a fun one!).
No matter when you started blogging, you would have seen people come and go. It’s inevitable. But I agree it’s sad sometimes!
Hi, I’m a new blogger, having just blogged a little more than three months. I do hope I can survive at least one year. hehe (in my dream I would be a book blogger forever, though)
I’m very lucky to have met and interacted almost daily with some awesome book bloggers. They have encouraged me to keep blogging and keep it fun so I won’t get burned out. I think having fellow bloggers that I can talk to every day is very important.
Btw, I like this post. I love reading discussions related to book bloggers. 😀
Well, welcome to the blogosphere then, Geybie! Just wait—it will feel like no time at all before you’re reminiscing about those early days and the bloggers who helped you get started. 🙂
You are so right, Nicole! Some of those bloggers I got to know early on are gone. And some I really enjoyed interacting with disappeared suddenly, and I had to use some very tricky google skills to find them just to check that they were OK.
I understand why and how this happens, and I have thought back to other hobbies I have had in the past, and how I don’t have those anymore. Books and reading has always been a part of my life, even with some breaks when my children were very young 🙂
I think sometimes, life also gets really busy, so even with my blog still there, it’s hard to find the time to visit all the great bloggers I’d love to interact with.
I love some of your early commenters, and FF Friday was my way of introducing myself to the community way back when, too. Almost five years since I started, so there have been many bloggers showing up and disappearing again, sadly.
Yeah, sometimes I’ve googled people to try and figure out where they disappeared to. It’s sad when the people you used to talk to a lot fade away, but I love that the blogosphere is such a vibrant place and there are always new friends to make as well!
It is sad thinking on the bloggers who have moved on from it since I first started blogging. I can’t say I’ve gone back to see what has happened with my early commenters. There are a couple I still try to visit but I’ve always been a little blog so I’ve mostly managed to stay in touch with those bloggers who are still around. It’s hard, though finding the time to keep track of everyone I may have to investigate who supported me when I first started and I was scared. I definitely find bloggers who haven’t posted a goodbye post the saddest I don’t know what’s happening with them but then it feels like there might be hope for them to come back.
Yes, those are the strangest cases—where a person just stops blogging abruptly. Of course, I have a second blog that I used to keep up with (called Best Kids’ Reads) that I pretty much stopped posting on. I guess people who only knew me from that blog might think I disappeared. (I never really thought about it before!) So, you just never know what happens with people. 🙂
This is a lovely way to look back over your blogging lifespan so far. I’ve changed commenting methods on my blog a couple of times resulting in all the early comments being lost, but it is surprising how many bloggers I used to see around have now moved onto something else.
I lost some of my comments from the middle days of my blogging too—from right before I switched to WordPress. That was really frustrating!
Kim’s blog is one of the first blogs I stumbled upon when I started. I often stop by and check out her Sunday Posts as I did them frequently and then went out on my own with Scenic Sundays. 🙂
I love my connection with Julie and Lynn over at Chapter Break. We started commenting on each other’s blogs and then did a guest post exchange. Then a crazy comment about only reading books we own for one year resulted in the #ShelfLove Challenge. It’s been great fun!
I love that you forged that connection with them. That’s how I feel with Shannon over at It Starts at Midnight, even though she technically wasn’t one of my earliest commenters.
Nice post. Makes me want to go back and revisit some of my early commenters. But before I do, I noticed that there are some bloggers who only commented during giveaway offers. And, these people continue to do so only if there is an offer. I have done less offers in the past couple years. So, am surprised when I see them appear again.
I have some people who only come by for giveaways as well. It doesn’t bother me—but I agree that it’s interesting when you see their name pop up again and you think, “Oh, I guess they didn’t actually go away after all!” Maybe some of those people are lurkers—they might be checking out your posts but just not commenting unless there’s a giveaway. You never know!
I’ve seen a lot that have just kind of disappeared (my own original blog included). But I’ve also seen some of the bloggers who were baby bloggers at the same time as me take off and flourish, and that’s AWESOME to see! My own current blog is new enough that revisiting early commenters probably isn’t a particularly interesting exercise. But maybe I’ll celebrate FaerieFits’ year mark by doing a shout-out / follow-up to some of those first folks I started interacting with on this one 🙂
That would be fun! I love being nostalgic now and again. What was your old blog?
Classy Cat Books. I transitioned from that to FaerieFits last year in July 🙂 It was a bittersweet transition, but I’ve been VERY happy with FaerieFits, so I think it was a good move in the long run 😀
I remember Classy Cat Books! I didn’t realize that was you—funny how the blogging world can work that way!
It’s kinda crazy to think about so many having gone “dark”, Nicole. I know of one right off the top of my head who commented on my blog early in the game but then left blogging…but she explained she was doing it and why. I think I’ll try to find some time to see who all I’ve lost contact with and whether or not they’re still around. It might be fun to try to reconnect or to at least see how they’ve evolved if they’re still blogging. 🙂 Great post!
I know I’ve seen some bloggers who leave and give an explanation of why they’re going. It’s still sad to say goodbye, but at least you know what’s happening with them.
I was going to say that I’m still a baby blogger and haven’t known anyone long enough, but now that I think about it, there are a couple of names that I no longer see around the blogosphere. It’s sad when bloggers drop off or go MIA, but I suppose it makes sense – just with any other hobby, people might move on. Anyway, lovely post, Nicole!
It seems like people disappear every day, so you don’t have to be around long to see people go!
A little while ago I did the same exact thing. I’ve been blogging for quite a while now and it is so sad to see people come and go… but sometimes they do come back as well. 🙂 I think the hardest disappearance for me was a book blogger who only really read mysteries. She discovered my blog and for years there wasn’t a single post of hers, or a single post of mine, that we hadn’t commented on or discussed together. But a few months ago she just disappeared and I have no idea what happened or if she simply lost interest in blogging. It was quite sad, because I had just started to read more mystery *per her recommendation* and she was starting to explore YA…
That is sad! It’s weird when you make a connection with someone like that and then you just have no idea what happened to them.
Please write a follow-up post, I’m very curious if you reconnect with any of these bloggers. I’ve been blogging for about 3 years and I’ve seen blogs come and go too. It makes me sad when a blogs I follow disappear. But I guess its life. I just wish all of them post a good-bye post; it’s such a strange feeling to visit a blog and see that it was abandoned. Though, most of my bookish friends are still out there posting reviews, discussions and other stuff.
PS. I totally agree with Evelina’s remark about non-bloggers. They rarely comment.
I should try to do a follow-up in six months or something and see how I’ve done with reconnecting. That’s a great idea!
[…] Fiction Addiction. Nicole has some fantastic discussions on her blog. Recent topics have included Watching Bloggers Come and Go and Am I The Only One Without An OTP? Nicole is also one of the hosts of the Book Blog Discussion […]
This is such a fun idea to reconnect to the bloggers who first commented on your blog. What fun to see some are still writing away and reconnect with them!
I have been so sad to not be blogging regularly. I *think* I just figured out how to squeeze a few hours into my crazy schedule so I can get back to my blog. Blogging is hard, as we all know. I sure do have a lot more respect for the ones that just disappeared. Life can totally get in the way.
Fun post!
Yes, sometimes it can be really hard to keep everything in life moving smoothly and the blog is one thing that just has to wait.