When your blog goes on retirement

When I started blogging, I only had the goal of pouring my grief over my dead cat. Blogging used to be a way to explore interests, a personal online journal of some sorts (unlike today, blogging is either dead or used for marketing business). Over time, I begin to like blogging- writing and sharing thoughts that comes to my mind, even my own hobbies and interests.

Blogger used to be the best platform for beginners like me because it’s easy to navigate. And during peak blogging years I have opened and read so many blogs that offer their insights and their hobbies. You can just log in to your account, write, publish, and that’s it. But of course, a blogger also gets busy with life, with new ventures, family and other personal matters. So, what happens when bloggers decide to stop writing and the updates stop coming?

In my case, I deleted my first blog. Nowadays I still see some archived screenshots of it. Others decide to archive their works by letting it live online until whenever (or until Google decides to shut down Blogger). Just like Susan Scott and Loretta Chase’s Two Nerdy History Girls blog. It’s one of the blogs I’ve been checking out and reading since it opened late 2000s. Through their posts, I discovered and read some of the novels they’ve recommended.

Rhonda Hetzel’s Down To Earth blog also went into retirement a few months ago. I used to read her posts about her home and garden, and her insights to simple and frugal living. Another blog I used to follow, How About Orange decided to archive the blog 11 years ago. I first discovered this blog when I was searching online for patterned wallpapers. The owner, Jessica Jones is a designer shares her works, and I was drawn to it (also because orange is my favorite color). She offers tutorials and lovely printables which are still online.

With today’s era of business-centric and AI generated articles and posts, it’s still nice to see bloggers genuinely writing and sharing what they love online. And I’m even more thankful to these bloggers I mentioned, because unlike me, they decide to keep their blogs online for people to read and become sources. Well, to be fair, my old blog isn’t really ‘educational’, so best to have it off the internet.