Shelley Powers Ends Burningbird Blog

Posted on May 8, 2006

Shelley Powers is closing her Burningbird blog.

There are a lot of good times associated with an old weblog, but a lot of unhappy times, too. I'm not having fun with my site, and I think it shows in the writing. The only fun at the site has been what you all have been contributing: in comments, emails, and your own weblogs. That's enough to continue reading you�it's not enough to continue writing me, or whatever me is as the 'Bird.
It must seem as if "quitting" one's weblog is the hip new thing. I appreciate the fact that this is one of those few times I may be in with the insiders-actually, I savor the moment, wonder if I've developed a golden aura as a result-but this wasn't the impetus for this change. I don't plan on "quitting", but I do want to rethink what it is I want from my online presence.

Shelley Powers is right that quitting blogging seems to be "the new hip thing." Frank Barnako has a list of bloggers that have quit or plan to quit their blog including Dave Winer, Russell Beattie and Sarah Hepola. Sheila Lennon at Subterranean Homepage News comments on this trend as well.

Unfortunately for me and those of you who've been readers of Burningbird, her blog, Shelley has just joined the growing list of longtime bloggers packing it in.
Maybe the fad is over. Blogs were edgy four or five years ago, but the Web isn't as much fun now; not so quirky, there's less worth pointing to. Some early bloggers got famous from it, and now mostly blog their appearances elsewhere. The research that goes into daily blogging -- for bloggers who go beyond shooting from the hip -- takes a lot of time, time not spent sleeping, dancing, reading books, gardening, making love, going out, visiting with other humans.

Bloggers give many reasons for quitting. It becomes unfun or it gets in the way of other personal goals. For some bloggers the time commitment simply becomes to great. However, bloggers seem to almost always leave the door open for a possible comeback when they quit. Shelley is no exception: "I don't expect this to be my last post, forever, but this will be the last I write as Burningbird."