Lessons From a Disappearing Act
Bloggers come and go. I believe it’s part of the blogger’s cycle to retire or semi-retire from at one point, and come back in a few weeks rejuvenated and blogging even better. This happens to the best of us. Sometimes our reasons are personal. Sometimes it’s blogging burnout. Sometimes we just lose interest. Or perhaps we’re busy with other stuff (like real life?).
Sometimes readers notice. Sometimes they don’t. And just to make sure your readers don’t go asking the police for a missing persons report for you, it’s always best to at least post a message that you will be going missing for a while. Once you come back, it’s always polite to post a message that you’re back.
I’m of the opinion that you are not obliged to do this, but it’s the polite and decent thing to do. It doesn’t matter whether you’re popular or not, but sometimes the need for doing this becomes greater as you become more popular.
Not so long ago, such a disappearing act happened, and it was Bryan Veloso of Avalonstar.com who took a break from blogging. And this guy’s not just any blogger. He’s a well respected designer and creator in many circles (heck, he’s got 7,500 feed readers, according to his FeedBurner chicklet). Paul Scrivens sums it up in this post, which was quite critical of how Bryan did his “disappearing act.” Scrivs thinks what Bryan did was irresponsible and egotistic, particularly because people were trying to get in touch with Bryan to express their concern, and there he was, probably relaxing, basking in the sun somewhere, and not returning their messages. Then of course, some consider this to be one big publicity stunt.
In this case, I would think the best thing is to respond to people. It’s one thing taking a break from the blogosphere. It’s another thing not responding to people all over trying to reach you and getting worried about you. And then they see you online doing other stuff (like posting on Twitter and the like). People will start to think—are you purposely ignoring them?
The comment thread over at Scrivs’ blog turns into a debate on who between Scrivs and Bryan was childish and egotistic. On one hand, there were those criticizing Bryan because of his apparent uncaring actions. On the other hand, there were those criticizing Scrivs and company for acting as if Bryan should be answerable to them.
I stand with Scrivs on this. Publicity stunt, my foot! I don’t like other people playing with my emotions (that’s what I have a girlfriend for). Even worse that it’s all in the name of publicity. Next time someone disappears like this, I wonder if people would still care.
Bryan always has been a drama queen, but in the blogosphere there are two measures : we love everyone who’s popular and don’t dare to call them out otherwise you’ll be hated!
Whatever. Bryan has gotten away with many attitudes no professional would get away with in his career. He’s a genuine rockstar : looking down on his fans, no return and scripting the drama every time in his favor.
It helps to be an A-lister, whatever that may be, bloggers like you and me wouldn’t get away with it.
franky said this on May 27, 2007 2:01 am