social media ephemera

Just saw that Lauren Wood is lamenting disappearing blogs.

I’ve noticed a few blogs disappearing over the past few months, blogs I used to enjoy reading and had pointed out to people. I find it disappointing when people decide to get rid of the entire blog [ … ] since I think the web as a whole loses something when parts of it disappear.

Very likely the data and posts that made up any blogs that actually had any reasonable following and linkage is still available. I know people who reconstructed blogs lost due to hardware failures out of Google cache. Plus, with services like the Internet Archive wayback machine, web content doesn’t have to disappear into the mist.

But that’s not the point.

Deleting blogs and deleting blog posts is like cutting ex-spouses out of family pictures. It’s almost like re-writing history, or just erasing it. Makes me think of Orwell’s MinTrue.

Maybe that’s just a tad bit extreme. 😉

[tags] blogging, social media, ephemera, lost data, john koetsier [/tags]

 


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2 CommentsLeave a comment

  • John, it’s quite a morning when I have to reach for my dictionary before I’ve finished my first cup of coffee! Thanks for your observation, and for the vocabulary lesson. “Losing” a blog you like is very much like losing a friend (I guess it’s the 21st Century version). I’m going to do my best to keep my blog from being an ephemeron (now I’ve used it in a sentence too!). All the best.
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