I saw people doing this on fb and thought it looked fun. Looks like I need to spend some more time in the Northeast.
When Google announced the imminent termination of their popular RSS reader app, I was indifferent. Perhaps I’d taken the software for granted; forgotten how things were when it first came out and blogging was basically peaking. I can remember the excitement of launching Reader every morning, a feed totally of my choosing there waiting for me: Dinosaur Comics, Cyanide & Happiness, XKCD, and of course, all my friends’ blogs.
I guess I just assumed the tech giant that whips out ridiculously useful free apps in its sleep would soon announce an even better replacement. But that announcement never came. When I returned from my typical summer hiatus from the blogosphere, I found Reader gone like bits in the wind.
I think theres a tendency to consider things in the online world immortal, like that heart you carved into that aspen tree when you were young. The cold truth that Reader was totally gone was like a punch in the stomach. I wanted to check in on the blogs I’d neglected for so long, but found myself lost. I couldn’t remember the URLs, so I was left conducting weak Google searches. Do you know how many Laura Peters blogs there are? I did finally find it, but no update since April. Another victim of the downfall, I presume. SinglePlusCat? No updates since 2012, but i’m probably 3 blogs of hers behind by now.
Reynolds Tribe! My favorite Mommy blog! Alive and well! So good to see. Just in time, too. I was so caught up in my little blog eulogy that I was starting to hear Les Mis’s Empty Chairs at Empty Tables in my head, only with the words changed to “Empty blogs in empty readers”.
I’m going to attempt to power through and keep this whole blog thing going. If you are reading this and still blogging too, please send me a link. I’d love to read it. Now to go find a rebound…
