Riding the Slipstream

How does one say good-bye in cyberspace? In the past few weeks I have noticed that a number of my favourite South African (and international) blogs have simply disappeared. In truth, I only noticed this when I started trawling the web for nominations for The 2nd South African Blog Awards. The blogs did not exactly disappear, but the bloggers have either stopped writing or post intermittently and infrequently. Now I am sure the bloggers in question have perfectly good reasons for not blogging anymore. With The Slipsteam nearing its one year anniversary, I have thought about whether I want to continue with this blog for another year. It is not that I have nothing more to say or that I have run out of embarrassing anecdotes to share. I do. Yet, for all the good bloggging has done for me and the many online friends I have made, one cannot be expected to blog indefinitely, can we? However, this begs the question, when blogging comes to an end, how exactly does one go about doing it? Will a simple farewell post do, and is there an obligation to say goodbye? Should one let the blog and it archives remain to gather electronic dust like a long forgotten book on a shelf or simpley delete it all? Will the web eventualy become a graveyard of abandoned and forgotten blogs? Every blog has a regular circle of visitors and "commentators(?)", and as time goes by, friendships are forged and we come to expect the presence of certain people on our blogs. If not for anyone else, do we owe them a reason, a good-bye, perhaps a farewell e-mail? There really are no protocols to be followed, or a right and a wrong way of doing it. In fact, there is no obligation to do anything at all. In the absence of actual physical contact, online friendships are easily severed, and we can distance ourselves from those we have not seen. There really is no obligation to continue with the "friendship" beyond the blogosphere. It has become as easy as pulling the plug or hitting the ever-popular delete key. Perhaps I am just overly sentimental, and perhaps I am making more of this than is necessary. Blogs are abandoned and deleted all the time... it is the nature of things in cybespace. I think I'll be around for while yet. While the party is still in full swing, I don't fancy standing outside and looking in through the window.