The impermanence of blog posts, and the impermanence of blogs

Don't tell Dave Winer, but I got involved in another conversation in blog comments. As my thread with the Goddess of Garey Avenue progressed, she made the following statement:

Wow, I was unaware that you have had so many blogs. Cool!

She said this because, while writing a comment on this Empoprise-BI blog, I made a reference to the very first blog that I created, the Ontario Empoblog. And presumably the Goddess found the post that I wrote about her in my Empoprise-IE Inland Empire blog.

I've probably created upwards of a dozen blogs since I started blogging in 2003. Some of them, such as the Ontario Empoblog, were general blogs in which I would literally talk about anything. Others were (somewhat) focused on more specific interests. Most of the blogs were public, but one of them was behind a corporate firewall.

Regarding the public blogs, I would start one (or two) (or three) of them, use it for a year or two, and eventually discard it. Using my very first blog as an example, that particular blog lasted a little over three years. The first post, on October 14, 2003 was full of promise:

Why did synthetica start with fake bluegrass sounds? Why not? This is the Ontario Empoblog, or the blog for Ontario Emperor, which has nothing and everything to do with Canada, New Mexico, and Texas, but also California, which is a location in California. It exists in cyberspace, which is also synthetic.

The Ontario Empoblog may or may not touch on a variety of subjects, including music, poetry, poker, the supposed familial relationship between Brian Eno and Slim Whitman, the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop (1,121 - I checked), various comments about frogs, and the nature of nature.

The (second to) last post, written on February 9, 2007 and entitled "Hiatus," indicated one of my many changes in direction:

The Ontario Empoblog is shutting down, at least temporarily.

In fact I'm ceasing activity on all of my existing Blogger blogs, and redirecting people to mrontemp, my new Blogger blog.

One of the reasons for this is a change in style. My blog posts (in this blog especially) have become long posts that morph from one subject to another in a non-toadlike wild ride of whatevers. As you can see from my first few posts in mrontemp, I'm trying a more succinct style.

We'll see how it goes. Catch you at mrontemp.

A little over two years later, I shut down mrontemp also - in this case, because of my shift in my blogging name from "Ontario Emperor" to "John Bredehoft."

And over the years I've ceased activity at a number of blogs, including KOER, KOET, mrmicro-oe,
mrontario, my MySpace blog,Ontario Logoblog, Ontario Technoblog, andOppose Traffic Calming Obstructions. I seem to recall having a Frappr blog at one point also, and probably some others.

And don't forget the pre-blog activity, such as the Ontario Emperor Yahoo group that I founded in 1998, and the Tripod site that I started at about the same time.

At one time each of these properties served a vital purpose, but my interest changed, or my strategy changed, or my name changed, and then the properties weren't as vital any more.

Right now I manage four blogs on a regular basis, including the aforementioned business and Inland Empire blogs, a music blog, and an NTN Buzztime blog. That has been my blog lineup for the last twenty months. But I can't predict what will be going on twenty months in the future. Maybe I'll still have all four of these blogs. Maybe I won't have any of them. Maybe I won't even be blogging.

Meanwhile, others are more consistent with their online presence. If you go to scripting.com, you can go back in the archives to an April 1, 1997 entry. Now that's consistency.