Toc Doc asked, "Why do blogs die?"
That's an interesting question, and one that begs the question of whether or not blogs actually die. If they do not have activity for a certain number of days, weeks, or months, are they really gone?
Adam Stein of adamstein.org argues that even if the author of a blog isn't posting, the blog isn't dead. He bases his assertion on the volume of readers who continue to visit his blog even during a hiatus of months. Even discarding the hits that can be accounted for by web crawlers, his readership is often UP during his dry spells.
What's up with that?
I continue to describe blogs in terms of journals. Not personal journals, but the scholarly journals that sit in the stacks at the library, or better yet in electronic databases. Just because they are published once per month or every two months doesn't mean that the communication is dead. While the author isn't writing, readers may still be reading. This is one key difference between blogs and threaded discussions. A blog is not a conversation, and does not take interaction between parties to remain viable.
Does this really mean, however, that blogs can't die? No, I don't think so. If an author really walks away from a blog or even takes it down, it does cease to exist in any real terms. Once an author stops writing AND readers stop reading, then the blog can be said to be "dead". But it can be hard to tell for certain when to declare the end point of a blog's viability since a writer can get sparked at any point by something he or she has read and wants to share.
So, until next time I feel inspired ...
I think it would be interesting to know what happens to some of these class blogs on Uthink once the semester is over. In these cases, the purpose for the blog ends and my guess is that the class members - authors, would no longer feel the need to post in that particular blog. They will move on to other classes and other purposes. Also, the readers of these blogs are primarily people in those classes. I have read some and even posted comments on some class blogs, but that's while they are active. I don't think the discussions of class materials and so on would be as interesting to readers if it's not part of a current discussion with relevence to the particular class and the learning process. Maybe the use of these old class blogs would have to change to keep them alive, like using them as something to point at; as examples of what a class blog is like. But that's not using them for the content, it's using them to see how it's done and how it worked. Anyway, I think class blogs would die sooner than personal blogs, like the one you mentioned, because of the death of it's purpose and main function. Personal Blogs people can and sometimes do start back up after months away when inspired, but the authors of class blogs will be on to other classes (with their blogs) and no longer care about the previous class blog. The relevency is gone.
Can Shane provide statistics on hits for the class blogs on Uthink after the semester is over? I think the hits would be dramatically less than blogs with active posts.
John
Also I think many class blogs are a conversation. It's a discussion between students of particular class and the instructor. Teachers posting assignments is a form of communication to the students at a particular time in the life of that blog. The students are communicating with each other on topics read or discussed in class. Other readers do not have the full context of these discussions online, which are an extension of what's going on in class. In some cases, the posts are writing assignments which are critiqued by classmates or the teacher. Or classmates ask for opinions and information on their paper topic. This makes many class blogs a discussion. When the discussion dies, I would think the blog does also.
John