It’s a battlefield out there folks.
I’ve seen things people. Six years ago, I was just a beat down customer service agent, boiling inside with all kinds of bitterness. I had had enough of talking on the phone, having unreliable co-workers and working in a toxic atmosphere. Okay, most of the toxicity was me, but you know, it was everyone that was making me that way. So I signed up for WordPress, pounding out six posts about things that made me bitter and this blog was born.
I told a few co-workers to read my posts, and that was that. I had so many bitter ideas. It wasn’t until a few months later I even told my wife and parent about it. I tried posting them on Facebook, but all my lunatic real life friends didn’t want anything to do with it. Finally, I discovered this Reader thing a few months later, and realized I should start reading other terrible bloggers like me.
So I did. Start following, commenting and people would follow back. It was a revelatory thing. My blog started taking off, and I started meeting bitter bloggers disguised as humor bloggers and we started forming bonds. I realized there was a whole community of people out there that were bitter, but they just didn’t know it.
As soon as I posted something I would go find new blogger friends. I would form a bond, follow them, start reading their stuff, look forward to what they would write next, and then I started seeing a pattern.
Most blogs turn out to be like this amusement park. Out to sea.
An illustration to help you understand my point. You know those pictures of old amusement parks? At one time they were new, and vibrant and probably full of hope. But through neglect, or disinterest or low sales, they would start fading, the owner would start running out of money, and the amusement park would fade into oblivion.
The more time I’ve been doing this, the more I saw bloggers and blogs do the same thing. A once vibrant blogger full of hope and excitement about the things they had to say, would start a blog, get a few followers, get a handful of likes, blow up in the atmosphere and become the next big blog thing in the community.
Then just like the amusement parks, they would get busy with school, get a boy or girlfriend, run out of ideas, have a kid, or just plain get bored. I’ve seen it over and over.
I have completely started a new group of bloggers people dozens of times. Not one person that read my first blog posts six years ago is around any more. Not one from the first year, or the second, even the third are still around. There is a figurative battlefield of dead bloggers strewn across the internet. I go back to the beginning and there are thousands of “Sorry, but the owners of this blog have deleted the contents of this blog.” There are thousands of blogs that were last updated on July 2016, with the last post being, “Sorry I’ve been gone so Long.” The post is always something like, It is my goal to get back to writing at least once a week. Look forward to the great new direction on this blog!
Leaving blogging? You won’t be missed. Just like people don’t miss me.
It is a graveyard out here people. The casualties are immense. Like I said, I’ve seen things. Now that I’ve been doing this for six years, I know for a fact that many of you right now that are reading this, won’t be here next year. It’s a bitter truth I have come to know. But those who aren’t, will be replaced by new people, and the cycle will happen for as long as I do this. I will probably be doing this long after I die, or get my book deal, or get a ghost writer.
Anyway, Happy Bitterversary To Me,
ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH
Bitter Old Amusement Park Ben
Ben's Bitter Blog 
Happy BitterBloggerWordPressiversary, Ben! 🙂
I’ve been on WP for 6 years…since February 2012. I read blogs on here (of friends) in 2011 and then started my own blog a year later.
Before that, I blogged on another blogging place from 2005 to 2012. Only left there and came to WP because that blogging place went defunct-ed.
Keep bringing us bitter blogs for at least 6 more years!
HUGS!!! 🙂
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So I guess you win then. Ugggh. It makes me so bitter when people show me up by blogging longer than me. I’ve done over 1000 posts. I suppose you have more than that too. Ugghh .
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It takes true Bitterness to stick around so long! Well Done! 😀
Here’s to many more Bitter years on WP. 🙂
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Same for you! You’ve been around for the long haul too. I just see so many dead blog bodies along the way and it makes me bitter.
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Oh I totally agree! I start to follow someone and get to know them and their posts and then Poof! they’ve gone! The few that still follow me seem to have done so from the start. We must all be Bitter together! 😀
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We need to start a community of bitter people, with me in the center collecting dues and such, while everyone else does the hard work. Everybody agree?
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hahaha If anyone can pull that off, you can Bitter Ben! 😀
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I will begin the league of bitterness, then leave all the work to others.
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You could write a bunch of posts now and then just schedule them to be published bitterly for the next 100 years or so.
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That is a great idea. As a lazy person, that works so much more for me. I think it will be really funny when I am talking about this century stuff in a hundred years. I should get an auto sarcastic answerer too.
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Happy Bitterversary, Ben! I really do hope I won’t be doing this, at this time next year. But sadly I believe my life will continue to go nowhere, leaving me to flounder right here where I’m at.
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Hey going nowhere in life is my forte. On full display on my blog. Keep up the going nowhere!
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I guess I’m half dead, but I still read you, Ben. By the way, don’t you love how people are always like ‘sorry I’ve been gone so long’? It’s like, don’t be sorry. No one cares.
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Yeah, those are the worst type of blog posts. Just stick to your blog type and keep doing that. It’s like when people come late to work and you have to hear the whole story about why. Just get back to doing your job and save the drama for your mama.
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Stick around, Bitter Ben. I’ve been at it since 2011 (I think; too lazy to check) and hope to continue indefinitely. It is sad when you realize somebody you enjoyed has given it up. Quite frankly, I am in a slump right now, but your metaphor of the rusty old amusement park is so scary, I am heading right over to my Dashboard and coming up for something for today.
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Yep, don’t become a rusted out amusement park. Your reader need some loop de loops from you.
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Hey, you miserable old git…
Not one from the first year, or the second, even the third are still around.
Not true! You say you’ve been blogging six years, I’ve been here for eleven (with a couple of breaks here and there). I’ve been following you since time immemorial (relatively speaking), so there’s at least one of us still around 😛
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I don’t remember you following my first post though. You were probably a few years into it. If I waste enough time I could tell when you start following me.
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I wouldn’t want you to waste your time. It’s not exactly earth-shatteringly important 🙂
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None of my posts are very important either, so neither here nor there.
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Yours and mine both, my friend!
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I’m just really good at wasting people’s time! and money!
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Is it a waste of someone’s time to be entertained? (I don’t get the point about wasting money…)
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Send me a check and I will let you know how you wasted your money.
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You hit the nail on the head effectively. In fact you should be arrested for that hit. I too, have blogged almost five years and the readers come and go. One day they are avid readers and then they drift off to obscurity. I like that you are bitter. I tend to be sour. To me words mean a lot and can be taken out of context. I tend to play with words. Congrads to you. Don’t quit, I need some bitter in my life. It keeps me rooted.
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I won’t quit, even if I have to make my daughter take over after I’m dead. This bitterness will last forever.
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You really ought to be a motivational speaker.
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I know right? I would get people on their feet about not starting a blog. They would feel so bad about themselves by the time I finished.
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Happy Bitterblogersary to you!! I have now been around for 2 1/2 years, and even with so little time spent in the Bloggosphere, I have seen the cycle too. A few warriors hang on, but a lot of blogs die.
I’m happy yours hasn’t. In fact, I feel pretty lucky. The first three bloggers that I followed, and who followed me back are still online to this day… You, Notthedane56 and Rowena. I think that’s pretty cool.
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You have some sort of hold over people I guess. Maybe it is just me that drives people away. That’s probably it.
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Oohh, I’d forgotten that we get to celebrate Blogoversaries! I wonder what mine is. Some day around seven years ago. I think I’ve only been following you for around 3-4 years, though. And when I finally get bored, I’ll just hire a ghost reader so you won’t feel abandoned. 😉
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I think you will need to hire a ghost commenter. So you never get the notification from WordPress that you’ve been around a certain amount of years? You can also just go back to your posts and see. My monthly ones show on the right of the blog, so it’s pretty easy to see.
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Happy Bitterversary. I can relate to this well, I chose a few happy people to follow and soon enough they were spewing their bitterness gleefully. It only takes a few subliminal messages to bring them to the dark side…then the breakdown and they are gone and I have to start all over. You have taught me well Oh Bitter Ben.
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You just need to follow me, because all those other weirdos will just quit on you after only 15 or 20 years. I will still be around 40 years after you’re dead.
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I feel better now knowing you will carry on.
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Yeah, you are probably in the minority. I’m pretty sure most people are sad about it.
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Happy Bitter Anniversary!! I am still around and will remain as I too, have sardonic posts to write haha! I will turn 5 years old on WP this July. I always enjoy your posts and its level of bitterness is surprisingly, invigorating!
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I know, you are one of the few that have been around almost as long as I have. It’s kind of crazy. Keep up the bitterness online!
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😃😃💕
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Congratulations on your anniversary.
My daughter had to start a blog as part of a university project, and I seriously doubt that she will continue after the semester ends, however, I hope I can keep my blog from being included in those sad statistics.
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Yeah, those blogs for school never last. I remember many of them starting then getting abandoned as soon as they got their C-.
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Happy bitter anniversary!
I’ve only been blogging for a year and I already noticed this too. I really like some of my blogging friends though (sorry to say something not bitter!) so I hope they stay around like you have.
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Sadly, you will start seeing them fall off one by one. There are also signs when they start posting less, apologizing for being off schedule or start saying that things are getting busy at work or home. Kind of a like a Green Mile situation.
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