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