I
started this blog over 8 years ago. Frequent readers may have noticed the
number of posts has decreased during the last few years. I’ve been pondering
the blog’s future for awhile, and after 719 posts, including this one, and over
240,000 page views, I’ve decided it’s time to close up shop, sign off one last
time, and retire from the blogosphere.
It’s
not because this heart transplant recipient’s health is failing. On the
contrary - I’m approaching the 11th anniversary of my transplant and
am still doing great. God continues to bless me tremendously.
The
decision boils down to one thing – The Sheepdog is weary, and he’s weary for a
number of reasons.
First,
Google’s Blogger platform has become unreliable. More and more frequently,
something doesn’t work correctly, some font has changed, a sidebar tool has
been discontinued, a plug-in has failed, or some other aggravating issue has
arisen whenever I log in to write. For example. when I wrote this post, the Zemanta plug-in I've used for years had stopped working .... again. I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised,
because Blogger is free. Therefore, Google has no incentive to keep it
functioning at a high level. It’s the ol’ “you get what you pay for”.
Second,
I’m not feeling the motivation to write the blog anymore, which is fueled
somewhat by the Blogger issues mentioned above. I could switch to another
platform, such as Wordpress, but I’m just not willing to build the site again,
nor pay for the service. Sometimes over the last few years, I actually had to
force myself to write just to keep the blog active. I’ve had enough of that,
too. I’ve read a few articles and studies which have shown that blog readership
is declining. Some of that is due to the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and
other social media platforms. People just aren’t as interested in reading blogs
anymore. Based upon my pageviews declining and no comments on posts, it appears
these studies are correct.
