Hot on the heals of the loss of Flea and other medical bloggers, Dr. Hébert announces without explanation other than that "I've had enough" and "I'll be gone for a little while."
Cryptic indeed.
I can understand why someone might quit blogging or take a hiatus. However, if I were ever to decide to do either, I'd at least give you an explanation.
Harassment? With some of his opinions, etc. he seems like a likely target for the rightwingnuts.
Blogs start, blogs stop. If you decide to quit someday it would be nice to let your readers know why, as a courtesy. Fafblog readers still check periodically but hope is waning.
ej
In the past couple of weeks there's been a lot of hand-wringing over the issue of medblogs: are they doomed? Is anonymity good or bad? Do lawyers lurk to find cases to pursue, either med/mal or HIPIAA (or whatever the proper acronym is)? I think it's all and none of the above: I doubt there are pervasive reasons for shut-down. Each has his/her own reasons. It does take on a life of its own, this blogging thing. Speaking for myself, I sometimes pay too much attention to how many visits, from where, etc; and I feel pressure to perform. In my case, if I were to shut down, I think it'll be because I've run out of things to say. Nothing more.
Neonatal Doc has a relatively thorough, yet freaky, explanation on his (hers?). It's too bad.
It's nice to get an explanation, but not always possible, particularly when anonymity and confidentiality are issues.
Deleting blogs, though, that's a crime against the internet, unless there's a really good reason. (also, if you're not careful, pornographers and other spammers will reclaim your blog name and repost enough of your content to catch the search engines....)
To that end, and because there isn't really a nexus for them, I created a web ring for progressive healthcare bloggers. Members agree to display a blog code of ethics or code of conduct that is accessible to visitors. Rob, at his Musings of a Distractible Mind blog, posted a series about the purpose and some iterations of them.
Shoot me an email if you have questions. Thanks-