A lot of bandwagon type crap has been going on over the NYT post about bloggers who are blogging themselves to death which as I pointed out in my post on the subject was nothing more than Globe slash Enquirer headline stupidity. Throughout all this piling on there is a much more important story that seems to be floating under the radar of just about everyone in the tech blogosphere. It is a story that for me has much more importance on the blogosphere moving forward than any NYT scaremonger type headlines.

The first part of the story was brought to my attention in a post by a very good friend where he related a couple of messages posted to Twitter by Hugh MacLeod

Then Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid declared (twittered actually) …

@armanoThe truth is, I’m too freaking busy to keep the Blogosphere happy, all the time, day in day out, for years on end. 11:54 AM April 03, 2008 from web in reply to Armano
Sorry, Gang, I just don’t think I can do the “Blogosphere” thing any more. Gonna do something else. Already doing it, actually. 11:44 AM April 03, 2008 from web

The idea that Hugh is even considering giving up blogging was a shock to the system but when it was followed up with a post from Doc Searls on his blog

Blogging today ain’t what it was when Dave started it, and when I followed in his footsteps. The kind of writing we both try to do — what I once called “making and changing minds” (including our own) — is an ever more narrowing slice of the whole, even if the amount of it is still going up.

So I want something new. Something for which the making of money is at most a secondary or lower priority. Not sure what that should be, but I am sure, if it ever happens, it won’t be called blogging.

I don’t know about you but to have either; or both, of these bloggers even considering the idea of stepping away from the blogosphere is inconceivable for me. After all both these men have had a great impact on the blogosphere with their wit and wisdom.

Hugh by the power of even one single cartoon post on his blog could very well be the driving force behind the willingness of a major corporation to totally re-evaluate the way they do business on the consumer level. Not many men can lay claim to the power of a few lines of ink to change a corporate mindset.

With Doc Searls there has always been a dignified and intelligent discourse; whether you have agreed with him or not. He has always been held with high regard within the tech blogosphere because he never felt the need to belittle or insult anyone in order to get his point across.

Both these gentlemen; and I use the word in its truest sense,  have been a guiding force for all bloggers new and old that success; both personally and financially, isn’t predicated on being the first to post or having the most eye catching headline. They have shown us that blogging is more than all of that. They are living proof that blogging can indeed be about having conversations.

I truly hope that both these men have a change of heart because there is still so much more that the rest of us bloggers can learn from them and I still think that there is still much more they have to offer the tech blogosphere on a whole.

By losing one or both of these gentlemen bloggers we will lose more than just two unique voices from the blogosphere we will also be losing two of the best role models any blogger could have.

Stupid NYT headlines pale in comparison to this real news.

In the end I really hope that Doc Searls and Hugh MacLeod reconsider these separate decision

Conversation Tags: blogosphere, bloggers, Doc Searls, Hugh MacLeod