Blogging for a whole year and then some

My blog anniversary passed unnoticed in January.  The site hitting 25,000 page views passed unnoticed, as did the 15,000 visitor mark.  So heck with it, I'll do it today because it's an unremarkable Friday in May.

I started this on January 10th 2002.  I was running an HTML class and thought it might be a good feature for some of my students.  Of course, you can't teach something without knowing a bit about it.  When I started blogging, we lived in an apartment and I didn't have a work permit.  I was writing a Java diary program called Chronicle.  Since then I've registered a domain name, got paid web hosting, been approved for a both work permit and green card, renamed and redesigned my site, bought a house, and got a job.  I still haven't finished Chronicle, far from it.

And I'm still blogging.  My blog is sixteen months old, older than many.  I think I'll keep it for another year.  I like the discipline of writing regularly, friends stop by to see what I'm up to, and I've met some good people through their blogs.

What started me thinking was a post by Mark Morris yesterday, linked from Bene Diction today:

I, myself, have had fantasies of making a "final post" and then disappearing from the net. It would be something short and sweet. It would stay posted for a week or two and then I would delete my blog and my web site in an attempt to null my existence from the web.

...

I have a strange obsession about letting this blog become a year old before I call it quits. I read somewhere (I know, "somewhere" really isn't a reliable source) that most blogs fold between three to six months. If that is true, I have already outlasted most blogs, but I would still like to go the extra mile. My blog birthday is August 10. I would at least like to stay up until then.

I'm not sure you'd be able to null your existence from the web.  Google keeps a cached copy of thousands of web pages, updated probably every couple of weeks.  It would take time for Google cached links to die off.  Then there's the Way Back Machine from the Internet Archive, keeping a record of the Internet.  Message boards and mailing lists may have offline backups.  Disappearing from the internet may have been possible several years ago, but now, I'm not sure it could be done.  Microsoft found old emails coming back to haunt them in the Netscape trial, lawyers also waded through the Netscape employees mailing lists.  I know I've left a trail of posts, emails, essays, web sites, and images across the web.

Resistance is futile, you have already been assimilated.