Dave Winer's Pledge to Quit Blogging

Dave Winer announced in March that he would stop blogging by the end of this year:

Blogging doesn't need me anymore. It'll go on just as well, maybe even better, with some new space opened up for some new things. But more important to me, there will be new space for me. Blogging not only takes a lot of time (which I don't begrudge it, I love writing) but it also limits what I can do, because it's made me a public figure. I want some privacy, I want to matter less, so I can retool, and matter more, in different ways. What those ways are, however, are things I won't be talking about here. That's the point. That's the big reason why.

More than 250 weblogs spread the news. One blogger was so excited he created a JavaScript clock to count down the seconds.

In my estimation, the likelihood he'll quit Scripting News ranks somewhere between "snowball's chance in hell" and "the day after Ike and Tina Turner remarry." Winer's no Greta Garbo, as his appearance in today's Wall Street Journal demonstrates. I can't think of any high-traffic blogger who put down the crack pipe and reclaimed his life other than Russell Beattie.

In order to avoid ridicule upon his first blog entry on Jan. 1, 2007, Winer's only out, as far as I can determine, is to claim the invention of an entirely new publishing medium, complete with a new name, new XML protocol and a retooled Frontier/Radio UserLand/OPML Editor to support it.

He has four weeks. I'll track the development of the next iteration of davecasting on Workbench, but I'm not interested in serving on its advisory board.

2006/12/01 · 7 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I'm betting he doesn't quit.

#1 · Randy Charles Morin · 2006/12/01

Dave looks like he's praying in those thumbnails of the Wall Street Journal article. Maybe he's going to become a Trappist monk. Saying Dave Winer is no Greta Garbo is like saying Bill Gates is no Marilyn Monroe.

I thought you knew that Dave said he was going to quit blogging in one of those coiled-up dimensions, so it doesn't count in this pedestrian dimension that we live in.

#2 · Vince Williams · 2006/12/01

"I'll track the development of the next iteration of davecasting on Workbench, but I'm not interested in serving on its advisory board."

As we all know, the spec for davecasting was frozen long ago. Why is he engaging in this pointless exercise? You should bang the gavel on this little experiment of his, and send him a bill for wasting so much of your time. If he gets irritated, remind him that nothing was ever built with flame-wars. If he accuses you of being arrogant, ask him why your personality has become the subject, when the real subject should be the spec for davecasting.

#3 · Lawrence Krubner · 2006/12/01

You're really good at that, Lawrence. I'm having flashbacks.

#4 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2006/12/02

Theory:

Winer was once reasonable, then had heart problems and probably got on some medication that made him irascible.

Dick Cheney used to be reasonable and then had heart problems and probably got on some medication that made him irascible. He's been described as 'unrecognizable' by former colleagues.

#5 · Tim · 2006/12/02

The WOW7 area need to be recruited warriors for fighting together now....game

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#7 · Zoran · 2009/01/05