Farewell

This will be my last post on orderbyselectnull.com. I will be blogging on https://erikdarlingdata.com/blog/ in the future. Old posts are currently in the process of getting moved. I’m not exactly sure when links to this site will break. I’ve never much cared for the technical aspects of running a blog. That’s all of the information that you need. The rest is just personal thoughts.

I’m making this change because my hosting provider nearly doubled my costs with no explanation. I can’t think of any reasonable explanation for why costs on their end would increase by so much, so maybe it’s for the best that they spared me from any marketing bullshit or dishonest excuses. I’d describe the change in costs as light extortion. The more content you have, the more work it is to migrate it. With that said, I was a bit thankful today that I’ve slacked off on blogging over the past six months since it reduced the migration effort.

There are millions of dead blogs out there and I don’t think that my story is anything special. I did prevent it from completely dying, so that’s something. And now it has a new life surrounded by deep blacks and barbells. I do plan to continue blogging in the future, although honestly I have no regrets about the amount that I’ve blogged in the past. I can’t come to any conclusion other than I blogged as exactly as much as I was meant to.

If you’re curious about my website stats, today marks a rare occasion in which I’m happy to share something. In terms of traffic, I peaked early:

For most popular pages, there’s just something alluring about large numbers. I also disappointed over a thousand people with my “about” page:

I failed to paint the world red and to achieve world domination. I suppose that I still have at least a month left, so if anyone knows any SQL Server users in the missing countries please recommend me!

They say that you should only blog for yourself. I do wonder if there’s anyone out there who achieves that spartan ideal and totally ignores page views, subscribers, and comments. I won’t lie about it and claim that I do. Who doesn’t like to be popular, right? There’s an inescapable little thrill when you know that what you wrote is trending. I found it harder than expected to let go of this site. There’s something to knowing that all of your subscribers did so just because they want to read what you write. That gets lost when you move to a bigger site with multiple authors. I’ve spent many years viewing nearly all bloggers as self-absorbed. I suppose I should just count myself among them now.

I do think that I’ve gotten very lucky with my blog readers. Blog comments are typically a mixed bag. Nearly all of the comments that I’ve received have been intelligent, thoughtful, or helpful. I’m grateful for each one, as well as grateful to my subscribers. I assume that all of you are lovely people, and I’m fortunate to be able to confirm a few of you as being lovely people.

I can promise that nothing will change in that I will continue to have no accountability to anyone and will blog whenever I feel like it. If that continues to be acceptable to you then update your subscription/RSS/whatever to point to https://erikdarlingdata.com/blog/ and be on the look out for my posts. Just don’t hold your breath.

If you made it to the end, then for the last time here: thanks for reading.