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8 September, 2003

That's All Folks!

The J-Walk Blog is over. Finis.

It's been a fun and interesting ride. I've been doing this for about 11 months. I was hoping to keep it going for a full year, but it didn't work out. Yesterday, I was mowing the lawn and decided to call it quits. No real reason. I think it's just time to move on to something else (but I have no idea what that something else is).

So thanks to the 1,300 or so folks who stop by here every day. It's not like shutting down this blog will have any significant impact on the world. I've never pretended that this was anything even close to serious. It was just another one of those "cool links" blogs, and I rarely had anything profound to say. There are tens of thousands of blogs out there -- and at least a thousand of them are worth reading. If you haven't done so already, check out the "Other Blogs" links on the left.

I'm pleased that my blog attracted a respectable number of readers in its short life -- far more than average, I think. For example, BlogStreet ranks this blog as 1,753 out of 145,330. And, according to Technorati, 204 other blogs have links to this URL. This blog even has a decent valuation at BlogShares (sell! sell!).

I am embarrassed to admit that my goal, at one point, was to attract a level of readership similar to Boing Boing. That was a stupid goal, and I didn't even come close. Boing Boing gets more than 10 times as many visitors. But I can say that I've received quite a few emails from people who claimed the J-Walk Blog is their absolute favorite. That's nice to hear. Hell, my friend Wendy even uses it as the start page for her browser.

Along the way, I've met some interesting people (in a virtual sort of way). Glenn continues to amuse me, and I now check up on Venomous Kate at least once a day -- even though we disagree on just about every issue. And the same can be said for Tom McMahon. And then there's The Presurfer. We've stolen scores of links from each other in the past year. Importantly, if it weren't for my blog, I probably never would have found out about Whole Wheat Radio (Jim Kloss somehow discovered this blog, and sent me an email. The rest is history.).

In the past year, I've received at least a hundred positive emails regarding J-Walk Blog, and only two or three negative ones. If nothing else, this blog has restored my faith in the Internet. There are some good people out there.

I'll keep the site up until the hits stop coming. Before you click that Back button, you might want to check out the 11 months of archives listed on the left. You'll find lots of good stuff.

Maybe I'll do it again at some point in the future. Or maybe not.

Posted on 8 September, 2003