Loren Feldman notes at 1938media that The Blogging Times is no more, replaced by a blank WordPress template with no content. The story is big enough news that it even got a run at Valleywag.
There’s no official word yet on why the site shut, but it’s public knowledge that Minic Rivera had left the site a couple of weeks back. Certainly deleting such as rich history of posts is a very strange move, after all the site was well indexed in Google, a status that will change very quickly with the content removed.
I’ve seen a lot of these sites come and go over the years, sites such as Blogosphere News and others with names I can’t recall now. In the past people would say things to me along the lines that the competition was going to beat the blogging news service I was providing at the time. They never did, but for all the inherent risks involved to your own status with competition, I always enjoyed reading the new comers, and indeed actively link to and promoting them. Blogs dedicated to Blogging News and related interests are still few and far between, and a diversity of voices creates a richer blogosphere for us all. Minic at the top of his game at The Blogging Times was a great writer who had knack for finding obscure yet interesting stories that made you want to come back for more. I know for me The Blogging Times, at least with Minic at the helm will be sorely missed and that the blogosphere shines ever so slightly dimmer with the demise of a site that showed so much potential.
Vale The Blogging Times 2006-2007.
Originally posted on February 27, 2007 @ 6:57 pm