Venkatesh RaoAfter several years of keeping it going in semi-retired, keep-the-lights-on (KTLO) mode, I’ve decided to officially fully retire this blog. The ribbonfarm.com domain and all links will remain active, but there will be no new content after November 13th, 2024, which happens to be my 50th birthday. There will be one final roundup post before then, and perhaps a shortish epitaph post. And the main page will switch to a static landing page. But after that date, this will effectively be a museum site.
Source: Ribbonfarm is Retiring by Venkatesh Rao
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Ribbonfarm is retiring. In reflecting upon experiences on the site, Venkatesh Rao doubles down on comments made regarding the convivial web when Musk took over Twitter, arguing that we are seeing the end of blogging. Although aspects of blogging may remain, such as RSS, the new media will have its own identity.
I don’t think there is any single heir to the blog, or to the public social media landscape it dominated, anymore than there was a single heir to the Roman empire when it collapsed. And this is as things should be. Emerging media should emerge into their own identities, not attempt to perpetuate the legacies of sundowning media, or fight over baggage. And of course, many architectural elements of the blog will live on in newer media, just as many patterns we live with today originated in the Roman empire. Chronological feeds, and RSS-like protocols are part of our collective technological vocabulary. So at least in a technological sense, nothing is dying per se. But in a cultural sense, we are definitely witnessing the end of an era.
Source: Ribbonfarm is Retiring by Venkatesh Rao
For Rao, much of this change is captured by the idea of the ‘cozyweb‘.
I like the way Rao describes the move from blogging to Substack as akin to getting a shaving and putting on a suit.
The blogosphere didn’t so much move to Substack as get gentrified by it, much as they’d like you to believe it did. And many of us transplanted bloggers got a shave and haircut, put on a suit, and went to work there, shoulder-to-shoulder with the old media types we once maintained ritual rivalries with, but are now increasingly indistinguishable from.
Source: Ribbonfarm is Retiring by Venkatesh Rao
I feel like I missed (or refused) the invite and seemingly retreated to my secluded shack in the hills.