I like to plan ahead. Sometimes far in advance. Really far.
Have you ever wondered what will happen to your blog posts after you are long gone? Whether you are gone in the sense that you no longer post or whether you are really gone, as in permanently from this mortal coil, what will happen in the future? Is the space available on the world wide web infinite or finite? Will it ever run out of room for more? Will they begin getting rid of stuff when that happens? Who has control over your work after you are gone? Isn’t there some kind of ownership to your creative property, something that could be willed to your offspring or others? Am I the only one pondering these sorts of morbid thoughts?
Along the same lines, have you even thought about writing a final post, to be published after you are gone? Some authors were said to have written the final novel in a series to be put out after they passed. Long ago, ages ago, we were into reading the Travis McGee mystery series written by John D. MacDonald. Click here to read what Wikipedia says about him. Every title has a color in it and the rumor was that he had written the final novel, where the lead character meets his end using the color black in the title. When Donaldson did pass away, it turned out that there was no such book in the files. Disappointing. While not actually writing such a post for this blog, I have thought about doing so. The instructions and passwords would have to be left written out, in a special sealed envelope, so the intended caretaker of these matters could get access to the administrator page and push the publish button. I told you I like to make long term plans. I am also not afraid of dying, but am not ready to leave just yet. Just planning. Too much free time on my hands, obviously.
But how could the photos be current? Or would it matter? Maybe the prettiest and favorite photos should be assembled for this grand finale. Or no photos. But there are still so many questions. What if instead of being gone forever, we just decide to stop blogging. How long will the blog remain out there? I now pay for the privelege of changing the css stylesheet at WordPress, a yearly charge. If there are no new posts, we don’t need to keep paying that, do we? Will it disappear then? This sounds like a question for the support group at WordPress.
WordPress was in fact contacted about this very question. It was difficult to get them to understand what we were asking, with several back and forths from the support staff. Finally, they got it. The answer was that the posts written would be on the internet for as long as WordPress was still functioning at no charge. Is that a relief, or not?
Just sharing a few thoughts with you today. Funny the paths down which the mind travels. When it is not kept busy. An idle mind is a scary thing, for some.
For those wondering about the relevance of the opening photo to this rambling, (or the point of this entire endeavor) the picture is the only shot I could find of a Geum. There had been a file of Geum shots for a winter plant portrait posting, but this was the only image found on the seven jump drives, ranging from 2 to 16 gigs, where the photos were stored when The Financier switched my computer from Windows Vista to Windows 7 and all photos, among other things, were erased. We cannot do a posting with just one photo, for a plant portrait anyway. There were other files for other delightful plant portraits as well, carefully culled and saved in an oh so organized and well planned fashion, to use in the down time of winter. Clematis, Cuphea and about a million Salvias, are now all a jumble in the thousands of images saved on devices. It just goes to show that careful planning does not foresee everything. And maybe some people have a teensy weensy control problem.
Frances
Added: I would like to invite all readers to read the comments that this post has provoked. There are lots of interesting thoughts, opinions and ideas in them. If you do not normally read the comments, what????, you might want to this time.
Fairegarden 
Frances – this is an interesting post and one to ponder on! Am now in the US and hoping to get up your way when the weather improves, so what about some joint posts if we visit some gardens together … even if the posts aren’t immortal??
I have thought about this very thing Ms. Frances. What about the people that haven’t blogged in months, are they okay? There are a few MIA’s that I used to blog with. How would I know? It’s strange but I have become quite fond of a lot of bloggers, think of and pray for them daily, just like an extended family. These are points to ponder for sure…
I too have meandered through these thoughts, Frances. I thought at some point perhaps I should print out a collection of some favorite posts and photographs. I back up my blog, but what if for some reason everything was lost to the land of your Geum images? I hadn’t thought of writing a final post, though I do like this idea. Perhaps with a collection of favorite images through the years, or maybe plants that share our ephemeral characteristics. You have brought to mind poems of Jean Janzen, and her writings of our connection with the earth. A very thought-provoking post, Frances. 🙂
Frances, one of the first blogs I followed the writer passed away, her nephew wrote a lovely post to end the blog. He said he would leave the blog up as long as possible, unfortunately I have forgotten the name, I think it was from Holland, or I would check.
Hoping you will post for many years, best wishes Sylvia (England)
I have also thought about all those images revolving for ever in cyber space. Like the poet Burns said, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”.
Frances, what an interesting question. I have often wondered what would happen to my blog, years from now. Since I orginally started it as a journal of the garden at KIlbourne Grove, I had hoped to be referring back to it for many years, and when it passes into new hands, that they could as well. You do wonder how much “space” there is, with the huge number of bloggers every year.
It is comforting when you find out what has happened when your favourite blogger stops, you are not left wondering if they are ok.
Julie at My English Country Garden stopped blogging this week, and left a lovely message explaining why she is stopping. I think that is something every blogger should consider.
What a philosophical post Frances – there’s much time for thinking in January 🙂 I must admit that it is not an issue I have pondered over but I have wondered whether the internet will cease to be at some point in the future. If that happens all our blogs will just evaporate wherever we are 😦 So sorry to hear about the loss of your photos.
WordPress could make some money if they would offer hard copies bound in book form to bloggers. Must be legal/copyright issues involved, but looking around, I’d say the content of this and many other blogs is at least comparable to a lot of published garden books. I’m old fashioned enough to think there might be a market.
I’ve run across this topic elsewhere, Frances. It is an interesting question. My blog will one day just stop, frozen in a its time and place, I suppose. But what will become of our gardens?
Oh my gosh, what a fabulous idea from gardeningasylum! I love it.
It seems our thoughts are running along the same lines these days. I keep a copy of my blogs in my journal but that journal is electronic. Will a day come when there’s no electricity thus relegating it all to naught? I’ve been attempting to keep family digital pictures for the past 10 years only to find that I have some major gaps on the backups I thought I’d done to preserve everything. It is a conundrum. I am writing a story of my life for my own use in case I get alzheimers and perhaps for my children and grandchildren. Thanks for your philosophical post.
I have often wondered about where blogs go after they have been abandoned. The last post could be a scary thought. I am glad you aren’t planning to go anyplace soon. Computers are such wonders. I am always wondering about them.
I have thicker skin than that, lol. I don’t get offended very easily, and the paramedic said I was full of piss and vinegar, I told him it was going to get me 47 more years!!
Frances,
This has been on my mind as well. Yesterday, I visited a blogger’s blog that has been MIA for months. I am keeping her on my blog roll, but don’t know what has happened.
My son, The Archaeologist, really wants our house and gardens when we’re gone. The other son, The Pharmacist, wants to build a house on land in our neighborhood. They both consider this “home” even though we are a late-blended family (they were both 18 when The Musician and I married and will both be 26 this year). The Archaeologist is the one who got me to start my blog while he was in grad school in London. I can see him living here, continuing the garden and continuing the blog (if I have abandoned the blog beforehand!).
Now, as for our content in cyberspace… who knows, posthumously, some of the bloggers could be famous in the year 2100 when people wonder about the plants and gardens “during our time” before the earth changed!
Cheers,
Cameron
What an interesting question for archaeologists of the future. I’m, of course, discounting the personal feelings involved in this, but does it really matter? It would be personally satisfying if the blog publishers made it possible to download some kind of readable, easily accessible file so we could store our own blog contents. But here, as elsewhere, we are up against the large, anonymous corporate entity that only has one real purpose–to make money.
Hi Frances,
I rode to work with my husband this morning because the radio people said the streets were icy. I’m not sure what streets they were talking about, because ours weren’t. He has to be here half an hour before I do, and stays half an hour longer.
I enjoyed reading parts of this post to him. You posed some interesting thoughts here. I love your sense of humor.
I actually came here because I reread your suggestions about the kitchen remodel, and wanted to tell you that I am glad I did. When the guy wanted us to list the order of importance of cost, function, style and the latest technology, I’m thinking that was Larry’s order of importance, and mine had the first 2 switched. I did email the guy a couple days ago with some things I thought of. One was, that I want to get the highest quality of materials that we can afford. I like what you said about not skimping. Well, he comes out Monday. I’ll have to ask if I can take some photos.
Oh, and I feel your pain over losing photos. When my dad gave me his computer after getting a new one, Larry lost my iphoto library while switching things over. I am still grieving that loss.
Frances, a litle deep for me this morning…:). But now that I think about it, it would be nice if a farewell post could be left. On one of the blogs I read, the daughter left a final note. Very comforting to those of us who were left to wonder.
But, I do think you have way too much time on your hands and you really need to get some gardening catalogs out and start reading them!! 🙂
Frances,
Interesting question. I have mused about a final post before but somehow writing it just doesn’t feel right! Sorry to hear about your photos. I keep mine on an external hard drive. A new operating system won’t effect it and I can move the hard drive when I need to.
Frances, I think these long gray winter days are giving us all time to consider the meaning of life…or the meaning of blogging. In all seriousness, this is a good question and one I’ve wondered about. Recently, a blogger that I read regularly passed away. She had been posting infrequently, and we knew something was wrong, but she wouldn’t say. Finally, her daughters posted updates on her health and let us know of her passing. This was much appreciated, because otherwise how would we have known? There are other bloggers at the end of my blogroll who haven’t posted in months, including one whose last post talked about some personal problems. I wish there was some way they could do a final post, like “I”m ok, but just don’t have time to blog anymore” or “I’ve decided to enter the convent.” Anyway, not a bad idea to store the password in a safe place with other documents.
I can’t imagine my blog living as long as I do. I change too much over the years. What is important one day, is not as important to me the next. I always wonder if I will be one of those blogs that just disappears into the ether one day and no one knows what happened. I’m guessing I would write a last post before leaving but who knows. But maybe it will just fade away. I’m always saddened when that happens to one of the blogs I love reading.
As to copyright issues. Your content is copyrighted as soon as you write it. And after your death the copyright is passed to your heirs for 70 years (though I think it can be longer in some circumstances). I think in most of Europe it lives on 25 years after your death. Then it passes into the public domain.
I haven’t thought about what would happen to the content but I do wonder sometimes about bloggers who stop blogging with no explanation. If I suddenly died, I can’t think of anyone close to me who would know how to post or delete the blog. It makes you wonder!
Frances I remember listening to a story about this sort of thing on NPR in the last year. I would image that after a certain period of inactivity the domain holder would contact the user — if no response the content would be deleted.
Printing out a book for permanent safekeeping is a wonderful idea. My husband has a relative who printed out a small book of her NC mountain photos.
Good morning Frances, interesting thoughts this morning. I guess I am not concerned about what happens after I am gone…or at least I haven’t given it any thought. As for losing photo files (or misplacing them) is always a worry. We have an external hard drive, but it is attached to the household computer, not the one I usually download my photos to. I do think you have a good point about printing some of the photos to put into an album. I have a couple of shoeboxes of unfiled photos now, I can’t imagine how long it would take me to put all into an album. One day…….when I have time. hahaha
Frances – you scared me for an instant having seen a couple of people have stopped blogging today!
I sometimes ponder this conundrum too, particularly as I have no children to hand over the reins to – assuming offspring want to carry on the work of their parents and we carry on blogging into our dotage of course!
I’ve thought about leaving a letter with my solicitor, with instructions of how to create the post and showing what I’d like to be said. No photos, because that would make it more complicated and less likely for someone to do on my behalf.
Perhaps such a post could be left in draft ready for the right buttons to be pressed?
Some of my blogfriends seem to have stopped blogging lately and I miss them dearly. It’s good when people leave a goodbye so you at least know for sure what’s going on.
I’d like to think our thoughts would remain in the ether somewhere. Partly because I won’t have family to carry me on in their memories and partly because I believe blogging is a marvellous window into what’s going on in so many lives today.
Frances
PS I am also thinking of putting some of my posts into a book as a number of our older relatives don’t have computers and don’t really understand what I do, yet would like to see something of it. I’d choose posts that they’d particularly like: e.g. NAH’s aunt is a ex-allotmenteer, a cat lover and lives in Dorset, so you can guess which posts would be steered in her direction! It could make a rather nice Christmas or birthday gift don’t you think?
I’m already making calendars from favourite photos – everyone got a cat calendar this Christmas!
Yes it was the most fun present to do of everything I did for Christmas. I did one of photos suited to each month the year before. It’s fun to select the photos and add everyone’s birthdays onto the right days, public holidays etc etc and then write the message on the front. It’s made me ponder if more in the way of homemade gifts is the way to go next year.
There’s quite a few companies around who seem to do books fairly cheaply as long as it’s kept relatively simple – more like a photo album with accompanying text rather than an actual book. You can choose the number of pages, whether it has a soft or hard cover. Often the minimum order is one and you load up the content in a similar way to loading up a blog. I don’t have any website links to hand, but I’m sure there’s plenty available in the US
I’m also someone who thinks and plans far ahead. I had thought about what would happen to my blog if I wasn’t able to post for some reason. Like a few other commenters mentioned there are bloggers who have just stopped suddenly and I wonder what happened. This was a good topic to ponder today.
Thank you Frances! Philosophical post. Sometimes, I think: What if…? Then, I run to my desk and drawers and start sorting my papers and pictures. I threw a lot of them away! As for the blog – yes, a book!
You’ve given me a lot to think on today. I always assumed my blog would live on after I’m gone – part of my legacy to my kids. Where they might go to find a favorite recipe, or renew memories of playing with our dog. I never considered having to pay to keep it up. But I guess it stays there once it’s up, huh? Not a bad idea to back up, though.
I saw a diary from the 1800s at the Royal Botanical Garden that was hidden away in the herbarium mainly because she had collected and pressed a large variety of plants that were growing around her Ontario residence – providing an excellent record of the native plant material. It was kept and preserved because of who she was and what she wrote about. Obviously we can all put our posts together in books and give them to our family – but what makes blog material worthy of preservation – the quality of writing, the photos, or maybe the ability to influence? Perhaps in the future, the criteria for saving blog bits will not be too different from what we’ve done in the past – #1 – who wrote it & #2 how important is the information to those who must keep it.
Very good questions indeed Frances. I don’t find myself with much time to think about such things, somehow I manage to keep too busy. I guess I had always assumed it would just stay around forever but wow, you’ve given us a lot to ponder…
Dear Frances, When I first started reading this important post I found myself thinking… “what is making Frances think this way?” Then reading you lost your well organized folders … erased… poof… gone … well it may not have inspired this post but it might for me. Thank goodness for back ups but there is so much work in finding what one needs. Very thoughtful and engaging post… vital questions too. Poignant … in how we never know… erasure is a unpredictable thing. Heres to spring … rebirth and many happy blogging years to come. Now you have me thinking of my last post … a great idea really and to see it over the years and how we might tweak it. LOL ;>)) Carol
I do admire your propensity for planning ahead, and someone already used the Burns’ quote, so I’ll quote the 70’s band Kansas, “all we are is dust in the wind.” At some point, we, our gardens, and probably all our photos and online life will vanish, most likely lost forever, even if we get it printed up in book form. If you want something to last, carve it really deeply in stone, but even then, somebody might come along to use it as part of their house.
I have thought of what would happen if something unexpectedly happened to me. I would hope my husband or my children would post the news on the blog, so there would be no unexplained disappearance. (Of course if they perished with me, I haven’t made provision for alternate blog executors, so there goes that idea.) But in the end, I’ll be dead, so why should I care what happens to my blog? It’s more important to worry about what I can and will do while I’m here.
Is that too dark and existential?
I’ve considered leaving instructions for a final post, in the event, but it seems a little unfair to ask the survivors, if there are any, to carry on with the blogging, of all things. So: I’ve also thought about creating a post to act as a dead-man’s switch, something dated in advance that I would have to change the date on every so often, such that if I were incapacitated for a certain period of time, it would post itself automatically.
The reason I haven’t done this yet is because writing such a post is both creatively daunting (I have to come up with something to be my last post ever?? And how do you make your own death funny and/or botanically relevant?) and technically difficult (how long after there’s been no activity should such a post go up? What if I just get sick for a long time, and that’s why I can’t post, and I’ve just told everybody that I’m dead?). Plus also kind of emotionally oogy.
But I’ve thought about it.
Rather a lot, actually. I mean, it’s kind of disturbing, now that I think about all the thinking.
Hi Frances I am sure many of us have wondered like yourself. Since I started blogging last February I have lost now the third blogging friend who is/has stopped blogging, two I have been in e mail contact with and one infact popped up and posted on my blog today which was lovely. Her garden blog is still there and she has posted on another blog on travelling so I will be back to look. Jan of course has come and gone and come back again which is such a delight to have her back.
My youngest daughter has been busy making some of my posts into a book of the garden which is looking lovely and will be fun to have as a hard copy because I have heard that blogs can go wrong and get lost. How worrying.
Becky did suggest I try and get it published which would be fun especially as proceeds could go to my pet charity, surprise surprise Lyme Disease Action. I then thought what fun it would be if a publisher ran a series of books from Blotanical garden bloggers! It’s fun to dream.
Sorry for such a long comment.
Hi Francis someone gave me this website to look at http://www.blurb.com/
The download is free and you can add your own photos and words to make your own book. Perhaps Tuesdays and Thursdays!!
I am lucky my daughter is using something similar to do what she is doing. What a pity there aren’t twice as many hours in the day how ever did I find time to go to work.
I imagine this question has filtered through our minds from time to time. You see blogs you have read that go for months without postings and you wonder if something is wrong.Dealing in genealogy where I keep records upon records, I have left instructions to my daughter on where to send them so the years of work will not be lost. So a final blogging post may be an option to consider. Eventually the pictures on my blog would be lost with the account. It is an interesting subject Frances.
I am glad you are planning to stay around. If Blogger dies before me, like Geocities did to my genealogy website, then the subject will be null and all will be erased.
I’m glad you are asking this question. In a small way it’s kind of like pre-planning or life insurance, not something you really want to talk about, but necessary every now and then. I think it is a good idea to leave final instructions, just in case.
I love the idea of a book!
If you trust a paper copy (no electricity, or web servers, but silverfish or …) Anyway, there is a service Blog2Book. So you could, if you wanted to. And what if the world ends, due to global warming, caused by storing our immortal words. And our camera has just died, so no new pictures (((((O)))))
I took your advice and read ALL of the comments. Wow! Your readers have definite opinions. I consider my blogging friends some of the most understanding and I think they would be the most likely to forgive me for not telling everyone I bit the dust. ( kicked the can, died, whatever) Somehow, it seems strange to be entangled in someone’s life you barely know. Yet that is what happens when we blog.
Even if you did print out your blog book, who’s to say it won’t get damaged somehow? The things of this earth are not meant to last forever. But the souls are. I went off on a little tanget, hope you get what I am saying. Thanks for sharing your insights!
Frances,
Too true! I have spent years compiling scrapbooks, wondering what will become of them …hopefully someone will treasure them later. You are a good mom to do that for your kids. Record keeping is sometimes tedious but mostly done for later generations. 🙂
After our son died in a motor vehicle accident, I made some tentative plans ‘in case of sudden death.’ They do not include any blog. I did write to omit music at my memorial because my music stops with me. So will my blogs.
When I changed servers the old provider kept my web site (pre-blog) of my garden from 2003-2006 intact. I could make changes but not add to it. The provider changed and the new owner left the site, but the URL changed and I can no longer make changes. It lives on but the whim of a large company could delete it in a twinkling.
I do try to keep important issues updated well enough that I will not leave difficulties for my family. Everything else can be bulldozed, so to speak.
Hi Frances,
This question has crossed my mind as well. I look at the blogging world as a quilt of history that will hopefully be around for future generations to learn about us and our way of life. But I never did think about the final post, and that is a good one to ponder. You see, I originally started the blog because I’m not sure if I will ever make the effort to be published, but then it morphed into something for my kids once I am gone. I was thinking about hiding the blog from them and only stating in my will that it is there, but I doubt I could keep a secret like that–especially since my 7-year-old son helps me preview some of them!
A few months ago I came across a blog that I enjoyed reading. As I read on, I came to realize that the author had died. It sounds weird and morbid, but I want to read his blog from start to finish, so I put it on my “favorite blogs” list on my page so that I wouldn’t forget where it is.
I think that the best contingency plan for after death, to avoid the total loss of the blog (just in case the host decides to delete it from lack of use) is to keep every post saved in a file on your hard drive or on a disc. I plan to start saving mine.
Thanks for such a thoughtful post. Sorry for being so wordy!
Gee Frances, I hope we won’t have to worry about this with you for a long, long time. I’m glad your posts will stay on the Internet tho ~ that has to be comforting. I pay for my blog so I guess if something happened to me and I was no longer paying the bill, it would cease to exist. 😦 Something for me to think about. I like your version better.
I do have an experience along these lines tho ~ I used to read the blog of one of my fellow papercrafters ~ she was younger than me (in her 30’s) when she suffered a sudden brain aneurysm and passed away. Her husband came on and wrote a final post to tell her readers what happened. It was the saddest thing.
Hi, Frances;
Just got home from a long work day. Saw the title of your post and came racing over. I thought that title indicated you were done with blogging!
I’ve probably never mentioned this but today’s post has prompted me to say so.. I get all of my good blogging connections via your site! It’s why I rarely visit Blotanical. (I don’t really care for blotanical; it makes people too competitive.)
Anyhoo, I’m glad to see this was a false alarm and that we’ll be seeing many more of your posts. As far as preserving? Howsabout turning them into books? One for every blogging year? They would make precious keepsakes for the kids and would look very impressive on a coffee table.
And, if we all did that, and sold them? Just imagine the money we could raise for charities!
That’s the last of my brainpower for a Friday nite. 🙂
I always wonder if something has happened when a blogger I follow goes missing for a time. If I am close to the blogger, I’ll send an email of friendship in hope of a responce. Sometimes a blogger writes of a tragedy in the family, sometimes of cancer. I know that when I was going through chemo I felt alone, except for Pat. You gave me alot to think about.
jim
BIG POST, dear Frances, BIG THOUGHTS shared in these many thoughtful comments! Growing up, the nuns told us, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop!” (One of many things they said that I never agreed with 🙂 I think an idle mind is quiet time, centering down, allowing creative ideas to surface! You must have been reading many minds because I have often though what will become of my years of blogging. I reference my own site since I began my blog to gather my seasonal recipes (hoping one day to incorporate all in a book) and as my gardening journal, watching
how my beds (likes and dislikes on both my part and my plants) have changed. Haven’t though of a final blog but often wonder how to back-up our blogs. You and your creative mind are amazing! Thanks for this thought-provoking post.
Funny you post this question for us because just the other day while jumping around different blogs I came across a girl who blogged while in Haiti helping care for orphaned kids. You may or may not have run across it also. She had died in the earthquake at the very young age of 22 and her family had posted her fate. Her previous post had been about being away from her family for the first time at the holidays and although it was difficult, she was so happy to be around her little smiling faces. You could tell she enjoyed her work there and felt like she made a difference although she missed her family in the US. She seemed mature beyond her years. The final post was her family’s telling of their loss and how hard it was without her. I of course cried the whole time I wrote a comment knowing that poor family would eventually read everyone of them and take heart that their daughter/sister/grandaughter/cousin etc… had made an impact on the world. This all of course got me thinking about exactly what you are talking about. I guess it will be up to our families. If they know it was important to us, they would probably put in a final post. I would think. Plus, like this family I think there is comfort knowing that someone else would miss your loved one and there is also comfort in their words and memories. In the words of Scarlet O’hara “I won’t worry about that today, I’ll worry about that tomorrow”
Since you’re at 47 comments already (!) I’m going to leave mine first, then go back & read the others. Yes, I have wondered about this myself. My DH has my password, so I assume that he would put a note on my blog in the event of my untimely demise, just to let people know. I hadn’t thought of writing my own obit/goodbye—you ARE a planner, Frances. I had wondered how long the site would be out there, if inactive, also.
I got through all the comments, Frances. Thought-provoking indeed. I’m glad someone mentioned the Blog to Book site, or whatever it’s called. I think Jenny at Rock Rose posted about having her blog put into book form a year or so ago. You might contact her to see which site she used.
mom, there is so much to digest with this post and all of the comments…
part of me is crying (actual tears) for many reasons. most of all, of course, thinking about you no longer being around. part of me is thinking about the memories brought back into focus by photo albums and other physical, tangible things, and how great they are to have at hand. part of me also thinks about those moments when the photos were taken and how a picture can never capture exactly how beautiful (on the morning you saw it – the sun cutting through a fog, the dense air encasing its smell in a bubble that, once it hit your nose, exploded like nothing else you’ve sensed in your whole life) that moment/experience/flower was. a picture, a post, an entire blog, can be like that one led zepplin show in detroit one went to, when they played “that’s the way” accoustic (page on the twelve-string). one may relive it forever, always come back to it when the mood may be similar, but, even having a live recording of it would never do it justice. sometimes the live recording lives on and serves its purpose. sometimes moments are sacred and should not be available to everyone all and sundry. but sometimes they should. i don’t know… i ponder with you on the topic. much love.
This is a great post, Frances.
Death and the future…
The interesting thing about technology is that it is so difficult to prophesy how it will develop. After all only fifty odd years ago all this stuff that we do so effortlessly was completely beyond the comprehension of all mankind (apart, perhaps, from a couple of dreaming scientists). Fifty years before that motor cars were a rarity and people died from simple infections.
Most people my age (50 again) knew grandparents who were alive at the turn of the century and who lived through the great whoosh of 20th century technology from Marconi to the atom bomb.
So how can we know what will happen in another fifty years? Maybe all our blogposts will have evaporated in some catastrophe but probably they will all be kept in a little jewelled box the size of a plum on the desk of the new Emperor of Cyberspace.
To turn them into books is a bit retrospective as books, as in printed paper, will soon be as antiquated as oakum pickers and scurvy. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will probably regard printed books as hopelessly quaint! What they will use instead is impossible for us to envisage but there will be something.
I love the idea of pre-writing a final, posthumous blog post the problem is when does one write it?
Now? in case of sudden demise or when one begins to feel the fading of the light?
So many questions, Frances, that left me worring about these issues. I do want my blog be seen by my children and grandchildren… but, what if… all the ifs you are pondering!!!! What about the old photo album, always at hand, always lasting to next generations??? I think I´m gonna to have a paper copy of my pictures and find a big and beautifu album to put them in…
Muchos cariños,
Maria Cecilia
Frances – How thought-provoking. And thanks for encouraging us to slow down and read the comments. I certainly “get it” (having just a smidge of control issue myself!). I do want to make a paper blog copy and that is on my list. I don’t know if I would write a final post – it seems like I couldn’t sum it all up in one small story, but rather the sum of my blog tells my story. I would hope (and may now plan) for my family to post when I am no longer able to write, so as to share that information. But you really got me thinking of old gardens gone by. Even though those who tended them might move on, heirloom bulbs, and perennials and trees often live on, passing on their beauty to a next generation. Even in vacant lots, hope, and plants, spring etermal – little burst of color peeking out of rubble and brambles to speak to anyone who will listen. Your post took me to memories of such places and thoughts of how those gardens simply live on in a different form. Perhaps like us.
Interesting. The NY Times ran a whole feature story not that long ago on what happened to your Facebook page after your death… and they did get the Facebook people to comment for the story (it seems there’s an official policy in place over at Facebook, so maybe WordPress isn’t far behind in adopting one.)
GROWL*****HISS******SNARL******BITE………..tears
And you wondered earlier why none of the children had commented yet. Because you have brought them to tears and they may have needed a moment to compose themselves. Chickenpoet may not have waited very long.
Now I need to go to Word to compose a thoughtful reply. I am more of a spelling freak than a control freak and have no idea why.
Frances, I don’t worry much about what will happen to the blog itself if I should stop posting. My old blog is still there intact after almost three years. As long as your blog host does not have a policy of purging its data base for any different type of reason, much like you would clean your own computer to get rid of the clutter, it will be there in cyberspace forever. Google I have read is building an even bigger giant brain out west some where to hold even more data. Without power that data just goes dormant and would not get erased. The giant brain would have to blow up for it to get lost. Power comes back on, the blog is still there.
Besides when I go back and read some of my old posts it just seems like so much blather. I am not sure I would care much if it disappeared. As far as keepsakes or mementos I can see pulling some photos and text from the blog and printing them on dead trees. I think the calendar idea and other things like that as personal gifts are fab. A small book of the garden through the seasons and a few years would make a very nice and easy to keep memento for the family to pass on and enjoy.
The one thing I have thought about more than once is what if there was a sudden and unfortunate termination of my existence. I would want there to be a final post to let my readers know. I’m sure one of my family members would be fine writing up a quick summary and would even possibly think of it on their own, but they couldn’t log on to post. Leaving a comment on the last post just does not seem adequate. Does google have a death of the blogger policy to allow a family member to make a final post? It probably would just be better to leave passwords in a safe place and tell someone and bypass google or whoever hosts your blog.
If I was to decide to stop blogging I would do a final post and say goodbye. That is only good manners. That thought has certainly come when I feel like I am the weather blogger more than a garden blogger and am bored with the whole thing. Of course there probably is a weather blogging niche out there too. Maybe I should look them up.
Do I want to plan ahead and write my own obituary for the blog? Hell no. That is someone else’s job. When we die the people left behind get to clean up the mess and tidy the remnants. If you want to plan ahead, just plan to make those tasks easier. In the case of the blog, leave the passwords with the rest of your organized pile of stuff for your passing. In essence the blog is just one more of your belongings or possessions that will need to be dealt with when you leave this mortal coil.
Interesting discussion and comments, Frances. I do worry and wonder about some of the bloggers who have stopped writing, but I know from teaching writing courses and writing professionally that there is a natural cycle to these things. Some people burn out, or lose interest. Writing a blog, especially an interesting one, can be very hard work, as you know, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea for dozens of reasons. I’ve had writing students who have assured me that their calling is to be the next great writer…but then they couldn’t complete the basic assignments in our classes, and couldn’t even deal with writing simple posts on the private blog I had set up for them. Sometimes people start out thinking it will be so easy to write, and then they decide it isn’t. (not necessarily from lack of ability, usually from lack of confidence, or time constraints, or less occasionally, lack of motivation to apply the seat of pants to seat of chair and just do it.)
The question of what would happen to my blog should I stop writing it for whatever reason is easy for me to answer. If I do decide to close it down, I’ll likely delete it as I have many of the posts backed up to various media here. My son is even more of a computer geek than I am, so if i were to suddenly take off for Trafalmadore (or better yet, Pandora) without tidying it up, he would look after closing it down, would explain I was becoming the first female Toruk Makto in Pandorian history. 🙂
I’m really sorry that you lost precious photos and other things, Frances. A couple of years ago, I lost a good chunk of a year’s worth of photos and work documents in an errant external harddrive glitch of my own creation, so now I back things up to dvds as well as external harddrives. There are also sites in cyberspace where you can store data, far away from power surges and harddrive failures and other woes, but I only know a little bit about those. Might be worth looking into if you’re concerned about more equipment or software mishaps.
Interesting thoughts… I always wonder what my garden would turn into when I’m gone.. will it become overgrown? Will the strongest plants/weeds take over? Will it be sold to someone who removes everything and puts down a patio? I never thought about what would happen to my blog. I would hope it stays where it is for a while.
I know some people stop blogging just because something else has grabbed their attention, and they go off on their merry way. I know I’ve been gone for long periods myself.. I just go with the flow, and do the new thing for a while. Then I remember my blog.. and it’s still there. And my blogging friends are still there too, still writing and posting lovely photos. It’s a nice thing to return to now and again.
Hi Frances,
What a thought-provoking post. I came across a blog a couple months ago and added it to my blogroll. There had been no post in quite some time. Ta-da! A new post was up and I ventured over to catch up with A Little of This, A Little of That, only to discover that Flydragon was very ill. Her daughters wrote a tribute to their mother and it remains on the site. I’ve pondered whether to remove the blog from my blog roll or leave it…it just feels right to leave it for now.
I have all ready experienced what happens when you leave a beloved garden behind. Gardens, like all things, change and become something new.
I have, through an accident of ?fate? read several blogs by authors who have died. Some, disappear forever. Others, with friends who can not bear to let them go, have kept the site going, static, with the final post the announcement of their families. It has given blog friends a place to express condolences and wishes for the family to heal.
One blogger, a very popular one, had already given his “keys” to others to write on as guests, and when he died suddenly–shocking his friends–one person, who had helped him with layouts and administering site, stepped up and has not only kept the site active, but has done so by reposting old posts…one a day. She took his death hard. A lot of us did, as he’d been active in attending blogmeets and was known personally by a large number of his readers. He was also the inspiration for a huge number of people to become bloggers (ie..he was their blog ‘daddy’) He has a kind of melancholy immortality now, I suppose.
At blogmeets, still, a glass is raised and he is toasted, and his presence missed.
I think…I would like my site to exist after I’m gone. I have no children, and it might be one of the few traces that I ever existed. You never know.
Hi, Frances,
I regret that I don’t have time to read all the comments here. It may be that someone has already shared something similar to what I am about to tell you. My son (in his 20s) already pondered some of these issues in an essay called Digital Dust. Shortly after writing this, he proceeded to archive his blog posts into a hard cover book. He copied and pasted all his old posts into a word processor. Using search and replace, he removed parts of the blog post that he didn’t need (such as categories or tags) and reformatted things to look more book-like. Then he used the self publishing website lulu.com to make himself a hard cover copy. I requested and paid for a separate copy for myself. This was not intended to be a book for public consumption, but just as a way to preserve it in a form that didn’t depend on electricity to be read. Another form of back up, if you will. Also, his posts didn’t use photographs, which made converting it that much easier.
I have considered how easy it is to lose digital photographs and want to start putting the best ones into book form using a service such as Shutterfly.
When its over its over, at least I know I did it my way….
64 comments is a lot of comments to read Ms. Frances. I’ve not attempted it, yet, and I’m sure there’s lots of interesting remarks regarding The End, or The Beginning, depending on how you look at passing from this mortal life.
Yes, I’ve often thought about what you mention in this post. But I’ve not carried it as far as you have, which doesn’t strike me at being odd or morbid, it’s like you said, I think it has something to do with control. Although there’s really very little control we have over existential things (in human form).
Am I afraid of dying? Not really. I hope I go peacefully, and I want folks to have a party afterwards, with live bluegrass music, and lots and lots of flowers and plants. And someone blogging about it as it happens.
My goodness….so many thoughts and viewpoints. I have wondered if I should start backing up my blog posts. I would hope that if I ever stopped blogging, my blog would continue to exist so that the helpful gardening information would still be available for others who search via a search engine.
Hi Frances, such an interesting post and comments. I feel a personal connection with blogging friends. If I decided to stop adding posts I’d want to do a final post letting friends know. I wouldn’t want to needlessly worry anyone.
I hadn’t given much thought to writing a final post in the event of my unexpected demise. You and all the commenters have given food for thought on this.
Being someone who values the written and photographic records passed down through my family for generations, it makes perfect sense to me to consider preserving hard copies of blogs, and even selected emails, in the same way my grandma preserved letters of her forebears, and passed them on to my mom, who will one day pass them down to me, and so on.
Of course everyone’s different, and every family is different. In our family it’s truly a gift having those precious photos, stories and letters of generations who came before us. Knowing who we came from . . . well, it matters. Giving our children a sense of their family heritage and history is of great value, and even more so in our short-attention-span contemporary culture.
A blog book would make a wonderful keepsake. Hopefully it would become part of the tapestry of family records that have already been preserved for us for generations, and hopefully future generations will continue to choose wisely to whom they entrust their care and preservation. Hopefully our kids will pass not only the keepsakes, but also the stories and values that come with them to their own children, and so on. My life is most certainly richer for knowing the ancestors I came from, knowing what they looked like, and knowing them through what they wrote about and what mattered to them.
I guess I’ve never thought about this. I would like to leave a couple books behind I guess, but as for the blog, I’m fine if it just meanders off into the ether. It is interesting, though.
I have enjoyed seeing all your photographs… very lovely.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34
I arrive here late but I followed your suggestion and read all the comments, every single one. I started with a blank because I have not spent time to think about these issues yet. Maybe I spent much of my available time downloading from my brain, what to write. Now, my head is filled with so many great advice and ideas. I am so lucky I didn’t miss this post. I haven’t even scrapbooked my family or my own photo album. oh oh oh, when and where to start? I am so glad there are wonderful bloggers like you who lead the way.
Ah, Frances, musing on the impermanence of things? How very zen! Maybe you could take the zen approach of mindfulness, that all we really have is the present, and that dwelling on the past or projecting too much into the future can cause a lot of things to happen in the mind, not all of them good. It’s something I struggle with myself, I don’t have a very tidy mind that way (nor do I have my photos filed by plant – I can only imagine how irritating it would be if I did, though, and they became disordered!). For me, I feel like blogs are pretty ephemeral, and I don’t mean that as an insult. Just that they came into being so recently, they aren’t really “anywhere” except on a server somewhere, so that at least for mine, if it were to disappear along with me, I don’t think it would be too big a deal in the grand scheme of things! Just my 2cents. If we think of all of the stories, music, plays, art and other treasures throughout history which have been lost compared to what has survived, we can probably imagine it will be the same for the modern era. And really, isn’t that okay?
It is good to be prepared before leaving for that great garden in the sky . What if tomorrow never comes is a thought-provoking post, Frances, with a lot of interesting responses.
You’ll be pleased to know that Faire Garden could live forever because the Internet Archives is a source that preserves web sites through the Open Directory. It contains over 4 million sites in a half million categories. Fortunately you can sign up for it and if your blog is accepted it will be around for generations to come. The category is under home -gardening -people-personal pages .
Visit the website http://www.dmoz.org and http://www.alexa.com to learn how to register. I saw a few names I recognize such as Nancy Ondra at Hayefield, Doug Green and Ilona’s Journal. They are even looking for editors to volunteer to improve a category as this is a human-edited directory. I wish that one of our garden bloggers ( I nominate you ) could improve the listings of garden bloggers as it is really lacking.
I’m all signed up and waiting for their reply and I encourage our fellow bloggers to do the same.
Frances, you would not be signing away your rights. The Internet Archive is a library that collaborates with the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian and its mission is to help preserve artifacts in digital form and create an internet library for researchers, historians and scholars.
Those that chose to have their blog, music or book registered are free to use the Creative Commons License which specifies that the material can only be used for non-commercial purposes and not for profit. The Grateful Dead is the first major band to allow free non-commercial use of their music in the Internet Archive.
Yes, I agree they need an editor and our garden blog directory there is sorely lacking . As I said, this is run by volunteers and I think its a worthwhile project to consider.
The Internet Archive was listed as one of the top sites in 2007 . It has strict rules and regulations governing the use of its material and while it is free, it takes some technical expertise to access it.
Remember, we are all cached on Google and I don’t recall them asking anyone for permission.
Frances, I’ve thought about this post all week, and I wrote about it a bit and linked back to you. It’s good to think about it now before we aren’t able to give our loved ones passwords. Thanks, and remember, spring will soon be here.~~Dee
Hello again, Frances. This post has inspired me to write one on how to preserve our work for future generations and I have linked to your blog.
I hope to see a comprehensive registry of garden bloggers on the Internet Archive site, including yours.
Wow. THis is such a deep subject, and there have been so many and varied answers. I read them all, and I don’t have anything much to add except that I did wonder about what happened to blogs that were “abandoned” for whatever reason. Nice to know the bits go on.
I am very interested in the idea of the book form for my posts. Of course, I realize that it would be quite a tome considering my wordiness.
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