Vox, my favorite blogging service of the last four years, has closed today. I was informed this was happening about a month ago. It was sad because I was about to lose my last four years of memories and friends I’ve met and have come to enjoy following their lives via written word. I’ve since come to terms with that and feel all right about starting a new chapter. But I still had a lot to do before the closing. Like figure out what to do with all the photos and artistic expressions I created and placed with care into a post here and there. Mostly I wanted to try to track where everyone was going (TypePad or WordPress or elsewhere) so that no one got “lost” in my Vox neighborhood.
I quickly realized I wouldn’t continue to be connected to everyone after the month was over so I focused on the few I enjoyed reading the most, and we found other ways to connect. I ultimately moved my blog to WP and have read through the posts that were worth keeping and ones that weren’t, deleting and making private those entries I’d rather keep to a small readership. This month I realized that it’s not the place I keep my blog that holds the memories. It’s the act of writing that creates the memories or at least records them for me. Over time, what happens to the words doesn’t really matter. I may or may not reread or even be read and that’s okay. The best part about the closing of Vox is that I get to start over and wipe the slate clean with whatever I end up focusing on writing at any given time. Nothing better for creating something new than a proverbial blank sheet of paper and a writing utensil. So here I go. Again.
A Mad Notepad 
October 2nd, 2010 at 9:00 am
I was sad about it closing too. I visited my old blog yesterday and saw the message thanking us for our support of Vox for all those years. But I’m like you, I like starting with a clean slate. WordPress took a little getting used to, but I’m very happy with it now. And it’s nice knowing that I can be somewhere that will not get shut down.