R.I.P. My Personal Blog (1999-2006)
I’ve decided to stop personal blogging, at least in the style I have been doing here at PeterCooper.co.uk. I’ve been blogging in this way for 7 years (since September 22, 1999 - yes, you can definitely tell I was a teenager by that writing) and it just hasn’t clicked for me. I’ve never become known as a blogger, rarely get links from anyone else, and have always relied on Google for most of my traffic (and that party is now totally over given the latest updates). Some people manage to pull off persona, blogs to a large degree of success, such as Jason Kottke, Robert Scoble, and Hugh McLeod, but they still have a focus in one area or another, which is something I, perhaps, have lacked.
This is not a sob-story though. Ruby Inside has grown beyond my wildest dreams, and it proves I can put a great, popular blog together within a particular niche. At heart, I’m a generalist rather than a specialist, but I’m beginning to feel I need to start putting down roots and become a specialist, at least on a blog-by-blog basis! Therefore.. the eclectic, personal blog is over. Ruby Inside will continue, and, I am sure, more new blogs will follow, but they will each have a focus and a specific audience.
As of this post, this blog is becoming an ‘announcement’ style blog, in the same vein as Nick Denton’s. He posts once a month, if that, just to make a point or announce a new site he’s launching. I’m going to redesign the front page of PeterCooper.co.uk to emphasize my bookmarks and Twitter feed a bit more (I update those anyway) and simply have my small ‘announcement’ blog poking out at the bottom or the side or whatever. So don’t unsubscribe, but don’t panic if you don’t see any posts from me for a while.
Signing off, and not for the last time,
Pete.
December 30th, 2006 at 12:42 am
Sorry to hear that you are stopping, Peter. This was always an interesting and informative blog that I have in my list of RSS feeds which I always read as soon as new articles appear. Traffic at a reasonable rate to still let me get on with some work, but still a good source of generalised information.
December 30th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Thanks Paul. Do stay subscribed (if you want!) as any of the things I might choose to work on instead might interest you as well
You can take the man out of the blog, but not the blog out of the man.. or something cheesy like that 
December 30th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Ye Gawds! I guess I will have to up my email quota to you then, how else will I read about j00r life? v_v
December 30th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
sorry to hear about this Peter, It has been interesting reading about all the stuff you were doing.
Any plans for what you will do with the extra free time?
December 30th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
dont blame you. this blog is shit. check every now and again but NEVER seen owt remotely interesting. what a loser
December 31st, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Jason: Probably start another blog of some sort
Maurice: See, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Of course, you should have more sense than to keep checking something that isn’t interesting
December 31st, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Dang, you see, I always found your posts informative and enjoyable to read. Way too many techie blogs that go too technical and become a bore to read out there, whereas yours was always enjoyable.
January 1st, 2007 at 1:12 am
If anyone has a hankering for similar posts, I can certainly recommend Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal. He’s good to read
January 1st, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Shame! I enjoyed reading your blog almost every morning over breakfast. You always had cool links with good content
Best from Vancouver,
Nick
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am
shame, it was nice having a provincial british voice in the echo chamber, and you were a good,lowish volume of posts.
but if you weren’t getting anything out of it, then why keep banging your head against a wall.
Good luck with whatever you do instead, I’ll keep subscribed to this and hope for updates.
January 6th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Hi Peter,
I am one of those who addict to your blog as well. I found your blog about 6 months above by accident. Well I would tell you the truth I love your posted pictures. I am not a guy concerning in network much as you do but you could bright my sight up in this way. I like your attitudes toward most articles you mentioned. However, you are right to turn to a specialist as you told. I am a guy in an academic area I know how concentrate those people are. They adore their work much, on the other hand, I feel their personal life are quite private and secret. Well I wish you best seller for your Book. Merry Christmas and Happy new year.
January 8th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
It’s a shame to see an end to one of the most popular blogs out there, I and many others would like this to carry on, but we all respect your decision.
Happy New Year 2007 to all
January 10th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Peter,
As a fellow UK Rails enthusiast, I am *extremely* disappointed to hear that you’ve decided to stop blogging. I enjoyed the eclectic mix of posts and demand, in the strongest tone possible, that you continue to blog here.
Good luck,
Ben
January 10th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I’m going to continue blogging elsewhere in a somewhat different form. I’ll alert those who are interested when it goes live
It probably won’t go public on here because there are people who read this site who might not appreciate it.
January 22nd, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Peter,
Found your site by accident, searching for interesting blog links, after purchasing a mac for home last year(rather than using the work hardware) .
Over the last 12 months your site has been the most interesting I have come across (not literally there are other sites better fot that sort of thing). It is must read each week, sad to see it ending.