I echo the Mad House Madman

A few days ago, the Mad House Madman asked what ever happened to CodeBlueBlog, creator of CSI:Medblogs. I had been wondering the same thing myself, as the blog hadn't been updated since April 20. It used to be one of my favorites and was one of the first I encountered shortly after discovering the medical blogosphere. True, CodeBlue would wander into a bit of conspiracy-mongering from time to time (his posts on Bill Clinton's recent surgery, for example), but CodeBlueBlog was always a good read. (Indeed, I had been meaning to comment on his posts on Mammographic Serfdom for some time now, but somehow never got around to it.) Of course, looking at CodeBlueBlog now, the depressing thing is that, even though the blog hasn't been updated in five or six weeks, he's still averaging only slightly fewer than the same number of hits per day than I do, down from around six times my average in March. Talk about deflating my ego! CodeBlue can leave his blog alone and it takes six weeks for its hit count to fall below mine, which is updated nearly every day, sometimes even three or four times a day.

Oh, well.

However, CodeBlue's mysterious extended absence did get me to thinking about what, if any, obligation a blogger may have to his or her audience if he or she has to discontinue the blog or go on extended hiatus. Consequently, I've come up with a few policies for my blog:

1. I will post an announcement if I plan on not posting for more than a few days, whether due to vacation, obligations of work (usually impending grant deadlines), or whatever. (Of course, on vacations, if I have Internet access, I will still probably post intermittently every few days. I just can't help myself.)
   
2. I will also include in such announcements the date (or an estimate of the date) that regular posting will resume.
3. If, for whatever reason, I ever decide to discontinue this blog or to go on an extended hiatus (longer than a couple of weeks, which is about the longest I'm ever off for a vacation or would ever need for grant crunchtime), I will announce it and provide an explanation.
   
4. If I go more than a week without posting and don't post an announcement, either bad things have happened to my computer or bad things have happened to me.

I wonder if Dr. Charles ever found out what happened to CodeBlue. Perhaps I'll e-mail him myself...