Although one blog may be created every second, several voices left the blogosphere recently for different reasons:

Strategic change – The pioneering Observer Blog has logged off as the paper focuses on its redesign to Berliner format. ‘As part of a wider redesign we are thinking about how best to develop and sustain the dialogue we started on this blog with our readers.’ It seems odd that the editorial team has decided that the best way to do that is to stop communicating altogether in the meantime. But we all have other demands on our time, and editorial teams are no different. Clearly that dialog was not a priority. Looking at the comments though, regular readers were disappointed by the move.

Comment Spam – Pete Shinbach’s Bach Door has been so plagued by comment spam that he’s been forced to go offline. It’s a great shame to lose a voice about PR, and for the parasites to kill its host. His parting shot: ‘After a spate of comment spam (may those who posted it develop really bad rashes in dark, moist places!), The Bach Door’s closed.’

Technical Problems – Typepad blogs with names beginning with ‘S’ all dropped offline this week. Seth Godin’s blog was down on Monday, and Steve Rubel’s was also affected. According to Steve, it seems Six Apart reacted quickly by apologizing and offering six months’ credit to those affected. Since Typepad is a hosted service, you don’t want files to be lost as you have no way of backing them up, or saving the comments readers make. No wonder Typepad jumped on this one. I’ve found the service to be good, but companies considering using Typepad for a corporate blog should bear this in mind as part of their disaster recovery.

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