Friday, April 24, 2009

Dropping Like Flies...

A lot of well established and fairly long running blogs on my blog roll are dead, dormant, changing formats, or soon to be going away.

Berserk - has hung it up.

Officer Gary - has pulled the plug at the "suggestion" of admin.

Glock 'n Cuffs - has been dormant for months.

DisFUNctional City
- was another casualty of her administrators.

KVegas911 - is gone from public blogging, again thanks to admin.

The Enforcer - has remained silent since 12/8/08.

PC Pinkstone - is leaving law enforcement, and the UK.

It kinda sucks to have a blog you really dig go away. It's kinda like a television show you really like getting taken off the air.

Just sayin'...

16 comments:

anon said...

I totally agree, kinda like finishing a good book and finding out the author won't be putting any more out. Bummer.
I don't know much about how it works, but I'm surprised that 'admin' has so much say about what people do on their own time.

Just me... said...

I, too, hate to see a good blog go away.. :):)
As for how much 'say' the administration has in the officer's life, did you ever wonder why 'cops have cop friends, go to cop parties and have cop lives'? How can anyone else really understand what goes on every day? And who else can they 'tell all' to without fear of disclosing too much? They can't even tell it all to their spouses.. Not because they want to keep the spouse in the dark, but usually, and initially, because they want to protect the spouse from the horrible crap they see all too often..

Front Porch Society said...

I have seen a couple of my friends' blogs disappear, too. I am still hanging on, though.

*Goddess* said...

Thankfully, just like tv shows, new good blogs come along to take their place, like motorcop.blogspot.com and presshard3copies.blogspot.com :)

Ten 80 said...

There is a trend there. Bummer.

Jessy said...

That sucks. I too have been following some of those blogs for awhile. I am a 911 dispatcher and I just started my own blog, not really work related, (because I don't want people I actually know to find out about the blog... the admin thing)but occasionally I'll throw something work related in there.

Jessy said...

The money adventure is me, I just now changed my display name because that one was lame. FYI

5150Wife said...

I've fallen pretty silent on my own blog due to a certain family member whom I feel could use it against my hubby. I am about to go private with my blog due to that person. I know I'll lose readers, but that's ok. I'd rather lift the weight of oppression off my shoulders and be able to blog freely again.

I don't know if you ever stop by my place, but if you do & see that it's private, you'll know why. When that happens, just shoot me an email & I'll let you in. :-)

Officer "Smith" said...

Powdergirl & Just me...

You would be amazed how much my employment carries over into my personal life. If someone knows I am a police officer, then I am ALWAYS a police officer. If that person sees me acting like an ass on my own time, they can still say that my conduct is not appropriate for a peace officer.

It happens all the time. Cops are always in the news for some stupid off duty incident that nobody would care about if they weren't cops.

Leslie...

I have kinda worried about you a bit from some of your prior posts, the ones about writers block and maybe hanging it up. Only the person who writes the blog can make that decision. Only you know if blogging is still the right thing for you to do. But, I hope you keep doing it.

Goddess..

I have been following those blogs as well. It's nice to see some other locals doing this blog thing.

Officer "Smith" said...

Administrators can be a bitch sometimes, but in the long run they are looking out for what is best for the department as a whole. Some administrators might see these blogs as an officer exercising his or her first amendment rights in a public forum. No problem. While other administrators might see this as an officer revealing confidential information on the internet. Those are extremes, and there are many middle views as well.

I treat this as kind of a journal, but one that I'm okay with others reading. I purposely do not use my own name, department name, suspect or driver names, or anything that could realistically link this blog to my agency. I have made it very clear that the views expressed in this blog are mine, and mine alone. They do not officially reflect the views of my agency, even if they do unofficially agree with a lot of this stuff.

I go to great lengths to keep this blog detached from work. I tell stories about work, and about things I have personally experienced at work, but I try to make the stories as generic as possible while still getting my point across.

I have not told any of my co-workers that I even have this blog. Hell, some of them may even read it without either of us knowing.

The problems arise when bloggers let it slip to their co-workers, then someone takes offense and runs it up to admin. I try to avoid that possibility.

*Goddess* said...

The problems arise when bloggers let it slip to their co-workers, then someone takes offense and runs it up to admin. I try to avoid that possibility.This happens a lot with bf's and gf's reading your blog, too. At first you think it's cute to give your blog addy to your new gf, then you realize you've just lost the last place to bellyache about her annoying habits because now she's reading it and you have to censor your every word. To date, I haven't told anyone in my family I write a blog and I've been online with one for over seven years. Frankly I'm amazed I've kept my mouth shut that long...lol! But...."that's the way, uh huh uh huh I like it uh huh uh huh:)"

anon said...

Yeah, I do watch the news(when its unavoidable) and understand that it's in your entire departments best interest to keep things on the up and up.
I just think that if any person wants a forum in which to anonymously discuss some of the funnier, dumber or more outrageous things that go on in their jobs, then that shouldn't be a problem.
But like I said, I don't know much about it.
All this clean livin' keeps me outta the loop.
Anyway, thanks again for all the entertainment, hope your efforts to remain anonymous continue to be successful : )

WW said...

My links of blogs on my blog has gone from so many being active to me updating the link with not active in parentheses. I love cop blogs, as far as I can remember I've been interested in cop stuff, even got my bachelor's in criminal justice and sociology.
I mentioned to my bf the other day about blogs dying out (he works with the PD in my town) and he mentioned about the admin and the views of officers and how if someone that they were in contact with found out about the blog that they could be held responsible and be sued about something on it. It sucks you guys (cops) have to think about all that stuff when you post anything, I greatly appreciate (almost) every cop blog I read. I say almost because their have been a few I've run into that their opinions just don't seem to mesh with being a cop. I can understand about being a cop for so long and feeling that you've changed nothing, or that people don't appreciate you, or that people that you go out of your way to help come back and bite you in the ass later. And, yet most of the cops I know (I know quite a few from taking the Citizen's Police Academy in my city, which people should take if they have one) still seem to be able to get up each day and tackle their work without the attitude of knowing people are going to stab them in the back later on. And I appreciate that. I've also run into a couple fake cop blogs, (that's another thing readers have to beware of when reading anything) and that annoys me, as few as I find of good cop blogs, we sure don't need any people pretending. But I could tell they were fake when they would post certain things that would never happen in real life (happens to me and TV and movies too).
With blogs and work, I understand that too. Granted I don't really work anywhere that I think anyone would mind, but I don't blog about work. My last job, I gave my blog address out to my boss (I decided later that wasn't a good idea), then realized that if I ever complained about how something was handled at work or something about work and she read it I could be fired. I also took the link down from various other personal websites, I know one of my friends (that I know in real life) reads my blog, but I never have problems with her. I started my blog to get away from my parents reading another blog, because I complain about them a lot. Sorry, rambling.
I'm very happy to have found your blog and that you and others have continued blogging. Thank you.
(sorry about the long comment)

Gigi said...

I am still here..just moved to another location and kinda having writers block. But still disfunctional! Don't give up on me yet!

Mad Jack said...

I'm sorry to see these blogs vanish. I enjoyed several of them very much, and there are a few that have changed my general attitude about police and law enforcement in general.

My thanks to those who continue to write, and to Officer Smith.

Anonymous said...

nah, I'm still around. Just trying to get back into the swing of things! Thanks for remembering me though!