I am really grieved to tell you this. Jordon Cooper has just taken his blog offline. His wife, Wendy, has taken hers down also. Jordon has been a partner in blogdom with me for nearly 3 years. He started up right after seeing my blogspot blog, and ending up being a far more regular blogger than me, sometimes posting a dozen or so blogs a day.
He was also a key voice on the Akingdomspace site that i was involved with. There was a time when the Coopers were considering coming overseas to join us in our quest.
Why did they stop? They have had problems with a guy pestering them. .. well go and read it yourself. I think a lot of us will be watching and waiting to see how the Coopers pop up later with a new blog and how personal they get in the future. i hope they will maintain being themselves and blogging from the heart. Jordon will post at The Ooze blog for a while. I will let you know when his new site arrives.
Coops old blog, for much of its life, had just a few more hits a day than mine, and a few more (2 or 3 last time i looked) permanent links back to it than mine also. Not that i make a big deal about it. In fact, i am quite proud of my “son” and the many people he has also inspired to, as the good Book says, “publish glad tidings”. As it stands this week, Coop got about 150 more visits than me. My prayer is than when he returns, he will still be more popular.
Gosh Jor–you and your bride will definitely be missed.
Hi Andrew,
I hope you and your readers had a great Easter.
The blog is staying offline for a couple more days. Not only did the person who molested Wendy try to hurt her but tried to use the church to do it too (the church is cool) which made it more public and even more upsetting. With that happening, it complicates it even more.
Combining that with the searches being done on her page which are still happening, we are keeping the archives offline. The rest of the content is online (not much harm in finding some recipes).
We really aren’t sure what we are going to do with our blogs. A lot of opinions have come in and all of them well thought through (thanks!) but I think this weekend has changed how much we share and what we talk about.
I was thinking about this last night. My blog was designed for my friends and I have always made the assumption that whoever came to my site was a friend. For years that has been totally true. I have even been confronted by U.S. Customs officials while flying into the US because they read my blog and they knew I was coming through that morning and were excited about it. Even writing once in a while over TheOoze and wearing a “theooze” shirt has lead strangers to Wendy and I.
Some pastors have said that they think that their church goes through their blog with a fine tooth comb looking for things. That has never been our experience. Probably the most scrutiny that our sites get from our church is Wendy’s recipe section (it is a church of amazing cooks).
Then when someone does hate you and wants to hurt people around you to hurt Wendy and I, it changes the dynamic. It stops being a place where friends meet, it starts being a place where friends can get hurt.