You're welcome, Matt.
May 13, 2022 7:48 AM   Subscribe

The proprietor of one of the longest regularly updated static web blogs, kottke.org, has announced that he is taking an extended break. After 24 years, Mefi's own (#109) Jason Kottke says his fiddle leaf fig tree "is not ok. And neither am I — I feel as off-balance as my tree looks. I’m burrrrned out." Starting back with post 78 there have been hundreds of posts and thousands of comments referencing Kottke, and Jason has featured Metafilter a number of times as well. posted by zenon (19 comments total) 45 users marked this as a favorite
 
Kottke has always been human and open, and super interesting.

I hope he comes back to us, because I am selfish as all hell, but more important is for him to clear his head.

Thanks for all the bits & links & words, Mister Kottke!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:52 AM on May 13, 2022 [5 favorites]


That Kottke guy is ok, I hope he has a successful and complete recovery.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:53 AM on May 13, 2022 [3 favorites]


Since he made the announcement, I’ve already typed ‘ko’ into my browser, hesitated over the auto fill, then hit backspace more times than I can count.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:01 AM on May 13, 2022 [9 favorites]


I already miss his daily links.
posted by octothorpe at 8:09 AM on May 13, 2022 [2 favorites]


I found kottke.org through MetaFilter, and then I found Miss Cellania through kottke.org. I visit each of them daily and/or weekly. I wish Jason the best with his break.
posted by sundrop at 8:27 AM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


My first FPP here came from a random kottke link : )

(Good to see the subject saw significant success 5 years after!)
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 8:29 AM on May 13, 2022


Jason is a good person and a genuine gem from the original Web and blog days. I admire how he's turned kottke.org into a working business. Also he's retained his role as an authentic tastemaker. A lot of journalists read Kottke, particularly folks reporting on digital culture, and there's a bunch of stories that started there and then got turned into major news trends. (I wrote up my own experience of that, a small thing in 2013.)

It's also terrific that he's never sold out or compromised, his site remains a true expression of the things that interest him. In a world where Boing Boing runs undisclosed ads for fake medicine and "blog" is now a synonym for "SEO spam" it's nice something authentic remains pure. I'd say the same for Metafilter itself, here, it's precious to me for similar reasons.
posted by Nelson at 9:01 AM on May 13, 2022 [30 favorites]


Kottke is awesome. I wish him well in his self-care, and hope he can get back to posting when he feels like his head is right again.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:24 AM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


Jason is a good person and a genuine gem from the original Web and blog days. I admire how he's turned kottke.org into a working business.

I worked with Jason 20 years ago when he was still in Minneapolis. I remember when a couple of other co-workers were talking about how he was saying he wanted to be "a professional blogger" one day, and laughing about what a crazy notion that seemed like. We couldn't imagine how it could work, but I've always admired that he pulled it off.

Best of everything, Jason. Take care.
posted by nickmark at 10:41 AM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


I've read Jason for years and years. I don't know how he kept that site so consistently interesting. I mean he kept it basically the same this whole time and it never got boring or tired. I hope he enjoys his time away and is able to refresh and rejuvenate. Take care of yourself Jason!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 10:52 AM on May 13, 2022


a lot of my daily internet browsing and both online/offline interests have stemmed from being a regular kottke.org reader. i'm twenty-nine and was reading his blog in high school. hope he has a restful break.
posted by europeandaughter at 12:37 PM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


Kottke.org provides excellent content. I hope Jason is back, but maybe he'll find something new; either way, he deserves good things.
posted by theora55 at 2:36 PM on May 13, 2022


God, this is such a resonant little moment in the blogosphere. I don't even know Kottke at all—he's the kind of guy who Matt Haughey knew but I didn't at all—but there's a lot of a sense of the space between what the web was vs. is and the cost of trying to bridge that gap that I really strongly relate to and sympathize with. Good luck to him in figuring out a new way to be, walking away is fucking hard and he was far more central to kottke.org than I ever had to be to metafilter.com.
posted by cortex at 4:02 PM on May 13, 2022 [14 favorites]


'Web blog'? Really?
posted by Ardnamurchan at 8:14 PM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


Yeah, “weblog” really should be one word, I suppose.
posted by cortex at 9:32 PM on May 13, 2022 [1 favorite]


He set the bar for the blogosphere. Insightful, poignant and ever interesting. The finest place for your fine hyperlinked products. Go Recharge rethink rebound.
posted by pmaxwell at 7:41 AM on May 15, 2022


a world where Boing Boing runs undisclosed ads for fake medicine

To be *slightly* fair to Boing Boing, their terrible advertorials are now clearly marked as sponcon: "We thank our sponsor for making this content possible; it is not written by the editorial staff nor does it necessarily reflect its views."

It was a recent ad for "here's a lighter that looks like a pistol", with cheery "Swap out your boring drug store lighters for this bad boy next time you need a light" headline and -- from memory, as they've deleted the post since -- "people will be surprised when you pull this out!" copy, that was the last straw for me.

I feel like most golden-age blogs that have managed to survive have done so at great cost: Boing Boing sold its principles; this is not the first burnout break Kottke's taken, just the longest; Metafilter has now burnt out two proprietors.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:08 AM on May 18, 2022


from memory, as they've deleted the post

Ah, the Wayback Machine captured it before deletion: the WTF copy I was misremembering was "it's sure to get attention wherever you take it".
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:13 AM on May 18, 2022


Boing Boing does reasonable advertorial disclosure on the website. But the tweet I linked has no disclosure that the tweet is an ad. That's a violation of both Twitter's TOS and the FTC's guidelines. It's deceptive. They have 224,800 followers seeing these unmarked ads.

(To anticipate an argument; BoingBoing may view their tweets as just a copy of what's on their site. But that's self-servingly naive; many people will only ever see that tweet and not click through to see the disclosure in the article. The tweet has significant value to the advertiser independent of the article.)
posted by Nelson at 9:33 AM on May 18, 2022 [2 favorites]


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