Presenting - the Desipundit Blogathon

Update - they're back. Some changes, but they're back. Read this. Kinda makes the below obits redundant, but what the heck..


As promised here, today is the Desipundit Blogathon.

Hey Pat and team over at DP - if you can hear me - it might not be much, but this one's for you. All of you.

Shruthi: Goodbye, Desipundit and thank you: I was introduced to a host of interesting blogs - and after that, there was no stopping me. Endless topics, endless discussions - it was a whole new world out there! I became a serious blog-hopper, and very soon, started my own blog. It was thanks to Desipundit, too, that I got my initial readers. They were kind enough to link to a number of my posts regularly - and readership grew - pretty soon, I had my own blogger community, and I was, and am revelling in it. [Link]

Vijayendra: Exit Desipundit: For nearly two years now, Desipundit has been a daily read. I put my cup of tea on the daily newspaper and scanned Desipundit before starting work everyday. No more. Desipundit is closing down. I could rant and complain but I understand the people in charge will most likely be more pained than I am. I see the bright side. The idea made waves. It will remain. And in time, a new avatar...[Link]

Arzan: Desipundit: Au Revoir: It galvanised a whole bunch of Indian bloggers in India and the diaspora spread around the world into a loose knit community. It did wonders for my blog ratings, and more importantly fostered new friendships, which otherwise would have never existed. That I think is for me the most important thing, I take away from DP. The human link….the cameraderie over email…with people who I have never ever met, is more important than all the blog hits, and the adsense revenue and what not. Thank you DP. [Link]

Dilip D'Souza: DP into the sunset: I can understand that it has become a chore for its founders to keep doing this, especially given the pressures of grad school USA. Maybe it had to come to an end. But as always with such things, the taste will linger. [Link]

From posts earlier by these bloggers -

Shivam Vij: Desipundit no more - "Anyone remember blog melas? Go read some old ones to know how Desipundit changed the blogosphere. I do hope Pat is doing this knowing what Desipundit meant to so many of us, how we logged on every day, how issues like IIPM simply could not have been as big if it were not for Desipundit.[Link]

The girl from ipanema: Desipundit bids farewell - "So I'm sitting here, staring at the the bright yellow sun on the page. Furiously going through the archives...bookmarking each and every post i find interesting, funny, or informative. Lapping it all up, trying to file away as much as I can. Going about, leaving my last comments that say "Came here from desipundit" because, when will I do that again?"[Link]

Nilu: Why people blog: "Why do people read it? No reason. They just do. Sometimes, because they are bored and most other times, for the same reason that they do so many other pointless things. One could also argue, readers read it because it is the one-stop shop for the best of the Indian blogosphere." [Link]