How many times have you read on people's blogs that they're "throwing in the towel" because they're sick of blogging? I keep reading this, and wonder why people even go to the trouble of making such a dramatic announcement, if, in fact, it's the truth. Why not just fade away for a few weeks? I suspect these people aren't really serious about not blogging anymore.

From my perspective, if someone really is serious about quitting blogging, he or she should just remove the blog. Sooner or later the search engine bots will catch up with the fact that the URL no longer exists. Any pages that have been cached somewhere may or may not eventually go away. I don't think it makes any sense to just let a dead blog stay there and mummify. Go ahead and break other bloggers' links to it. If enough readers let the other bloggers know the link is broken, it might be removed from their sites.

If someone just needs a break from blogging, my advice is to take a break. Come back to it weeks or even months later; it's a disservice to readers to simply throw up some dreck because you think they expect a new entry. Yes, you risk them going away and eventually forgetting to return, but you will pick up new readers once you resume.