Online communities, publishing and connections have been around for more than a decade now and are constantly evolving. Over time the reasons any of us chose to get into blogging can change, the response to our blog can change and circumstances can arise which lead us to rethink the whole blogging enterprise and then not just changing but deleting our blogs.

Online life is not much different from face-to-face life in that regard. I struggle with questions about my blogging all the time. I have several blogs on different topics and which show different aspects of my life, interests and personality. I constantly go back and forth between the idea of continuing to maintain the separation or having a single blog that's just me (which are the blogs I most enjoy reading) or getting down to one blog for business and one for everything else (feel free to way in!) Any changes would change my online relationships. Some would like what they see, some new folks might come along for the ride and others would be bored silly and probably drift away. Although we face these issues in our "real life" relationships (see BlogHer CE lauriewrites great post on friendship break-ups) there is an added dimension with blogging. Do we change or delete our blogs when relationships or circumstances change?

Recently I have seen several posts from women who are dealing with those questions.

Mrs. Flinger is debating using her real name and wonders what the effect might have on perceptions of her credibility:

I’ve struggled with this for my own business, needing and being so public to market a skillset while simultaneously being enteraining about my husband’s junk and honest about the juggle of staying at home and working. I told myself, a year ago, when I got a job, I’d quit the blog.

I didn’t.

She did. And she might. And she talks about the benefits of going offline.

And it’s not that I am going to go anywhere. I just wonder about my Internet Identity and my Professional Identity and how they mesh with my Mom/Writer/Sarcastic “I make fun of my life and most of it is real.”

As ”more and more blog writers out their real names, I wonder if I should as well. Or if I’m even fooling myself with thinking this is a safe place anymore anyway.

Suburban Turmoil has a thoughtful post considering the impact of advertising and PR pitches on the mommyblogging community:

Back in 2005, advertisements were few and far between on mommy blogs. Bloggers ran Google ads for pennies a day and BlogAds made us a little more money. But that was lagniappe- an unexpected gift. We weren't blogging for the money (*snort*. What money?), we were blogging because we loved to write. We were blogging for the sense of community it gave us.

And then things changed....

I'm proud that parent bloggers are getting noticed now by major publications and major advertisers. I think we deserve it. But I don't want it to destroy what we've built here. Is it possible to run ads without letting the advertisers run us, or the potential "fame" go to our heads? Are too many of us forgetting why we're here in the first place? Are you noticing a major shift in the dynamics of mommyblogging? I'd love to know what you think.

I encourage you to read the entire post (even if you are not a mommyblogger) and share your thoughts.

Blogher CE lauriewrites has a beautiful and introspective piece on her personal blog, Laurie Writes, where she explores the distance from where she began blogging and where she finds herself now:

I'm shutting down comments here today. I feel a little guilty about that, but the truth is that I'd almost rather not do this anymore, at least not the way I have been. Coming up on three years, I'm feeling like it's time to transition into something different. I never did this for recognition, and I'm not very good at keeping up the conversation. I want to do something different but I'm not sure what. I initially did this because I was a little bit nuts. When I started I was in such pain and confusion that I didn't know what I was doing, really, and now that the scales have fallen off my eyes for the most part, I'm not always sure that the intention is the same. Maybe I should set up some anonymous site somewhere where I can just let it all hang out without worrying about what people say who know me in real life, but really, what's the point of that? My paper journal is already sadly neglected.

Feminist blogger, Victoria Marinelli, committed "blogicide" and renamed her blog "Square One: In Which I Start Over."

Because Victoria is known within the feminist blogging community, she had to clarify that when she made the decision she was unaware that another prominent feminist blogger had also taken down her blog when she found herself at the center of a firestorm not of her own making.

How about you?  Do you ever struggle with blogging because relationship or community is changing and not for the better?  Tempted to take your blog down down and start over or give up all together?  Have you done it and are you happy you took action or wish you had let things stand and work out as they would?