Bloggers come and go, but one that has popped up in my comments for the last 8 years or so was Renard, from Renard’s World blog. I went to his very popular blog today and it was deleted! I am shocked and wondering what could have happened.
I have comments on my blog from Renard going all the back to the beginning, before he was even on WordPress and had a blog at Blogger (or maybe Blog Spot?) He was one of the most constant bloggers I’ve ever encountered, commenting regularly, always responding to each comment left on his posts, and posting daily.
Renard’s World Deleted?
When I realized I hadn’t seen Renard pop up in my comments lately, I went to my WordPress Reader because he was almost always there at the top because of his uber regular daily posting schedule. But he wasn’t there.
So, I searched for his blog Renard’s World, and it didn’t show up.
Then I did a Google search and the address showed but took me to a WordPress site deleted page.
No! Say it isn’t so Renard.
I recall one of the last blog posts I read was about how he had blogged every single day for the past year or so. Maybe he reached some sort of goal and called it quits?
It’s just strange to delete the site with no explanation at all.
I saw another blogger posting that he had tried e-mailing and it immediately bounced back as the e-mail account has also been deleted. I have also learned his Pinterest page is gone.
It is strange that there seems to have been a thorough scrub of Renard’s existence. But we remember!
Recent Changes Before the Deletion
I had noticed a few changes to his style in the past few months. He started adding AI generated images to every post, and the posts themselves started to sound a little on the AI written side.
Renard himself seemed to be against AI writing, and said he wrote his posts himself.
Maybe he just covered every topic and ran out of things to blog about? I’m pretty sure he probably had a blog about that at some point. Probably titled, “What to do when you run out of things to blog about.”
In fact, sometimes when I was stuck at the blogging thing, I’d go scroll through Renard’s blog to see if it would spark any ideas. I just can’t believe it’s all gone!
What Could Have Happened to Renard’s World?
Possible reasons for Renard’s World disappearing:
- It’s a glitch and he will magically come back, blog and all.
- Sudden or unexpected death and site deleted.
- He got fed up with WordPress and left. (I’ve seen this happen already this month with another blogger)
- He finally ran out of things to blog about.
- He got hacked and hackers deleted the site.
- Renard was actually AI himself.
- Aliens.
If anyone out there has the answer, please comment as I’m really curious what happened and miss Renard’s kind comments already. He was the most consistent blogger I’ve ever known in both posting and commenting.
Maybe Renard will come back and leave an amusing comment on this post himself!
Update: Since posting this I have run across multiple blog posts all saying the same thing. Many of us noticed the recent addition of AI images, and the change in tone on his posts. And everyone is just as baffled as I am about the disappearance.
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Categories: Blogging
Renard’s blog was one of the first I encountered when I started blogging, on account of how it was always packed with blogging advice…
Over the years it was a kind of inspiration seeing someone who was consistently present in the blogging and one of the last articles I read on the sit ironically was on the gravity of deleting a blog…. so its very strange that just after that he would also delete the blog….
I really hope he is ok, as its so uncharacteristic.
I want to think there was some glitch and he will pop back up with a post on <i>What your blog accidentally gets deleted</i>
Maybe he never existed and it was all a figment of our imagination….
~B
It is so strange! I wish I had a chance to read that article, but I realized he was missing too late. I was so used to him popping up faithfully with a nice comment on my posts for the last 8 years that after about a week I realized something was missing when I posted….and it was Renard! So I went looking and couldn’t believe it.
Maybe he is doing an experiment to see what happens when you delete your blog, and then he’s going to write all about it. He’s just doing research, lol.
crazy as it sounds I would not put that past him… from what I picked up over the years he was a meticulous researcher and planner and now he has left us with the greatest blogging mystery of the decade
~B
He had over 8000 subscribers on WordPress and as more people find out he’s missing, it’s going to spread. But all of our posts are the same so far. We’re all baffled! If he’s still out there, he needs to drop us a clue.
I am glad you also decided to write about Renard disappearing so weirdly. Let’s hope he returns with an explanation.
Yes, that was right after the discovery, and I’d only seen one post. I need to go update it to add that I’ve seen at least 7 blog posts now and there are probably more!
“Renard himself seemed to be against AI writing, and said he wrote his posts himself.”
This. I too thought it was strange how he started adding AI images especially when he was so against AI in the first place. It didn’t seem like him at all. As for email, I didn’t write his email down and was wondering if anyone had tried contacting him via email. A part of me was hoping that he would respond but considering everything has been deleted the person behind “Renard’s Word” has gone to great lengths to cover up his online presence. 😕
It’s funny how many people noticed and questioned the new AI images. I had wanted to say something about it but never did. I just figured maybe he was adding a featured photo for SEO purposes.
And the fact that everything is gone points to the blog deletion not being an accident. Like you said- someone has gone to great lengths to cover up his presence and erase him. It’s so strange.
Hope he’s ok. Renard was always creating great content and was very interactive.
I agree. I always enjoyed his posts and I have no idea how he kept up so well with his comments but he would faithfully respond to everyone.
Fingers crossed he returns.
He had been a constant commentor on my blog for years and I loved reading his articles. His voice was so clear.
Sadly, the blog was gone during a period I was not on my own for a while so I missed his last few articles I believe.
I always think, even if he was bored or had run out of ideas or just gave up – why delete it? Why not leave it up as a resource?
I truly hope he is okay and maybe just enjoying life doing something else. I hope he sees these articles and realises so many people miss him.
I agree! I always enjoyed reading his blogs and if he just got bored with it, it would have been great to leave it up. Wiping out his whole online presence is just odd.