User blog comment:Thebiggesttdifan/Okay...really?/@comment-1874924-20100506025530

Obviously, I'm not the only one who's noticed a spate of "Goodbye, cruel world" (GCW) blogs lately. I suspect that some of these people might not have been serious, but it's hard to tell who's serious and who's not, so it's proper to take them all seriously.

I mentioned this on Jason's GCW blog, but it bears repeating here: you can use the Most Visited Pages listing (under the Special Pages section) to keep tabs on the traffic your stories are getting, even if people aren't commenting.

That said, I understand why people crave feedback and recognition. Homo Sapiens is a social species; and as such, it's in our natures to seek affirmation from others. I doubt that there are many writers here for whom that's the only motivation, but I suspect it's a contributing motivation for just about everyone.

I don't exempt myself from that assessment. When I began writing TDI-G&S, my purpose was a modest one: to introduce my 13-year-old niece (a big TD fan) to G&S. As the project grew and grew, with no end in sight, I increasingly felt the need to share it with a wider audience.