We cannot say if the contagion that killed almost two dozen Foreign Service blogs was cause by a rogue virus, or if this is the “Peter Van Buren” effect on the FS blogosphere.  But what we know for sure is there are way too many dead blogs by Foreign Service Officers in recent months. We have no idea on the exact date of demise of each blog but they are all dead now.  It’s not even that they just stopped blogging, there are no goodbyes and the archives are gone.  Some blogs were scrubbed clean. Some blogs have become online parking lots. And some have been totally deleted from the cyber-verse.  This is not an exhaustive list, and this does not include the family members’ blogs that have been shuttered.

SD Dispatches (FSO) – http://sddispatches.blogspot.com/: Blog not found

Scott At State (FSO) – http://scottatstate.blogspot.com/: Blog not found

At Your Service in Switzerland – Aaron Martz (FSO): http://aaronmartz.com/ : online parking lot

Destination Diplomacy – http://leslieabitz.blogspot.com/ : Blog not found

Diplochick – http://diplochick.wordpress.com/ : diplochick.wordpress.com is no longer available. The authors have deleted this blog.

Diplomatic Incidents – http://www.diplomaticincidents.blogspot.com/ : Blog not found

Diplotette – http://diplotette.wordpress.com/ : diplotette.wordpress.com is no longer available. The authors have deleted this blog.

DipNomad – http://dipnomad.blogspot.com/ : Blog not found

Hick/Hitchhiker/…Diplomat (!?) –  http://4brianhall.blogspot.com/ : posts all gone except for disclaimer that says: The views and opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not represent those of the Department of State of the United States of America.

Luffmans.com – http://news.luffmans.com/index.php : The requested URL /index.php was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

My New Life – http://diploadventures.blogspot.com/ : Blog not found

New L’attitudes – http://ronwardwine.blogspot.com/ : no posts.

Seltzer Water and Other Things (FSS)– http://awesomelikeseltzerwater.blogspot.com/http:// :
Blog not found

The Last 3 Feet – http://www.thelast3ft.com/ : 404. That’s an error. The requested URL / was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

The Navigator (FSO) – http://traviscoberly.blogspot.com/ : Blog has been removed

The Vegan Diplomat (female FSO) – http://vegandiplomat.blogspot.com/ : Blog not found

Two Red Marys and a Yellow Rose (female FSO) –http://tworedmarysandayellowrose.wordpress.com/http:/ : Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.

You Can’t Get There From Here (FSO)– http://www.valdysses.com/ : online parking lot

It is a sad state of things.  We don’t know if they were all eaten by tigers, or if they were just being prudent. We cannot blame anyone, of course, for being prudent.

We will find time to expand our blog cemetery, we may have to build a new cemetery….