Why Are We Here?
Missing Fafblog! can be like the solitary life of the Sumatran rhinoceros. I Miss Fafblog, Spot!? A saltlick around which to congregate.

Who are the Fafmissen?

A while back, Mark R. told us of what Nico J. van Strien reports from Sumatra:

The Sumatran rhino is solitary for most of its life. The home range of a rhino overlaps with the home ranges of several other rhinos and animals occasionally meet, but they do not stay together for any length of time. It may be that young sub-adults, in their first years of independence, form loose associations occasionally, but later they travel alone, wandering round their vast home ranges. A male and female seem to come together for only a short period for mating. Non-breeding females may have very little contact with other rhinos, because they occupy a relatively small range and leave it only occasionally to visit a saltlick.

The adult males seem to be more actively searching for contact. They cover a large area and are very active around the saltlicks, apparently searching for signs of other rhinos. Although males have more frequent contact with other rhinos, they never associate with an other rhino for more than a few days. If longer-lasting bonds were usual, the tracks of two or more animals walking together would be found more frequently.

Which offers, I think, a suitable metaphor for what it is to be Fafmissen.

Of course, the oft-quoted Freddy el Desfibradddoro, a shoe-in if there were ever a Blog Comment of the Ages award, who is quoted here again, explains better than I:

I believe I am not alone in my sentiment that it is not only Fafblog per se that we die-hard fans miss, but the sense of community among commenters that was somehow established - not by gushy exchanges of sentiment, but by an interplay of cultural references, snark, the occasional smutty joke, dadaism (and less often, mamaism - thank you, Mrs. F), and a genuine outrage at the horrors of the situation, all over a substrate of the siblinghood of sentient beings and the parenthood of the Creative Forces of the Universe, if any.

None of us will ever see its like again.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that. But it's OK to be sad sometimes too. [Freddy el Desfibradddoro: Fafblog! Comments]

And with that sense of community came also a sense of pride and warmth when reading things like this from a review of Fafblog!:

Do not fail to read the comments. The Fafblog community is wide, hip, and often as funny as the blog itself. [LitBlogs: Fafblog!--Insanity With a Purpose]

Who appears to be the same person that wrote those gentle words--- writing the same blog at a different URL ---has now cast a critical gaze upon IMFB,S!, and the reviews are mixed: a mix of luke-warm tolerance of our purpose, and critical skewering of a couple of the most recent posts.

While, as Ken says, "everything that you read here is always the truth," not everything here is designed to withstand rigors of rigorous literary criticism. (I barely even proofread half of my stuff before I post!) It would be futile for us to even attempt to equal the magic of Fafblog! here -- as a reading of any of the clumsy Falkor/Gizzard posts will attest. We can only hope to pale by comparison, and hopefully provide a small spot of contrast in the blackness that is the void where fresh Fafblog! content belongs.

QUESTION: Regarding I Miss Fafblog, Spot! Who knows if it's good or bad? Criticisms? Suggestions? Hopes and/or dreams?