Blogger closes Marmot's Hole site
Time constraints, lack of interest lead to shutdown
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American writer Robert Koehler poses on a street in Seoul last year. / Courtesy of Robert Koehler
By John Redmond
American writer Robert Koehler has announced the closure of his popular blog, The Marmot’s Hole, surprising Korea’s English-language Internet community.
Citing time constraints, dwindling reader interest and his continuing interest in photography, he made the public announcement on the blog and his Facebook page Monday.
“With the end of the year approaching and no end to my extended blogging vacation in sight, I’ve decided now is a good time to finally pull the plug on The Marmot’s Hole,” Koehler wrote. “To be perfectly honest, I just don’t want to do it anymore. And I haven’t for quite some time.”
The Marmot’s Hole, which was created in 2003, is one of the most widely read English-language blogs that deals with Korea-related topics.
“It’s undergone several transformations ― it started with photos about daily life, then moved to daily life and political posts, to political posts and tabloid crap, to probably way too much tabloid crap, to more mature blogging and finally, now, me not blogging at all, or at least not here, anyway,” Koehler said.
“Likewise, the comment section has undergone several waves, depending on the quality of the posting and the quality of crowd control in the comment section.”
Frequently used as a source for news stories and commentary on the expat community, international media outlets have also quoted The Marmot's Hole as a reliable authority on life in Korea, but the writer feels times and attitudes are changing.
“To maintain a current events and news blog at a respectable level ― something I failed to do for extensive periods of time ― requires a lot of time, energy, passion and moral/intellectual certainty,” he said. “Nowadays, however, I have little in the way of time, energy and passion, and almost nil in the way of certainty.”
Although Koehler has taken the archives for The Marmot’s Hole offline, he encouraged friends and followers to join him on his Tumblr photo blog, found at rjkoehler.tumblr.com.
“I hate reading my drivel ― especially the early stuff, which was woefully misinformed, obnoxious in form and probably not conducive to mutual understanding ― and feel my time would be better spent reading people who know what they’re talking about. Or taking photos.”
The writer finished his post with a thank you to all his long-time readers, those who commented, co-posters and fellow bloggers, for all they put up with over the years.
John Redmond is a freelance writer.