Gaining

I've been enjoying ladies' weight gain journeys online for a few years now, and I love to offer praise, encouragement and advice as they go.

Sadly, I've had to learn to expect disappointment. So often, when a woman comes here or starts her own site/blog to share her journey with the world, she gets a few weeks in at the most (enough to baaaarely see a difference in the pictures, if any) and then simply vanishes without a word. The account or the blog dies on the vine. Recent examples are gainingkatie.blogspot.com and growingmybelly.webs.com, both of which had accounts on FF.

I'd like to think that they simply find something else to do with their time, but the abruptness of their disappearance always worries me. Is it because their family or friends have found them out? Are they overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from, let's face it, people like me? Or worse, are they scared away by people who contact them merely to offend them, or illegitimately obtain their personal details?

I'm sure you all remember vanishing acts like this. I wonder, has anyone been in contact with such a person after the fact, and know why it tends to happen? Better yet, has someone here vanished for reasons like the above and then had the courage to return?

I just hope that if we can know more about cases like these, we can do something to help.

- Soylent

Well, there have been some who left a message along the lines of, "I'm losing/maintaining my weight now, my priorities have changed, but thanks for all the support." That's not what I'm talking about.

I mean the women who suddenly dismantle their entire online presence in one go, removing any contact details and cutting themselves off entirely. Zoe of growingmybelly.webs.com was the most recent one. It's the immediacy of the departure, and the lack of a formal or informal goodbye, that worries me in these cases.