Good Bye Thursday Thirteen

You may or may not have noticed, but the Thursday Thirteen hub is no more.

Seriously, that sucker is completely gone.  Less than a full week after their announcement, they dropped hosting and now have a redirect to GoDaddy.  Here is my 13-part reaction.

1.  Wow!  That was so sudden.  It takes my breath away.

2.  It was so fun.  It was the highlight of my week.

3.  I’m addicted to blog stats.  Thursday was great because my stats always hit their weekly high then. It also gave me a sense of control, though the amount of time I put into it did not directly connect with the results. Still, there was a lose relationship that felt better than those random times when people would lurk, appearing from no where and going away as fast as they came.

4. I got the most comments on Thursday, easily four times as many as all the rest of the week.

5. It was so fun and easy. I could make up a list of anything. I did things like poems made of a total of 13 words, a set of 13 true-life stories, 13 photos I got through email, 13 links to web sites I like, to do lists, items on my desk, even this thing. I had several lists worked up and ready to go, and several in progress. I really got into it.

6. I got a kick out of checking out other people’s lists. It gave me a chance to get to know people and how they do their blogs. There were people of all sorts, not just us literary types; mommy bloggers, religious bloggers, reader bloggers, and totally random bloggers. It lead to a few friendships I might not otherwise have made.

7. It was the freedom I loved most. I didn’t have to fit anyone else’s theme or requirements, so long as there were 13 of them, I was fine.

8. I keep thinking “what do I do now?”

9. Will you all keep doing Thursday Thirteen if there is no hub? I will if you will.

10. Do you think they might sell it? GoDady is a seller of domain names. Maybe the folks at the hub are going to sell it? If so, I hope they do it soon so they don’t loose too many people.

11. My heart goes out to them about the granddaughter with leukemia that precipitated the closing down of the hub. That’s a hard road no matter how you look at it.

12. I’ve been looking around for alternatives. I wouldn’t mind doing something a little shorter. Sometimes coming up with 13 items is hard for me. I’ve thought about turning my Talk To Me Tuesdays into a meme, but WordPress’s free blogging won’t let me do auto linkies. I have to do them all manually. Then again, nothing says I have to stay with WordPress.

13. Does anyone know of another meme with a hub that lets you do whatever you want the way Thursday Thirteen did? If so, please let me know.