[Warning: social satire ahead--for entertainment purposes only! The only genuine quotes in this are from Tom Foremski, who also wrote this piece under his alter-ego A. Tom.]

By A. Tom for AP (Apparent Parody newswire) and SiliconValleyWatcher

In the wake of the loss of Dave Winer from the blogosphere, experts fear copycat behavior... "they often act as lemmings" says a leading sociologist.

Robert Scoble, the MSFT A-list blogger could be next to jump and friends are worried because he has exhibited symptoms similar to that of Mr Winer, such as criticizing tech.memeorandum, just before he disappeared from the blogosphere.

And there are questions about the viability of the old-boy circle of Mr Winer's blogger buddies--a veritable aristocracy of the blogosphere. Will they be able to continue on without Mr Winer's visionary intellect. Who will carry out original thinking? Who will invent everything that's needed for the next phase of the internet?

Will masses of bloggers follow Mr Winer, and switch-off and turn-on to an uncertain analog-based reality?

"It made me rethink my future for a minute or so," said John Battelle, a leading blogger. "I tried switching off from blogging, for several minutes earlier today and the experience of reality was incredible and intense-I could only handle it a little bit at a time. The high resolution images and the tactile feel of the real world was extraordinary--I don't know how god does it! But I'm not ready to plunge right in yet--there's no revenue model for off-line businesses. I have a very healthy online business that pays for my modest life style and for my fetish for buying cool eyeglasses."

Others are following Mr Winer's example. "Thanks Dave, I'm out of here, I never could stand blogging anyway--I'm off to find some fun..." was the final post left on an abandoned blog that used to be written by Josh Windberger, 23 years old.

Six Apart, which runs the TypePad service hosting millions of blogers said that it had not yet seen much churn in blog numbers.

"There is usually a seasonal effect this time of year anyway, due to Lent. Many bloggers give up blogging for religious and spiritual reasons," said Anil Dash, senior vp at Six Apart. "We won't know the true extent of Dave Winer's actions until after Easter when millions of bloggers usually return to blogging."

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Please see related:

Dave Winer shockwave