She left us with a note saying she was off to Stockholm for a long weekend. That was almost a month ago. Were it any other blogger, you might say “oh… they probably ran out of ideas”, or “they just got sick of blogging”, or it’s just a lot of work with little returns… but Agathe, aka Stylebytes is different. She’s been at this for almost three years pretty much blogging daily. Sometimes she’ll take a break for a couple of days… or the frequency may slow down a little but a month? I was worried.. apparently I’m not the only one, and finally yesterday Style Bubble broke the silence, we’re all a little worried.
If it weren’t for WendyB I’d probably worry in silence… but she encouraged me to let you all know that on May 17, Agathe confirmed me as a friend on Facebook. I’m guessing she’s still alive, and this photo I found in her profile posted by one of her friends on May 4 tells me she didn’t get kidnapped by gypsies.
Back to Agathe, where is she? Why did she suddenly stop blogging? In the last few months Stylebytes have become even better than ever. Her and her husband have been taking loads of beautiful and inspiring photos. She’s been getting tons and tons of comments, features in magazines and newspapers… all of this is just thrilling for a blogger. So why stop?
Negative Comments?
For some time, I’ve noticed in her comments that some people have been giving her a hard time about her weight. That she had some kind of eating disorder, etc. I don’t know Agathe personally, but I’ve been reading her blog daily for about 2 years and I’ve never noticed anything strange about her weight. I think I have more demons surrounding body issues than she does. Whether or not she has issues doesn’t stop negative comments from getting troublesome. Maybe they got out of control?
Hackers
Maybe someone got hold of her blog and email and is holding it for some ransom? Little do they know, unless you are some high powered fashion blog like Manolo’s Shoe Blog, there isn’t a whole lot of money. Well, there is but you pretty much have to give up your analog life, and maybe your first born son. Either way, I’m pretty sure Agathe isn’t about to hand over any of the above. After all, I’ve watched enough suspense thriller movies to know that the first rule about ransoms is to never hand over the money.
The Pig
Maybe little Molvin is sick. Maybe Agathe came home and her husband accidentally … you know… what most people do with pigs, well, not the Jews, the Kosher Jews.
Maye she came home saw the pig was gone, causing obvious problems with her husband, and that’s why she’s not posting. I would seriously break up with Rocky if….
Personal lives can have a huge effect on one’s blog life. When traumatic things happen, it’s hard enough to trudge through the vital functions of life, let alone the extra curricular things like blogging. Some extra curricular things are easier to take up during tough times, like drinking, but again, that inhibits blog time.
Sick of Blogging
Occam’s Razor is the principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.
In layman’s terms, the simplest explanation is usually the most likely truth. Blogging is hard. It takes a lot of time. Doing the photographs, doing the research, keeping up with all the other blogs. It takes time. Agathe does Stylebytes purely as a hobby. Maybe she just got a taste of civilian life and is now enjoying her analog evenings. Wow, what a concept. (middle finger pic from Stylebytes Phiary)
Stylebytes was the first fashion blog I read (the second blog only to Pink is The New Blog). If it weren’t for Stylebytes not posting every second of the day I’d probably still be a reader and not a blogger myself. The thing I like about Stylebytes is that it continues to evolve in a genuine way. Rather than resorting to gimmicks (which I may start doing for kicks) she’s shared with us her thoughts about her sense of style. It’s helpful, really to all of us.
Well, here is a few pictures I pulled from her site that stick in my head as points of inspiration in my own personal style. I do hope she comes back, because I’m not sure blogging would be the same without her.
UPDATE: Stylebytes.net has been taken down… here’s a post from Style Bubble about it.
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yeah… that post was written a couple of years ago, i think march 2006?
i don’t think anyone is saying she’s selfish, just bummed she let us worry about her.
Q to Cheryl:
She hasn’t been logged in to her personal myspace since Jan 8th -08, so where did you read her blog?
Maybe she and her husband is breaking apart? Or maybe not. It doesn’t feel very likely.
Girls, apparently she’s safe and well, so maybe we should stop wondering what happened? Maybe nothing serious, she has just quitted her blog. She had a right to do so.
There are many interesting blog-writers:-) Of course that’s a pity she left her readers, but writing a blog is not a lifelong occupation, I think:-)
@ Cheryl: No this post was from 2006, from another trip to Stockholm
I know for a fact Agathe is alive and kicking:) I live in her naigbourhood in Oslo and see her almost every day. Often with a smile on her face.
Magii — feel free to tell her we miss her, then!
i was on myspace today and i noticed that agathe was online i commented her but she didnt reply.
so obviously she is still alive. lol.
im thinking the site has been hacked into or something because its not like her just to quit and not say anything even if she got bored of blogging.
i need style bytes back though!
aww i hope her and molvin are ok
I miss her so much! I have been so frustrated, and angry at her even, when I visit her blog countless times in a week just to check if maybe she posted something. I got to this page because I googled her. I miss her so much I actually was worried that something had happened to her or something. It’s embarrassing but I typed in Google something like “fashion blogger dead” just to see if there was news I should have read about.
But thanks for letting us know she’s fine– at least now there’s still hope she’ll continue blogging at some point.
I sound like such a groupie. lol. But really, her blog is my absolute all time favourite. I have been trying to read other fashion blogs to satisfy my “daily fashion blog need” but nothing else compares! Agathe, if you’re reading this, PLEASE BLOG AGAIN! I promise I will comment more.
sigh.
So if anyone else getting an error when accessing the site?
Has it been taken down, or is it being retooled or something?
I honestly wish she would just post something if she’s chosen to quit blogging so that speculations may be put to rest and and I can stop checking her site.
wow… you’re right… it is off line.
yep, was just about to say that. this shows up:
Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access / on this server.
Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Stylebytes is gone! Don’t stay away too long, Agathe; we miss your savvy and exquisite photography!
I’m getting that 403 forbidden message too…. but her myspace logs her as checked in a few days ago… gosh that sounds stalkerish! hope she’s ok…
Yeah.. I’m getting that too..
=[
I’ve been checking everyday to see if she is back and now i cant even get on the site.
Fingers crossed it is just a temporary thing!!
Amanda xx
Hey guys.
A few days ago I posted an “I’m worried about you” comment. I’ve done so before, but they’ve never been approved. However, this time, it said, “Your comment is awaiting moderation” in italics next to my name for days–up until the website went offline. So…I don’t know. This is getting crazy.
awww i am so sad she has soooo many fans I read her blog everyday like a newspaper I have to fill the void I also need closure boo hoo!
Hope she is ok! xxx
Dude. . . we are all such stalkers. And it’s actually the sweetest thing ever. I hope Agathe likes the fact that so many strangers whom she’s never met, who are very concerned about her well being. If I were her, that would give me something to smile about from ear to ear. Though I too hope she returns soon. . . I miss her
yeah, I also see this on my screen when trying to read her blog. So I Think it’s over or maybe she’s preparing some big surprise for us…
I don’t think she would have closed her blog without saying anything to anyone, she has a lot of readers, she would have been more respectful,don’t you think?
Anyway, I don’t reckon we could find an explanation until she gives it to us!But I really miss her!
XOXO?
A french reader of your lovely blog!
And now Style Bytes doesn’t even exist anymore
I still hope she comes back and gets the site running again.
I only started reading Style Bytes a week or so before she went to Stockholm, but i was addicted. Then she stopped posting!
i think it’s really sweet that everyone is looking out for her, we just need to remember that she has her own life, we have our own lives.
but the blogosphere really has become like another world…an internet world.it’s amazing.
and jennine-i love the way you wrote this post, detective style
thank you.
I have a strong hunch that she just gave up or something. I feel kind of offended though that she hasn’t bothered to even give us an explanation as to why, or even a heads up..
I agree Arianna. It would take less than a minute to post that she was taking a break, or quitting the blog etc. She knows that she has tons and tons of readers and to just not bother with even a sentence is a little erm…? Espscially as people have been worried about her.
I’m really sad that she took the entire blog down!
I’ve been wondering about this, too. She actually lives right across the street from me and I’ve found myself peering into her building for signs of life. I haven’t seen her around either, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I’ve been going crazy wondering where she’s at and googled her tonight when I saw she took the blog down. Come back, darling. We miss you!!
i`m still going to stick with the idea that she may be pregnant. i know there was something she said about losing weight & then wanting to put it back on…but i know when i was pregnant, i lost weight before i started to gain all the baby weight. & then some.
i hope she`s doing fine though. everyone misses her, but maybe she realized she wanted to live a bit more off the internet & in the real world. blogging, it seems, takes a bite out of peoples` lives.
oh, i searched up the error codes thing, because people were speculating over whether she hadn`t paid for her domain or whether she had taken it down. anyhow, we get a 403 error when accessing stylebytes.net.
according to a google search i did…
“# 403 (Forbidden). This is a sort of catch-all refusal. If the server understood the request but, for whatever reason, refuses to fill it, a code 403 will often be returned. The server may or may not explain why it is sending a 403 response and there is not much you can do about it.
# 404 (Not Found). If you happen to mistype a URL or enter an old one that no longer exists this is the error you will likely see. The condition may be temporary or permanent but this information is rarely provided. Sometimes code 403 is sent in place of 404. ”
which does not answer anything. but i thought maybe somebody else would be able to help explain?
i have to say now that i know she’s okay and probably just got sick of blogging i feel like arianna and sian.. but i’m still hoping that she’ll come back with some big surprise. i doubt it though, i think she would have at least posted that she was redoing the site/ taking a break or something.
i really miss stylebytes a lot!! can’t believe that we won’t know what’ll happen with molvin, what new things agathe’ll pick up at flea markets, how she and her husband’ll spend their evenings ( i always loved their “theme” evening thingies. i wanna do that with my husband when i have one
).. well maybe she’ll come back in a year or something.
@lj: 404 errors usually happen when a URL points to a page that no longer exists (or never did exist, if there’s a typo), while 403 errors can happen if the owner decides to restrict access. The site probably still exists, but for whatever reason Agathe has decided to keep people from viewing it. At least, that’s my understanding of the errors.
gosh, i miss her so much! her blog is/was the best ever! much better than Style Bubble. hope she’s doing well, and preparing something really nice. i can´t wait to read her comments again
Uhmm, I’m a bit sick about it. She shouldn’t let people worry helplessly…
I miss the site lots. If she has indeed taken it down deliberately, it’s a shame she chose not to leave it there for people to read the old entries, but hey – it’s her blog. Still, kinda sad. Her site was one of the most inspiring things on the net.
Her blog was my favourite ever! I wish we had some idea of what is going on. I miss it so much..
Someone recently bought the web domain http://www.stylebytes.com
*****************************
Honestly I’m really afraid that somebody is maybe stalking and frightening her. I mean her face and name is known.
Dear Agathe please come back and give us a sign that you are well!!! You became like afriend to me, answering and giving so many good ideas. You are unique and precious to me!
Best wishes, Erythrin
*************************
I really do miss her.
I still hope she is ok. I was really worried she got kidnapped.
Erythrin, i really hope that’s not what is happening .. but it’s not that unlikely that somebody might be stalking her.
mm i just clicked on the link http://www.stylebytes.com and when i used the back button on my browser it showed the old stylebytes surface for a second.
I referenced this post on my blog. Hope you dont mind.;-)
I just started reading your blog and I’m hooked now. I’ll be back to read more!
i typed in stylebytes.com to see if maybe she got a new site domain main, and it says that “This domain name was recently registered\purchased.”
????
@Lila when you hit the back button you saw the top of this post – a screen capture from stylebytes
..if Agathe read this: I MISS YOUR PIG !
tell him I say hello
i miss her too…
as far as stylebytes.com, it’s common for people to buy up domain names so they can sell them at a higher price. someone owns stylebytes.com, but it doesn’t mean its agathe…
NO NO.
SHE WAS REALLY A GREAT BLOGGER.
I WAS ENJOYING HER PHOTOS.
SHE WAS REALLY CLEAVER AND BEAUTIFUL THIS IS A SAD NEW……
http://phiary.com/diary/stylebytes/2008/06/03/molvin
well, it looks like her and the pig are alright! that’s good!
i guess, shes at stylebytes.net? if you put it in google. except it says its forbidden. who knows.
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