Techno Blunder

If a website crashes on the internet, and no one is around to complain, does it make a sound?

I ask because one of the places I use to generate some much needed income seems to be down, dooming me to a middling to nigh insignificant paycheck next week. I can compensate for it the week after, but it's damned inconvenient. Not to mention I have to really hope I don't have much in the way of expenses. (Might be time to take the horses instead of the car. Not that they're cheaper to fill up in the long run, mind you. Horses, especially draft horses, eat a lot.)

I have no idea why they site is malfunctioning, or if it's some combination of my server and their site - though I strongly suspect it's them, not me. Not that it matters, the end result is the same. But it brought to mind all those other sites that are out there, gathering electronic dust and bitmites, long since abandoned by their creators. I suppose eventually someone terminates them, once the electronic rent is left unpaid... but that only covers those sites that do cost money to operate.

Spaces like this one, which are free, can languish for years. (Case in point, this one was neglected two years running other than the shoddy attempt to keep a resolution.) I suspect it's a slow slide into decay. People stop posting, then the faithful readers realize the site's no longer being updated, and move on. Sometimes there is a forwarding address, sometimes not.

Do they take up space in their obsolescence? Does someone eventually have to take them down to make room for other domains? Or do they just sit there until the host server eventually goes down - which presumably it will at some point. After all, no media is permanent, and the next incarnation of the internet or whatever data-sharing method takes it's place will make all of this obsolete. In the meantime, are they like dead trees in the forest, providing a hiding space for the digital wildlife? I have no idea how that would work, mind you, but it makes for an interesting concept, I think.

In the meantime, is their an opening for internet lumberjack? And do I get to wear the cool flannel shirts?