Where Is Edward Hackett?

And other missing writers on this beloved platform.

Hannah Olinger via Unsplash

A quick confession.

When I wrote the article about U-Ming Lee last week, it was partly because I hadn’t seen anything from him in a very long time. I was starting to worry that something had happened to a dear and treasured colleague.

For a minute, I felt the same way about Mr. John Welford, a gentleman who resides in a village in the middle of England.

But those fears were immediately assuaged when he described my article as completely nonsensical from the beginning to the end.

To me, what mattered was that he’s well and alive.

And this was also the case with George Blue Kelly who confirmed that he had taken some time off from writing on our beloved platform, last year, when I hadn’t read an article from him for several months.

So what’s the point here?

Writers may or may not know it, but their absence is usually felt by those of us, who are active here.

While it has become somewhat fashionable to blame the algorithm for everything that goes wrong on our platform, people do step away from Medium for a host of reasons known only to them.

And this brings me right to Edward W Hackett

Far more than anyone here, Mr. Hackett has been a very strong supporter of mine.

While I must point out that he has written very little, his presence was somewhat reassuring.

But our man has gone missing for the last few months.

Part of me tells me that this might be attributable to the quality of my work and other part says that a few more reasons might be at play here.

Is he well? Is he alive? Is he thriving?

It would be nice to know that all is well with him.

I find it very easy in detecting who’s gone missing and who hasn’t.

As much as we don’t want to acknowledge this, we are all sustained by the community which we have built here over a certain period of time.

While Medium may not be as lucrative for some of us as it used to be, I find reading my colleagues here as rewarding as ever, and more…