Dear Vagobond Fam,
After more than two decades of writing, creating, and wandering under the name Vagobond, the time has come to lay this identity to rest. This isn’t a disappearance—it’s a strategic retreat, a rebrand, and a fresh start. This will be the last post I create here or on the Vagobond site or substack (with one caveat – see below **). Moving forward, I will embrace being Indignified on substack. Please follow me there.
Why Sunset Vagobond?
- Google Thinks It Knows Better – For years, search engines have “helpfully” corrected Vagobond to Vagabond, burying my work under a mountain of backpacker blogs and dictionary definitions. The misspelling was intentional—unfortunately it became a liability. I tried to fight around that, but the algorithms have won this battle. I live to fight another battle, another day.
- A Digital Ghost Ship – Two decades, multiple servers, shifting purposes—what was once a deeply personal brand became an SEO nightmare. The archives are scattered, the indexing is cursed, and discovery is a game of digital archaeology.
- The Other Algorithm Problem – Early on, Vagobond was a travel blog but at various points, I tried to turn it into other things. A tourist guide to Hawaii, a site for my fiction, a blockchain magazine – those are just off the top of my head. There are deep systemic structural problems with the way content gets seen on the internet. I can’t fix those problems. Vagobond suffers from most of them.
- Evolution, Not Abandonment – Vagobond was an important quarter century of my life, a persona, an experiment in identity, multiple experiments in community. It served its purpose. Now, it’s time for something different. I have evolved and the Vagobond brand no longer fits me like it once did. I still love, respect, and honor that period of my life, those adventures, and all the work done there.
Honoring the Legacy
Let’s be clear: Vagobond wasn’t a failure. It was a laboratory. The magazine, the website, the years of living and writing under the name Vago—they were all part of the process. But every experiment reaches its conclusion. Time demands it. The archives at Vagobond.com and on this substack will remain. I have no intention of deleting them.
What’s Next?
- Indignified.com – A clean slate. No misspellings, no algorithmic confusion—just writing, art, and ideas without the baggage.
- CD Familias – In creative spaces, this is the name I’ll use (unless legal paperwork gets involved). It’s a nod to roots, a reclaiming of identity, and a middle finger to SEO hell.
- The Indignified Substack – Same voice, same chaos, better infrastructure. Subscribe here:Indignified Substack.
Join Me at Indignified
If you’ve ever looked at a Vagobond piece and thought, “This guy should really sort out his branding,”congratulations—I’ve finally listened. Let’s make this transition together.
With gratitude & indignity,
CD Familias
P.S. The Vagobond archives will remain online, but new work lives at Indignified.com. No more autocorrect battles. No more explaining the spelling. Just writing.
**the caveat: I committed to sharing a full year of my life at Satoshi Manor. We have traversed most of that year with 15 video chapters. I will create two to three more videos and share them on the Vagobond substack. These will be the final posts on that substack by me.