Yesterday, news made the round that The Deck, the ad network for indie bloggers that took pride in being unobtrusive and not spying on its users, announced it would shut down. Today, Daring Fireball published its obituary:

In early 2006, Jim Coudal started The Deck, with Jeffrey Zeldman and 37signals (now Basecamp). I joined in early February, making Daring Fireball the fourth site in the network. Andy Baio, Jason Kottke, and The Morning News joined soon thereafter. In March, we had a group dinner in Austin during SXSW. I remember a palpable sense of accomplishment. I remember thinking, This is going to work.

How can indie blogging be sustained in the future? No one seems to have the definite answer yet. Will it be micropayments through something like Brave or the upcoming Flattr Plus? Or will blogging for money become a thing of the past?