I thought this conversation died and went to kink heaven months ago
... pehaps its one of those zombies that keeps coming back.
In my mind i differentiate the ghosting into two parts: a) while you are chatting, getting to know one another, and perhaps squaring up to enter into a dynamic, and b) while in a committed relationship.
a) I think if you are in the chatting phase then everyone is single and can walk away at any time. Its a bit like talking to people in a bar. You come to that place as a single, you may leave with someone or you may not. You may leave without saying goodbye, you may not. I should think if someone was bored with the conversation or feared for their safety/security on saying they were not interested (at the bar, we are still at the bar, stay with me) then they would probably leave without saying goodbye. Are you really going to stand up on a chair and announce to the bar that leaving without saying goodbye is against the rules? Is anyone going to pay any attention? The brutal truth is that people avoid confrontation and I am sorry to say that people with lower testosterone avoid it more. Its an unfortunate fact of life but there it is. If she ghosted you then she wasn't feeling it strong enough / was overwhelmed with other things / was triggered by something you said / decided she didn't trust you. It is possible that there was an 'innocent' (poor choice of words here I am not ascribing guilt) reason: her dog died / she lost her phone / she moved to the moon. I for one would like it if someone tells me that they are not feeling it and why - that's great feedback for me to think about - but it is rare and i accept that.
b) If you are in a committed relationship and this happens then this really does suck. It is however the risk of taking on a long distance online relationship. You just do not know at that point whether something awful has happened to a loved partner or they have just walked away. It is very difficult to get closure from such a situation.
I have long since blamed people for walking away without saying goodbye. We make connections, some click some don't. For me the comments most whiny on this thread were from the men and that is not healthy, especially since a good proportion of these are supposedly from Dom types. Gents you are supposed to be (whats the phrase @bunnie?) 'comfortable with being yourselves and non-apologetic' ... that means owning your shit and accepting that sometimes someone, for their own reasons would rather not talk to you and doesn't owe you (unless you are in a committed relationship) an explanation for that. Suck it up, this is life, this is how it is.