Ten Years

For some reason — some not-so-very-hard-to-guess reason — I thought that my blogiversary was 26 January. That would be today. When I turned back the hand of time, though, to link to my very first post (now resuscitated and spruced up onto this blog, here), I discoverd that it had been posted on 23 January, which makes this blog three days more than ten (and makes me three days forgetful). It was called Peri Doxês back then — ‘about general opinion’; I think it changed to ‘Random Thoughts’ when I switched from Blogger to Movable Type. Ten years is a long time, even for an old geezer such as I’m becoming, and it’s a lot of words. To those of you who’ve been patient enough to keep reading all along, even through my recent lapse of Blogarian productivity, many thanks.
 
Thanks, too — and especially — to the early crowd of bloggers with whom I very quickly wound up in conversation. David Weinberger, Jeneane Sessum, Chris Locke, Doc Searls, Steve Himmer (has ‘One Pot Meal’ disappeared altogether?), Halley Suitt, Tom Matrullo (vale! Commonplaces), Gary Turner (so many former sites and brilliant ideas), Shelley Powers (likewise), Euan Semple, Joi Ito, Phil Cubeta (and the Happy Tutor), Frank Paynter, two Dave Rogerses (only one of whom is still blogging, I think — where are you going when Apple closes Homepage?), and Liz Lawley, among others, taught me so much, kindled so many wild ideas, elicited from me more interesting thoughts than I’d have cooked up on my own. If on this occasion I may be excused a little nostalgia, the internet was very different back then. It actually made a certain kind of sense for us to argue about the ethics of having advertisements on your blog, or whether ‘the blog’ constituted a literary genre, or about whether online interaction bespeaks a space, a place, or something altogether apart from familiar dimensions. When Daypop or (later) Technorati counted hits and links and visits, they weren’t comparing commercial heavyweights, but mostly just regular people. It looked, for a few weeks, as though this might somehow shape up differently from (say) commercial vs community-access TV. And it has, to some extent; just not as much as would measure up to our more idyllic, optimistic, hopeful visions.
 
Blogaria’s been very, very good to me. You, readers, have been very good to me. Thank you very much, all of you. You’re my heroes, I’m honoured, and it’s deeply wonderful to be intertwingled with you.
 

5 thoughts on “Ten Years

  1. Ten years takes a lot of stamina. One of the things that I have found encouraging and remarkable about the blogs is the unexpected connections. I started reading your blog more years ago than I can remember. Stumbled across it, having no idea who you were or why I kept coming back. And then you appeared in Glasgow, and our worlds overlapped a bit. Facebook came into it, and we realised that my friend in Haiti knows your friend in Boston and so on. The whole experience of it reminds me of what the church is — even as your words stimulate and make me long for the modes of thought I drifted away from.

    Thank you.

  2. Alas, this one Dave Rogers (the “Connect & Empower” Dave Rogers) is indeed no longer blogging. I often feel the blogging muse but don’t have the same time to invest.

    What a true delight to find myself remembered. Those early days of blogging remain a very special time in my cyber-life. It was far better, wasn’t it, than mere Facebook and Twitter posts? The blogversations were rich, thoughtful and provocative. They shaped my view of the Web, of its promise and foibles and set my career more firmly on its virtual path. I am very grateful to them and to you, AKMA.

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