Blogs turn 10 years old (sort of, by some people's reckoning.) CNet looks at who is the father? The article has the expected Winer vs. Barger angle, which is pretty boring, but at least gets the unix .plan file backstory pretty much right. Or, in other words, this is an evolving world and it's been going on for a long long time - much longer than those who want to take credit for it.
- jim 4-03-2007 7:28 pm

i always tout that i was among the first five hundred bloggers on the planet along with having the 24th or 25th account on blogger. i was around the 300th person to be listed on that girls portal. what was her name again? wasnt she at the blogger bowling thing you went to?
- dave 4-03-2007 7:48 pm


found it. eatonweb.
- dave 4-03-2007 8:07 pm


Bridgette Eaton (blog appears to be gone, but the portal is still there.) I consider her one of the most important figures really. Her portal was very important, but also she is a female. Somehow that made it all seem like a more reasonable thing to do. Like it wasn't just a bunch of adolescent males who were too geeky to have a real life - there were, like, real girls involved! I guess Megnut needs to be mentioned here too. Silly reasoning, I guess, but I think it played a big part.
- jim 4-03-2007 8:11 pm


not that i was a fan but rebecca blood wrote that blogging book early on, too.
- dave 4-03-2007 8:18 pm


The first blogs I stumbled onto were like dull diaries, and everyone knows that a diary is only fun to read when it isn't intended for publication.
- L.M. 4-03-2007 10:31 pm


I think most people still think of them as dull diaries. A fairly prominent blogger friend was recently on a sociopolitical panel (I'm not giving away too much) and beforehand the organizer said "it's nice that you keep a diary."
- tom moody 4-03-2007 10:39 pm


I think at least some of it has to do with the word 'blog'. I mean, how can you take that seriously? I remember when Peterme coined it, and the awkwardness of the word was a big reason I liked it. Almost like the practitioners were trying to be as uncool as possible. Around this same time Wired was trying to call them "Me-zines." That's just trying way to hard. Whereas blog sounds like something you might expectorate.
- jim 4-04-2007 12:04 am


Wasn't me-zines Slate?
As much of a problem as I had with "blog" (as you know) "me-zines" was orders of magnitude worse.
I never thought about it as being deliberately uncool. Now, for that reason, I like it (6 years out)!
- tom moody 4-04-2007 12:08 am


Yeah, you're probably right that it was Slate. I was pulling that out of the memory hole.

And 'blog' still sounds uncool! It's like made out of anti-cool teflon or something.
- jim 4-04-2007 12:18 am


Ha ha--indeed. Or heh indeedy as a top blogger says.
- tom moody 4-04-2007 12:27 am


i like when msm has to say "blog" in the context of having been scooped by one. like being beat by a child in chess.
- bill 4-04-2007 1:10 am


critique of pure idiocy
- dave 4-06-2007 9:38 pm


they forgot to mention: Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies.


- bill 4-06-2007 9:53 pm


"One should never try to satirize that which one does not understand."

I forget who said that but it applies here.
- tom moody 4-06-2007 10:02 pm


Had to close this thread because of spam.
- jim 5-11-2007 8:55 am