How I First Stumbled Across the Blogosphere
It was three years ago today— November 4, 2002— that I first posted a comment on a blog. The blog was Dean's World. And I'm sure I hardly knew at the time what a blog was.
I'd first discovered Dean's World a few weeks earlier, some time in October 2002. I was just googling around, I don't even recall now on what, and stumbled across Dean Esmay's blog in the search results. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself, "this site looks interesting." Like I say, I almost certainly had little or no idea at the time what a blog was. Anyhow, I kept returning day after day. And within a few weeks, I worked up the nerve to post a comment.
Dean's World was a much smaller place in those days, and not the leading Playful Primate it has since become. In a post just a few days before my first comment, Dean remarked, "In the month of October, we averaged 391 visits per day, our all-time high. To date, we've had a total of 36,612 visits since the beginning of June (I don't have figures for April or May, when we first started)."
Nowadays, Dean's World gets something more like 11,000 visits per day.
Back in those days, a long Dean's World thread was one which garnered as many as half a dozen comments. In addition to visitors who came and went, there were only a handful of regular commenters. Dean, of course. His wife Rosemary. Kevin Brehmer. Ara Rubyan. Casey Tompkins. Paul Fallon. The late Gary Utter. Soon enough, myself. And within a few weeks after my first comment, the inimitable Arnold Harris made his appearance.
The Internet seems to age by dog years. Looking back, it seems hard to believe it was as little as three years ago. I gradually (more gradually than you might imagine) came to realize that there was a whole big bright blogosphere out there. I branched out to reading, and commenting, on other blogs. Strange to say, for a good two years I resisted opening a blog of my own. Then eventually I did acquire a blog, almost by accident, whilst registering to comment on blogmom Caltechgirl's blog— more on that when my first blogiversary rolls around, in about a week and a half.
Oh gee, I'm getting all sentimental and nostalgic about this. Three years. Who woulda thunk?!
posted by paul @ 8:36 AM
2 Comments:
I happened to run into Lucianne.com in late September or early October 2001. Then one day in Nov. 2001 I joined just in order to post a single comment. It was automatic then, now there's a months-long waiting list. I've posted a lot there and elsewhere since then.
A lot of people start blogs almost by accident -- the blog comment systems (like Blogger's) are often set up to foster that.
A commenter called "Allegra" at L.com found herself in exile and I urged her to start her own blog. But she didn't. Then one day, while trying to post a comment somewhere, she found herself with a new blog of her own. Thus began The Anchoress.
Yes, I do remember the time before 'blogs. Caltechgirl and I were happy using the internet to talk to people that we actually knew by face but couldn't see or had less money to call on the phone. But hey, we have made new friends along the way and I even have a blog of my own, but I have no clue as to who actually reads it...
Post a Comment
<< Home