The first time I was involved in a “blogging community” it was pretty geographically diverse. We were brought together by common interests, or just mutual admiration of the writing we produced, not by neighborhood.
And back in those proto-blogging days, when all the world’s bloggers could probably fit into a high school gymnasium and still have room for the pep band, we would periodically take breaks by inviting other members of the community to post to our sites. Often this was done during vacations or business travel, when ‘Net connections might be hard to manage, so that some continuity could be preserved. And like I said, we mainly read each other’s sites, anyway.
In September of 2001 I went to a web conference in San Francisco, a five day affair which was quite interesting and educational, somewhat to my surprise. One of the later events was a little side panel on blogging, tucked away in a small room on the show’s periphery. The panel was hosted by Evan Williams, co-founder of Blogger, and Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl. Surprisingly only three people showed up for the discussion, so it basically turned into a chat about our goals, and checking out each other’s sites on Evan’s laptop.
As they were typing Hidden City into the browser I mentioned that a friend was guest posting for me while I was away. As the page loaded Maggie started to laugh behind the screen, followed by Evan. As I peered around to look she said “Well, when the cat’s away…”. The display was filled with a dozen or so animated GIFs, or actually one animated GIF repeated a dozen times: my head, wearing a fez, spinning like a catherine wheel; at the conclusion of each rotation the fez popped off in a disturbing manner. Everyone agreed that it was quite funny, and cleverly done, and I certainly couldn’t argue.
But you will understand, I hope, that I am only somewhat disappointed not to have this GIF in my possession any longer.
So it is with some trepidation that I agreed to participate in the Miami Cross Blogination project. On Tuesday, September 19, a group of local writers will trade sites for the day; Miami Gringo will be posting here, and I will contribute to All Purpose Dark. Other than a vague suggestion that we stay within the general theme and “content rating” of the site, there are no rules for the event. It should be interesting, in no small part because I admit that prior to this event I was not familiar with either of these writers.
Let’s see what happens when we mix things up a bit.
{ 4 comments }
hahaha! i remember the spinning fez!
so do I! brought back good memories.
You must find that graphic!
Looks like you are the not so distant ancestor of the modern blogger.