Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Oh How We Miss The Days Of Blogging Infancy

A long, long, time ago (like in 2003) blogging was a blissfully unknown practice, exclusive to our little circles of blogs, whereby links to our friends’ blogs were limited to a humble 10. Everyone updated it every day, not because we knew thousands of people would read it, but for the sake of that little circle of 10 (or 20, or 30) friends who’d visit and read it religiously, and perhaps leave some comments at the bottom of the post. Remember those? Where visitors’ comments were limited to the actual CONTENT of that particular post, and perhaps the occasional “Hey! Nice blog! Interesting posts you have here.. could i like you?” comments.

Lancerlord passed this link to me, and together we marveled at how people never get tired of complaining about the good old days of blogging. Of course we were not singling out this fellow, but he does sum up all the moans and groans of other like-minded bloggers pretty well in one post.

1. I have been blogging since it was invented. I am a pioneer!
2. Blogging was better in the past when it wasn’t popular
3. Blogs should have dedicated audiences of less then 10 people instead of the thousands so that people can really produced intensely focused writing
4. People used to craft pieces of art (before 2004), instead of the sell-out shite you read these days
5. All blog celebrities should be shot!
6. Blog celebrities with newspaper columns are satanic sellouts

Link to Blogdrat (whatever that may be)

Sometimes I wonder, are some of the older bloggers feeling leftout from the recent blogging phenom? That they have been blogging since before blogger got bought by google, but somehow they do not fit in anywhere in the new scene? When I first started blogging in 2002, there was no mrbrown, mrmiyagi or mrmanberries. Instead, we had other popular bloggers - none of which are still around. Whatever happened to them? I used to admire their style but somehow they all dropped out one by one.

Don’t blog for traffic. Blog because you have no mouth but must scream. If you gain an audience in the process, good for you. But blog for yourself and always remember that the web is a public place.

I get email from people, asking me to check the site out and plug them if I like it. I also get lots of email asking me how to increase their traffic. And then there’s the ‘please link me’ email. My reply is always the same.

I’m still around. I’m just not famous yet. I remember you from the olde days hehehe.

My reply is never the same. It ranges from ‘go stuff yourself’ to ‘what’s your phone number’

In 1996 when mrbrown was writing online, there wasn’t any cowboy caleb, or any cowboywhatever. In fact, the word blogging was not even invented yet.

Cock lah you! Cockboy Cable:

‘When I first started blogging’ - tautology alarm going off there. Buck up dude, else people will stop emailing you and treating you like the Blog God that you are now. (And will just think of you as a wanker).

Those old blogs are still around. You just need to filter through the noise : )

we were once known as ‘homepages’…it was all the rage when internet started with pacnet…sheesh. hahahaha

i’ve got ppl asking me to link them and sometimes i tell them no no… these days i have to put a disclaimer in my blog to tell ppl you don’t ask me to link you… i think its an insult to link ppl that i don’t read.

the good ol’ people who were writing their entries on b2, or other alternatives even before blogger.com was setup are still around. it just takes some trudging through the “pollution” that are blogwhores.

haha hey im honoured my post received such recognition. Need to clarify sthg tho, i dont think blog celebreties should be shot, i admire their writing tremendously. Just that we probably shouldnt glorify them to the extent of being a “celebrity” since that contradicts the whole concept of blogging.