This is a "how I got my start" post. Well, I was only a teaboy in those days .....
Despite some of the people I've been addressing in these past few November '08 days, there are some really good people around the sphere and I thought I'd mention the ones I found or who found me at the beginning.
I've posted on this before but my blogging life began as a result of hogging Stephen Pollard's comments section on a post I can't remember, maybe on Cardinal O'Brian, when an opinionated blogger called Indecent Left, aka Stuart A, swept in and started attacking Christianity. Problem was, most of those trying to argue him down were not in his intellectual class and though I also was not, I decided to take him on.
The result was three whole days of battle and Stephen apparently had a slight spike in his stats as a result. [He now blogs here, by the way.] It wasn't Holmes and Moriarty but there was a great deal of cut and thrust and I was finding my evidence on the run. He seemed to have it at his fingertips. As he got on his high horse, I dropped into my "post-a quote-and-then=speak-to-it-mode". Both were aiming for the high moral ground, both were digging deep.
There was one beautiful moment when he challenged me to produce something about the Councils of Nicea I seem to recall. Damn it, I had to google it, go to page four and cut and paste. That stopped him for about fifteen minutes and then he came in with howls of outrage: "You found that at [followed by a url]!!!" Well I had but not the url he'd said.
And so it went.
Afterwards, we were quite good friends, to the point where we blogrolled each other [he's since dropped me but I retain him] and he admitted it had been a tough battle. I admitted he'd had the wood on me all the way. Some readers of Stephen's blog scored it a draw.
Whatever.
That's where I realized I liked this blogging lark and told Stephen that I was going to set up my own, on Blogger. He gave me advice and came in with both a supportive comment on my blog and a short, dedicated post - my goodness that bucked me up no end but it got better.
In came my first troll though a good-natured troll who claimed he didn't want his own blog but preferred to sniff around the sewers of other people's. Johnathan Pearce advised me not to worry about him and just blog. My very first comment was on an Iceland post by EU Serf and it was another boost to the enthusiasm that a real live commenter had come in and actually, you know, like ... commented.
Chris Dillow came in and gave me some excellent advice too, telling me that Tim Worstall's blog was one of the best going. Tim was also very supportive, in his quick, sharp way and asked me about my first day uniques. I said a bit more than a hundred and he was surprised, quite rightly as it turned out because it was 37 the next day and stayed around there a long time.
I was having some html trouble and Tim put me onto a chap called Devil's Kitchen about this and I was a bit scared of him because he swore a lot and had a pitchfork. To me though, he was a thorough gentleman and gave the required advice. This then led to the other members of the Edinburgh triumvirate, Mr. Eugenides and the Reactionary Snob.
Another to also come in and give some advice was the peerless Pedant General-in-Ordinary, later known as Cleanthes, of The Select, who gave me some barked orders on what to do with my bleedin' template and then added: "Now retire to the mess for tea and biscuits." Later, he emailed me with: "Bloglines, that's the way to go but nobody ever listens to me."
I've just now googled his moniker and had a rude shock. Click on the link and see who is running it now!
Through the PGinO, I found Deogolwulf and then struck out laterally, from Stephen Pollard's links, visiting Clive Davis, Norman Geras, the daunting Oliver Kamm and Melanie Phillips. I noticed that Indecent Left really had it in for Oliver Kamm and wondered about that.
So that's how it started and they were my initial blogroll. Others linked, I linked and so on and thus this blog was underway. All along, the niceness of people came through and the support for each other, which is why others who would character assassinate and dissemble disappoint so much and get the short end from me.
I think the blogosphere will survive, at least for longer than surmised, as this camaraderie is a very special thing.
* By the way, try this blog on for size.
Despite some of the people I've been addressing in these past few November '08 days, there are some really good people around the sphere and I thought I'd mention the ones I found or who found me at the beginning.
I've posted on this before but my blogging life began as a result of hogging Stephen Pollard's comments section on a post I can't remember, maybe on Cardinal O'Brian, when an opinionated blogger called Indecent Left, aka Stuart A, swept in and started attacking Christianity. Problem was, most of those trying to argue him down were not in his intellectual class and though I also was not, I decided to take him on.
The result was three whole days of battle and Stephen apparently had a slight spike in his stats as a result. [He now blogs here, by the way.] It wasn't Holmes and Moriarty but there was a great deal of cut and thrust and I was finding my evidence on the run. He seemed to have it at his fingertips. As he got on his high horse, I dropped into my "post-a quote-and-then=speak-to-it-mode". Both were aiming for the high moral ground, both were digging deep.
There was one beautiful moment when he challenged me to produce something about the Councils of Nicea I seem to recall. Damn it, I had to google it, go to page four and cut and paste. That stopped him for about fifteen minutes and then he came in with howls of outrage: "You found that at [followed by a url]!!!" Well I had but not the url he'd said.
And so it went.
Afterwards, we were quite good friends, to the point where we blogrolled each other [he's since dropped me but I retain him] and he admitted it had been a tough battle. I admitted he'd had the wood on me all the way. Some readers of Stephen's blog scored it a draw.
Whatever.
That's where I realized I liked this blogging lark and told Stephen that I was going to set up my own, on Blogger. He gave me advice and came in with both a supportive comment on my blog and a short, dedicated post - my goodness that bucked me up no end but it got better.
In came my first troll though a good-natured troll who claimed he didn't want his own blog but preferred to sniff around the sewers of other people's. Johnathan Pearce advised me not to worry about him and just blog. My very first comment was on an Iceland post by EU Serf and it was another boost to the enthusiasm that a real live commenter had come in and actually, you know, like ... commented.
Chris Dillow came in and gave me some excellent advice too, telling me that Tim Worstall's blog was one of the best going. Tim was also very supportive, in his quick, sharp way and asked me about my first day uniques. I said a bit more than a hundred and he was surprised, quite rightly as it turned out because it was 37 the next day and stayed around there a long time.
I was having some html trouble and Tim put me onto a chap called Devil's Kitchen about this and I was a bit scared of him because he swore a lot and had a pitchfork. To me though, he was a thorough gentleman and gave the required advice. This then led to the other members of the Edinburgh triumvirate, Mr. Eugenides and the Reactionary Snob.
Another to also come in and give some advice was the peerless Pedant General-in-Ordinary, later known as Cleanthes, of The Select, who gave me some barked orders on what to do with my bleedin' template and then added: "Now retire to the mess for tea and biscuits." Later, he emailed me with: "Bloglines, that's the way to go but nobody ever listens to me."
I've just now googled his moniker and had a rude shock. Click on the link and see who is running it now!
Through the PGinO, I found Deogolwulf and then struck out laterally, from Stephen Pollard's links, visiting Clive Davis, Norman Geras, the daunting Oliver Kamm and Melanie Phillips. I noticed that Indecent Left really had it in for Oliver Kamm and wondered about that.
So that's how it started and they were my initial blogroll. Others linked, I linked and so on and thus this blog was underway. All along, the niceness of people came through and the support for each other, which is why others who would character assassinate and dissemble disappoint so much and get the short end from me.
I think the blogosphere will survive, at least for longer than surmised, as this camaraderie is a very special thing.
* By the way, try this blog on for size.
Lovely nostalgic post.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember , without looking, the exact date of your first post?
July 23rd, 2006.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have met up with some interesting people early on :-)
ReplyDelete