Another Milestone

Like it says. Seventeen years ago today, I put up my first post, foolishly thinking, "Maybe I'll write something here two or three times a week!" The web was so primitive then that I couldn't find decent blogging software so I did it all by hand. Eventually, I fashioned my own, crude software and when a new commercial one called Movable Type seemed sorta perfected, I migrated the whole site over to that (which took forever) and some years later, converted it all to WordPress (which took longer).

I wrote about why I enjoy doing this recently when we hit 25,000 posts. A couple of folks wrote in to ask why I don't take on paid ads and monetize this thing but good…or why I don't hook up with some commercial site and get paid to blog for (and attract readers to) their business. The answer to the first suggestion is that I don't want to screw around with ads or have to think about whether something I write is going to cost me an advertiser.

The answer to the second is that about ten years ago, I got a few offers to front for a commercial site but they wanted editorial controls and assurances that I'd lace my posts with personal recommendations for their products. I said no to that and no one's asked me since. I think I like it this way.

That's about as self-congratulatory as I can stand. Thank you, those of you who stop by now and then to read whatever's on my mind. I'd probably still do this if nobody read it but as Louis C.K. once said, it's more fun with an audience.