Blogiversary!

On February 6, 2003, I wrote my first post, and on February 12, I wrote the first "headlines." One year later, I've had 53,000 odd visitors and 65,000 hits, over 400 entries and 800 comments, and Opinions You Should Have is "syndicated" weekly to two other sites. Technorati says I now have 143 inbound blogs and 156 inbound links, which is a long way from all-around zero last February. Plus, I got an iPod.

I have to thank the many, many people who sent me kind words, or posted them here, who linked to me or just read the satire and laughed. (For those of you who don't like me or the site, these are the people to blame.)

The first link I got was from Andrew Dimn of Byte Back, the second from Eric Tam of Antidotal, and the third was probably Jane Finch of Classless Warfare, who gave me my first real bounce from her many links and encouragement. I very quickly discovered that bloggers -- particularly, but not limited to, lefty bloggers -- make up an extremely friendly and mutually supportive community dedicated to the exchange of ideas and the advancement of political discourse, which was dying out away from the web.

I wrote to Kos early on and he took the time to give me some helpful advice back in my days at blogspot, absolutely amazing considering the volume of emails he receives. Skippy was the first truly big league blogger who said nice things and also gave me some of the Skippy Roo action. Jo Fish of Democratic Veteran, introduced me unbidden to the fantastic Tbogg, who kicked up my daily visits bigtime with his plugs. Early on Nathan of Brain Fertilizer linked to me for my humor in spite of our different politics and demonstrated the generosity of spirit that I have found everywhere in the Blogosphere. Later on, Der Kommissar of Politburo Diktat echoed that spirit; his praise was welcome. MadKane, the lovely folks at Lunaville, particularly Elvis56, who I am relieved to see hanging around the comments again, all gave me the strength to keep at it. Adam and Rick of the defunct Likely Story deserve thanks as well, and a wave to Editor Bob of the fine online journal Skreed. A special mention to Elayne Riggs, who seems to hold the lefty blogosphere together single-handedly, and whose opinion on comedy must be respected above all else, given her background with the Firesign Theater and her expertise in the field of comics. Of course, my family, for exceptional support. Victor Barall. And I have some mighty fine editors who deserve credit for quality control.

Some of the regulars around here -- Shelly, Bohemian Mama, Andante, Prometheus, NC Progressive, Dr. Banzai, Terry, A Vet, NTodd of the great-hearted Dohiyi Mir, Bryan of Dumka, Mick, Jeremy, and many others all floored me both with their loyalty and the fact that their comments were always funny, often funnier than the articles they commented on. John Isbell was a welcome guest, and I hope he still stops by. Holden Caulfield, who I have never been able to thank personally, regularly posts links ot me at Atrios unbidden, and says nice things too. Thanks to everyone who I failed, through absurd memory drain and ineptitude, to mention.

Thanks to Kevin Hayden of The American Street and Tom Ball of the fine new Daily News Online for inviting me to work with them.

Thanks to all the new readers and to all of the old ones. There are more people to thank, but I'll never thank everyone. Everyone who ever linked to me, and everyone on my blogroll, and everyone who . . .

(This is really a lot worse than the Oscar speeches, but the music is swelling, swelling, and they're leading me offstage . . . )

The internet is people-powered, and the names listed above, and many of the names that aren't, only go to show that Blogtopia (ysctp) is filled with articulate, thoughtful and brilliant thinkers, writers, leaders, the great creative minds of this century, the populist movers and shakers of our time.

It seems a strange thing, but a computer, some software, and the internet, and this fine community, have given me hope that we can change this country for the better, and some small share of power -- to change it. That's no small thing. You really can't thank people enough for giving you hope.

Jane linked to me again today, which is as fine a gift as I can think; it's been a good day, and a fine year. The only thing that could improve upon it is when the press start calling Bush's DWI conviction a conviction, instead of an "arrest." We'll see. . . .

Update: Mr. K of Rule42 has been a great and regular commenter, and Charles of Little Green Footballs drops by to gawk, which I appreciate.

Update update: And thanks to Unknown News! And Nick Barlow!