The Blog as BBS

This article at Slashdot crystallized why blogs have re-energized the Web for me. Before the general public had access to the Internet, I was a BBS nerd. I never ran my own, but I spent a lot of time dialing in to BBS' in Atlanta. I was a paid member of The Index System. The guy had I think 32 phone lines coming in to his BBS. It was cool because when you dialed in you usually knew the other people online at the same time. If the Internet is the great public meeting house of the world, the BBS was the corner pub where everybody knew your name.

Blogs evoke that feeling for me. I don't know how many readers Bambino's Curse has, but I know about how many regular commenters Ed has. It's really only a handful, but a small, vibrant and interesting community has sprung up in the comments section there. The comments section here has never quite done that, however that is mostly my fault. Ed stays very on target at Bambino's Curse, its Boston Red Sox 24 x7. You have no frigging idea what you are going to get when you come here! I often think about focusing this blog more, but I decided it would be less fun for me if I did it.

I have however, met (virtually speaking) a lot of interesting people because of blogs. I'll refrain from listing anybody, only because I don't want to rack my brain to make sure I'm not forgetting somebody. You know who you are anyway ;)

So, to all of you interesting people that visit here and write your own blogs, keep it up!