Doesn't that just figure.
I'm old as a blogger, and I feel it. I opened the blog on Blogspot back in August 2003. On September 14, 2003, we turned on the lights at this URL and with this host.
I started the blog to pushback against all the drivel about what was going on during the March Upcountry (the attack into Iraq) that was fountaining forth from the talking heads on the tube. A decade later, Syria, and the talking heads aren't any more informed, if they do handle the lingo better.
Heady days, what with the Truth Laid Bear's ecosystem, where, briefly, we were a Mortal Human and spent a lot of time in the Top 100. Of course, there were only 300 blogs back then, Instapundit ruled, and the paid journos like Malkin hadn't discovered the medium. When the pros went on-line in a big way, that sucked the wind out of us Nekkid Bloggers, sitting in our basements.
But Dusty and I helped take down Dan Rather, so it wasn't all bad, eh?
The Milblog Conference, Blogworld, gosh, we were celebrities. Dueling with paid journos, getting the President to address the conference, and then there was
that whole invited to the White House for an hour with President Bush, National Security Advisor Hadley, War Czar LTG Lutz, and, sadly, Tony Snow's last day in the White House, but, nicely, Dana Perino's first day.
Getting coined in the Oval Office, and then, standing on the portico while that group headed out to Marine One for a trip to Quantico to talk to Marines, the Prez makes a point of waving to us back by the Oval Office and causing the assembled journopack to look at us, cameras snapping wlidly as they tried to figure out "Who The Hell Are They?"
Then work changed, I got classified access, and the trolls were legion - so I pulled the plug on being sorta-famous, and deliberately lowered the blog's profile and changed the content. The trolls won, in a sense, in that they drove me down, but in fact, the blog doesn't pay diddle, wasn't going to pay diddle, and the job paid very well, so an assiduous avoidance of an appearance (or actual) conflict of interest or misuse of access was in order. While my work is about to move back into the unclassified realm, the digital world is different today, and I don't have the gumption to try and recapture past glories. In that regard, I've moved on and taken on new responsibilities in meat-space that will have a greater actual impact on the world than the Castle ever did.
So, from 20K plus uniques a day average, with spikes of 100K plus, down to the current low voltage of 1000 or so a day, you'd think the server would be happier, but the back office is kinda creaky.
Old bloggers never die, their traffic just dwindles...
This was the opening post in this space: Helping My Buddies Accessorize, featuring Max the Maxim.
It's been fun, mostly. A bit scary now and again. And I certainly know a lot of people I never would have met otherwise, and for that, I am grateful.
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2013/09/heh_i_missed_my.html
Posted
Sep 16 2013, 02:45 AM
by
Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys..