Today is the 30th anniversary of Dave Winer's blog, Scripting News.
I've followed Dave's writing and podcasting for my entire career and have had the privilege of many conversations with him over the years. We may not see eye to eye on everything, but most of the time I do agree with him. Even when we don’t, his opinions always make me think and reconsider my own perspective.
Today, Dave wrote:
I'm hearing from people all over the world about what blogging means to them. I appreciate all of the messages, but would appreciate them even more if they were on your blog. We need to keep using the tech. Blogging is kind of lost, and I would like to see that change.
I've been blogging since at least 2004, although looking at archive.org, I found that there was some "Personal Log" writing on my site as early as 2002.
I'm not, as Dave would say, a "Natural Born Blogger," but there is a desire in me to write more. I wrote daily back in 2021 as part of Ship 30 for 30, but it was hard for me to come up with something to write every day.
I think I’ve set this imaginary bar in my head that something has to be "blogworthy" before I post it—but that’s just nonsense. As Dave says, blogging is "the unedited voice of a person," and I constantly need to remind my inner editor of that.
On Saturday, I added a modern blogroll to my homepage, inspired by Dave's Blogroll. These people are blogging, and I always look forward to reading what they share.
I’m not sure if anyone will look forward to what I share, but I want to put in the effort to blog regularly. A lot of people have shifted from blogging to social media, chasing likes and engagement. But I think blogging has a different kind of value, even if no one else reads it. It helps me think better. Writing forces me to organize my thoughts in a way that makes sense to someone else, and in the process, I end up understanding them better too.