Today marks the seventh anniversary of this Web site, iwilldare.com. I wish I could say something pithy and provocative about blogging or the Internet after having been in the game for so long, but Alison said it beautifully a few weeks ago.
I miss the Internet from 2001 too. It seemed like a friendlier place. We were all bloggers. Now we have mommy bloggers or professional bloggers or photo bloggers or music bloggers or book bloggers or well, you get my drift.
When I started blogging I was an early adopter and now I’m passé. Being a single, childless gal writing about your life is not where blogging is at in 2007. I got no schtick.
Sometimes when I see the attention, the acclaim, the money, the book-deals other bloggers, who put no more passion and attention into their site than I do, get, I grow a little a bitter and stomp my foot much like the seven year old that iwilldare.com is.
Then I have to remind myself that I didn’t start this site for any of that. I started this site because I wanted to. Despite the occasional bitterness, the money or acclaim or book deal isn’t what motivates me to continue.
The only reason I continue after seven years in utter obscurity is because I want to. Which is just about the best damn reason I can think of to do anything.
And ’cause we all love you!
being single and childress and a writer … i thought that WAS your schtick! U better WORK it grrl ’cause what else IS there???? ; )
Congrats! And thanks for being here or I’d have nothing else to make me laugh or provoke thought first thing in the morning at work.
7 years. that’s nuts. but that probably means that i’ve been reading everything you write for about that same amount of time! holy shit. that’s gotta be the equivalent of a whole lot of grown up books, ya know?
In 2002, I was at over 200,000 words and War & Peace only has 660, 000. So I’d say, Wendy, you’ve read the iwilldare.com equivalent of War & Peace. Go you!
Happy Birthday, iwilldare, and happy Anniversary, Supergenius!!
id be bummed if you didnt do this.i dont know why but i love your single,childless,writing style.and shit i dont even know you?
Kudos to you, Jodi, and your consistently entertaining blog.
Congratulations Jodi!
I’ll add my kudos for the fine job you’re doing – those without a shtick have to actually be good to get readers, and it looks like you have quite a few. 😉
Happy Anniversary I Will Dare. You have been a part of my daily internet life for at least five of those seven years. I wish I put half of the heart and soul into this site into mine. (Maybe if I did I would have the same one for a long time, and have a good reader base. ) I can’t thank you enough for you, being you!
Happy Anniversary I Will Dare. You have been a part of my daily internet life for at least five of those seven years. I wish I put half of the heart and soul you put into this site into mine. (Maybe if I did I would have the same one for a long time, and have a good reader base. ) I can’t thank you enough for you, being you!
Happy birthday! I bet great writing will weather the blizzard of MP3s and Flickr streams, so fear not. Retro-blogging is only one trope-twist away from putting us seven-year-old fogeys back in action.
Hey are there any other Twin Cities blogs from back then (2000-01) still plugging along? Dack.com seems to be back in old-skool action, for example…
Rex is still going at it, though he moved to Seattle. Does that count?
To be honest, I am not even sure which Twin Citizens were around blogging that far back. I know a few of my favorite (bakiwop, mecawilson) gave up the ghost years and years ago.
Please keep going Jodi. I think I would do something rash if you stopped.
Bestness,
Chas.
Just to let you know, I read your blog almost daily and I am unbelievably thankful that you don’t have a child and that you’re not married. Those blogs get old and annoying extremely quickly, while yours remains fresh and interesting.
Happy Anniversary I Will Dare! (and big time kudos to you, Jodi, for putting out seven years of engaging content)
I feel much the same way you and Alison do. I miss the early internet. I started blogging way back because it was a way to get pictures and news out to a massive amount of people 800 miles away from me. That was about a good year or two before Blogger started the decline of teh interweb.
Congrats on the anniversary, Jodi. I’ve been going through the same sort of flashbacking to the pioneer days as you, wondering whatever happened to the sense that we were all a part of a community. Now the community’s gone; having a site doesn’t give you anything more in common with someone than owning a phone does.
But I read and enjoy what you write, and I hope you continue it for a good long time.
“Utte obscurity” just like Emily Dickinson…
Happy anniversary, Jodi.
(I really should proofread before posting a comment)
i should proofread before posting an entry, and yet I never do.
Thanks for the sentiments.
I could be Emily:
Because I could not stop for Fame
It kindly stopped for me. . .
Okay, maybe it doesn’t quite work that way.
It’s ten years later, and you are still going. I marked your blog as a favorite the first time I found it a few months ago. I’m just getting around to reading more. Thanks for putting it out there.