blog.deanland.com

It was over 20 years ago that deanland, the blog, first began. It ran on different blogware, actually a few different ones before settling in this Drupal version where it's been for the past (roughly) ten years.

Prior to that it had been on Manila (by Userland) which I miss more and more every day. I became a wizard with Manila. It's how I taught myself HTML without knowing that's what I was doing.  

For what in retrospect seems like it may not have at all been a wise decision, I switched to Drupal. Nothing against Drupal, it's a great content management system. But beyond my limited skills with it, to make it sparkle takes a qualified Drupal tech. That's not me. And I’d like to add more sparkle, make it look a little snazzier.

If I could get my hands on Manila, find my old set up (not quite a template or a theme), I'd switch back in a heartbeat. 

But none of that is really the gist of this post.

The origins of Deanland go back to 1999. Yes, in the prior century I began blogging. I had a few friends with blogs, it seemed like an interesting dea. I'd been active on CompuServe, where many of those early bloggers cae from. So I found blogware and gave it a shot.

To my utter amazement, I had readers. I started to appears on blogrolls. But one thing was different. I got very few comments. Email, yes, but comments, no. Other bloggers had long threads of comments, Not so mine.

I'd get the occasional comment, but none too many. Email? Lots of it. On the one hand that says something, in fact something positive, that people were reached in an individual sense and wanted to communicate that directly. On the other hand, without comments on the blog itself, it would give the appearance of a post having little or no impact on the readership. If there was at all any readership.

To this day that remains the case. But it no longer bothers me I see how people react to posts to Facebook and Twitter. On some there are scads of comments, others barely any or just none. There are those that elicit a direct message of one kind or another.

These days blogs for the large part have given way to Facebook. Of late the subscription (or not) newsletter has been in vogue. A few people send out "link letters" containing links to articles they've found of interest they wish to share among those who may be interested. One friend of mine does an excellent job of that.

I write here only sporadically. Often I think it should be more often, but life gets in the way. Facebook and Twitter have the advantage of simplicity and immediacy, giving them an edge. Plus the much wider audience and referral reader base.

As of December this version of deanland will be 21 years old. It can drink, drive, vote, do all those adult things on its own free of permission from its elders, guardians, parents or conservators.

Where do I find a Drivers Ed. class for a blog? And as has been in the news, a major topic about rights and democracy, how does a blog register to vote?

21, legal age. Deanland may just have to declare a statement of its full emancipation.