Post 6000

Another odometer flip, as we've reached 6000 posts. This feature started in December of 2005 and, on average, we've averaged about 455 posts a year, although lately the pace has slowed a bit. Generally, we don't post much on the weekends any more, and there have been more open threads lately than I'd prefer, but it's still a lot.

Blogging isn't as big now as it was back in '05, primarily because social media and Twitter have swallowed up most of the potential bloggers. There's a fair amount of overlap between our readership here and my friends on Facebook, although the content here is substantially different. I do my best to stay out of politics on FB, because it's not a particularly tolerant place and many people I know who are decent and respectful in real life turn into flying monkeys when they log in to Zuckerbergia.

Is that cowardly? Shouldn't I let my freak flag fly there? I don't think so. I make a point of "liking" pictures of my FB friends, or funny things they post, but in the main I just scroll by the political rants. It's not worth engaging people on that level. But sometimes I wonder if the intemperance and intolerance of social media doesn't creep in here, at least a little bit. It seems to have creeped in everywhere else. When I look back at things I wrote, say, 10 years ago, the tone was different. I'm not always comfortable with that, but generally this is still a reasonably calm place, except when Benster is in the house.

Some, maybe most, of the people who come here these days have been coming for a decade or more. I consider most of my readers to be friends. As Gino has pointed out, friendships are still the best reason to stay in the game. I am grateful for the wisdom and good humor I receive here. Thank you for sticking with me, and the rest of us, as we continue on the eternal quest to sort things out.