Well, no-one sent me any cards but yesterday was actually JWN’s second blogiversary.
Silly me, I meant to post about it yesterday. It’s not hard to remember. Two of my three actual, biological kids have birthdays this week as well.
Now I’ve kind of learned to drive this machine, does anyone have any ideas where I should take it?
12 thoughts on “Two years and counting…”
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Congratulations!
I think that yours is one of the best blogs I know, for people who are interested in the right issues. You have a lot to say based on your extensive experience, and I have recommended your blog as a resource to a colleague just this week.
What SM said. We’ve had our disagreements, and we’ll probably continue to have them, but your essays never fail to be thought-provoking and well-reasoned, and I’ll keep coming back for more.
Congratulations.
As to where to take it, you know my view already, but let me try to state it again in another way.
The blog is not a new way of issuing unilateral epistles on a larger scale.
The blog’s glory is the dialogue it can generate.
You should judge your blog by both the length and the quality of the comment threads that grow from your texts.
Sad blog = few comments. Happy blog = tens and hundreds of comments.
Bon anniversaire!
Thank you for your excellent blog. I’m only an occasional reader, but I am rewarded on every visit with thoughtful commentary.
I think the blogosphere will eventually sort itself out and arrange itself like institutions in the old media world, making it easier for consumers to develop loyalties. Meaning, there will be room for the inane but entertaining, as well as the expert, the thoughtful, the issue-specific, and the trusted. That said, I wouldn’t look to comment threads as the only measure of blog’s value or worth, unless you are blogging for a living. The vast majority of Internet users do not blog and personal web pages haven’t taken off like many had hoped a few years ago.
As far as direction, I know your time is limited, but it would be great to see more discussion of events and issues below the radar in the middle east, like whether the Arab world is still (if it ever was) the center of gravity in the Muslim world, current events in North Africa, and/or whether there is any regional discussion of issues ranging from the environmental (coastal resource management) to the cultural (how does a place like Dubai fit in popular concepts of Islam?).
Thank you again for your efforts.
Congratulations Helena, and keep driving the way you are now 😉
I read faithfully and learn in the proces, though I hardly ever feel qualified enough to really comment.
I too would like to add my compliments. I think the present line should continue. Helena’s long experience of the Middle East is really valuable. My own experience of Jordan and Iraq is that the young who go there never bother to learn much about the Middle East, and there are many who comment who have never even been there.
I like this blog because the atmosphere is relaxed, and the comments from others are, in general, intelligent.
If Helena will permit this small digression from the subject, perhaps she should launch a poll among readers, as to who has provided the best comments. For me, a blog is composed of its author together with its commentators.
I would particularly like to nominate Shirin, for her excellent knowledge of the situation in Iraq. Also Christiane.
Any other nominations?
Hello Helena! I’m a new-ish reader (2 months) and I think the blog is awesome. However, I’d like to respectfully disagree with Dominic (posted above). Comments and threads of discussion are definitely fun and often lively, but the best part of your website is the articles you post up. I occasionally read comments, though this is my first post, but I think that because your knowledge is grounded in so much experience and active participation (not to devalue study and scholarly enterprises), we get a rare opportunity as readers.
Congratulations – 2 years is a long time in blog terms, especially given the rate and thoroughness with which you post.
My only suggestion is I’d like to see more stuff about Africa, or possibly other parts of the world aside from the Middle East. (I realize you have to write what you know, however.)
Happy blog = tens and hundreds of comments.
Be careful what you wish for. For one thing, Helena would not be reading or replying to comments if there were hundreds — viz Brad DeLong.
Well, Noumenon I did manage to read this lot!
Thank you all for your lovely comments. I still sometimes try to figure out why I do this, but getting feedback from reader, and provoking some good discussions are features of the blogosphere that, for me, make it far more exciting than committing words to dead trees.
I also really love the international aspect of the b-sphere (however constrained that is in actual practice: I know that people in most countries other than the US find it much harder and more expensive to spend substantial amounts of time hanging around on the web.)
But I think it’s really awesome that we can have this international and in more ways than one cross-cultural discussion going on here.
So thanks! Stick around!
(Oh and by the way I may not have gotten any cards but I did get a love “Happy Blogiversary” bunch of flowers from Bill-the-spouse. What a guy! *sigh*)
Helena, you are doing great with this blog of yours.
Noumenon, tens and hundreds was not a random figure of speech. I do believe people can handle this kind of volume over the days. The way I use Helena’s site is to go straight to the right-hand side and scroll down to the “Recent Posts on JWN” list, where I can see at a glance what’s new and what’s moving.
But you make a good point, I think. Somewhere between slim pickings and tsunami flood, there is a sweet area that works well. This blogging is in its early days, but I suspect there will be palpable self-restraint so that most blogs, most of the time, will stay within the manageable range – as a good “town meeting” would.